Judges
Stuart Barnes
Stuart Barnes is the author of Like to the Lark (Upswell Publishing, 2023), awarded the 2023 Wesley Michel Wright Prize in Poetry, shortlisted for the 2024 ALS Gold Medal and highly commended in the 2024 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and of Glasshouses (UQP, 2016), awarded the 2015 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, commended in the 2016 Anne Elder Award and shortlisted for the 2017 Mary Gilmore Award.
Brendan Colley
Brendan Colley was born in South Africa and lives in Hobart. The Signal Line, his first novel, won the University of Tasmania Prize in the 2019 Premier's Literary Prizes and was published by Transit Lounge in 2022. His next novel is scheduled for release in September 2025.
Young Dawkins
Young Dawkins is an American-born poet who now lives in Hobart, Tasmania, with his wife and son. Young was a central figure in the New Hampshire beat revival movement, where he helped found the Jazzmouth Poetry Festival, before moving to Scotland and becoming a regular on the Scottish Performance Poetry scene. He won the 2011 Scottish National Poetry Slam and represented Scotland at the Poetry World Cup in Paris. Young has been published in literary journals in the US, UK and Australia, and has performed at numerous festivals and events in the US, UK, France, New Zealand and Australia. His debut poetry collection The Lilac Thief was published in 2009 by Sargent Press. His second poetry collection Slow Walk Home was published by Red Squirrel Press in 2021, and longlisted for the Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry in the 2022 Tasmanian Literary Awards.
James Dryburgh
James articles and essays have been published widely and his books are Essays from Near and Far (Walleah Press) 2014 and The Balfour Correspondent (Bob Brown Foundation) 2017. The Balfour Correspondent was longlisted for the 2019 Premiers Literary Awards. He has served on the boards of a range of organisations and is currently CEO of Brighton Council.
Professor Iris Duhn
Iris Duhn is a Professor in the Faculty of Education in the College of Arts, Law and Education where she leads the Early Years Research Lab. As an experienced researcher with a focus on early childhood education, her contributions to scholarship focus on early childhood curriculum and pedagogy, and on critical childhood studies with particular emphasis on sustainability and environmental education. She frequently publishes in high quality international journals, has extensive experience in research leadership, course development and leadership, and in research mentoring. Iris’s current research interest include a particular focus on climate change education in early childhood.
Meredith Erbacher
Meredith Erbacher works as a Selection and Acquisition Librarian for Libraries Tasmania, specialising in collections for children and young people. She has worked extensively as a secondary school teacher-librarian in Queensland state and independent schools.
Stephanie Eslake
Stephanie Eslake is a Tasmanian writer and editor whose stories have featured in The Guardian, ABC, Island, Meanjin, ArtsHub, Limelight, and TasWeekend among others. For her contributions to arts journalism, she won an APRA AMCOS Art Music Award, Hobart Young Citizen of the Year Award, and Kill Your Darlings New Critic Award. Stephanie has also been named a finalist for Best Gaming Journalist in the Samsung Australian IT Journalism Awards, and for Music Journalist in the Australian Women in Music Awards.
Associate Professor Jennifer Evans
Jen Evans is a Queer Dharug scholar with dual connections to Dharug and Palawa Country. They are the recipient of the Aboriginal Writer’s Fellowship in the 2022 Tasmanian Literary Awards. Their work has been published by Island Magazine, Zed Books, Bloomsbury and Routledge. They are Associate Professor Aboriginal Health Leadership and Aboriginal Literary Fellow with the University of Tasmania.
Sam George-Allen
Julie Hunt
Julie Hunt writes stories for children of all ages. Some of her books include: The Coat, illustrated by Ron Books, a CBCA Picture Book of the Year; Song for a Scarlet Runner which won the inaugural Reading Children’s Book Prize, was shortlisted in the Prime Minister’s Literary Award and received a White Raven listing by the International Youth Library in Munich; Shine Mountain, shortlisted for NSW Premier’s Award; the graphic novel KidGlovz, illustrated by Dale Newman, which won the Queensland Literary Award and its sequel Shoestring – The Boy Who Walks on Air, shortlisted for the 2022 Tasmanian Literary Awards. Her latest book Tyenna: Through My Eyes – Australian Disaster Series, co-written Terry Whitebeach, was shortlisted for the 2023 Environment Awards for Children's Literature. Julie works across a variety of genres, from adventure-fantasy to realism, and is currently exploring speculative fiction.
Yulan Jack
Yulan Jack 杰克玉兰 is an award-winning nipaluna-based writer, actor and singer. In 2022, she received the Margaret Scott Tasmanian Young Writer’s Fellowship in the Tasmanian Literary Awards. The same year, she was recognised as one of Asialink's 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians. Her debut play as co-writer, ‘A Mouthful of C Words’, won Best New Writing at the Tasmanian Theatre Awards. Her written work has featured in publications including Island Magazine and Peril.
Dr Claire Konkes
Dr Claire Konkes is a senior lecturer in Communication and Media at the University of Tasmania. Her research interests include the role of journalism in public deliberation and news representations of legal and environmental matters (and preferably both). Before coming to the University of Tasmania, Claire worked as a news reporter for publications including The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and the Mercury and, more recently her work has appeared in The Monthly magazine.
Professor Gregory Lehman
Professor Greg Lehman is a descendant of the Trawulwuy people of northeast Tasmania, and a Professorial Fellow at the University of Tasmania. He holds a Master of Studies in the History of Art and Visual Cultures from Oxford, and a PhD in Art History from the University of Tasmania, where he is currently a Professorial Fellow. Greg is a curator and writer, a well-known Tasmanian art historian and essayist on Indigenous history, identity and place. In 2017, he led the development of First Tasmanians, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery’s first permanent Indigenous gallery. Together with Tim Bonyhady, he also co-curated The National Picture: the Art of Tasmania’s Black War, a major touring exhibition that won the 2019 Museums and Galleries Australia Award for Travelling Exhibitions. Greg is a previous member of the National Museum of Australia’s Indigenous Reference Group and Chair of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s Aboriginal Advisory Council. He is currently a member of the National Reference Group, advising the Northern Territory Government on its establishment of the National Gallery of Aboriginal Art in Alice Springs.
Graeme Miles
Graeme Miles has published three collections of poems: Infernal Topographies (University of Western Australia Press, 2020), Recurrence (John Leonard Press, 2012) and Phosphorescence (Fremantle Press, 2006). His most recent book was shortlisted in the Tasmanian Literary Awards and his first for the West Australian Premier’s Prize. He has lived in Hobart since 2008 and teaches Latin and ancient Greek literatures at the University of Tasmania. He has also published numerous academic works, in particular translations of ancient Greek texts.
Adam Ouston
Jane Rawson
Jane Rawson is the Managing Editor of Island magazine and a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Tasmania. She is the author of four novels and a guide to surviving climate change. Her new non-fiction book, Human/Nature: On life in a wild world, will be published by NewSouth in 2025.
Dr Tansy Rayner Roberts
Dr Tansy Rayner Roberts is a prolific, award-winning author of genre fiction and essays. Her recent books include Time of the Cat, Gorgons Deserve Nice Things, and This Enchanted Island. Tansy also writes cozy murder mysteries set in Tasmania under the pen-name Livia Day.
Dr Ralph Spaulding
Dr Ralph Spaulding is a retired secondary school principal and teacher of English. He completed postgraduate studies on the poetry of Vivian Smith and the teaching of poetry in Tasmanian institutions of learning (1850 –1950) at the University of Tasmania where he is currently an Associate of the School of Humanities. His publications include a biographical study of Tasmania's first professor of English, William Henry Williams, a study of Matthieu Krieger's photography (The Creative Eye) and, co-edited with Graeme Hetherington, a selection of the poetry by Tasmanian writers Vivian Smith, Margaret Scott, Syd Harrex and Graeme Hetherington, titled Upper Heights and Lower Depths.
Dr Hannah Stark
Dr Hannah Stark is the Associate Professor in English at the University of Tasmania. She has written and edited a number of books, most recently Extinction and Memorial Culture (Routledge). Hannah has held visiting fellowships at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Oulu, Finland. She is an award-winning PhD supervisor and particularly enjoys working with emerging writers.
Dr Emmett Stinson
Dr Emmett Stinson is the author of Murnane (MUP 2013), Satirizing Modernism (Bloomsbury 2017), and Known Unknowns (Affirm Press 2010).
Tania Walker
Tania Fordwalker writes fantasy and science fiction, both adult and YA. Her stories have appeared in Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, PodCastle, Gizmodo and more. A graduate of Clarion West 2022, she is a three-time finalist in the Aurealis Awards, and is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing. She is a migratory creature, moving with the seasons between Tasmania and a tiny island off the Queensland coast. A former Disney animator and recovering illustrator, she's usually found either rollerskating or writing, though never both at the same time... yet.
Dr Rachel Weaver
Dr Rachael Weaver is an ARC Future Fellow in the School of Humanities, University of Tasmania. She was previously at the University of Melbourne, as Senior/Research Associate on four ARC Discovery Projects with long-term collaborator Ken Gelder. She has edited and authored several books, most recently Colonial Adventure (MUP, 2024). Her current research examines how Australia has understood and valued its extraordinary native bird species.