Emerging Writers’ Festival announces 2017 ambassadors

We’re incredibly lucky to have some of Australia’s best writers on board as ambassadors this year.

The ambassadors for 2017 are Melina Marchetta (Looking for Alibrandi, Tell The Truth, Shame The Devil); Michelle Law (Sh*t Asian Mothers Say, Single Asian Female); Anna Krien (Night Games: Sex, Power and Sport, Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests); Inga Simpson (Where The Trees Were, forthcoming Understory); and Dr. Rebecca-Anne Do Rozario (Monash University professor of fantasy literature).

Respectively they are: one of Australia’s most cherished novelists (of YA and crime, among other things); a screenwriting and playwright polymath; an essayist and investigative non-fiction writer; an author and memoirist rooted in the Australian landscape; and a professor of fantasy.

They couldn’t be more different. Their commonality is their willingness to say things others won’t. They’ve all broken barriers in their careers.

The ambassadors will appear as part of the National Writer’s conference on Saturday June 17 – Sunday June 19.

Get to know them better below.

Melina Marchetta
Melina Marchetta has been published in more than twenty countries and in eighteen languages. This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of her first novel Looking for Alibrandi, which was made into a major motion picture. Two of her novels, Saving Francesca and Looking for Alibrandi have won the highly esteemed CBCA Book of the Year. Marchetta’s novel On the Jellicoe Road has sold over 120,000 copies worldwide and is studied in American and Australian schools. In 2011, her novel The Piper’s Son was long listed for the Miles Franklin Award. Her latest novel, Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil, was published to critical acclaim in 2016. Melina has also written for the two-time International emmy nominated televisions series, Dance Academy.

Michelle Law
Michelle Law is a writer working across fiction, non-fiction, screen and stage. Her work has appeared in Women of Letters and Best Australian Comedy Writing, and she is a frequent contributor to Australian literary journals and magazines. She co-authored the comedy book Sh*t Asian Mothers Say and is an AWGIE award-winning screenwriter whose films have screened internationally and on the ABC. In 2016, she won the Queensland Premier’s Award for Young Publishers and Writers. Single Asian Female, her debut stage play, was performed at La Boite Theatre Company in 2017.

Anna Krien
Anna Krien is the author of Night Games: Sex, Power and Sport, Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests and Quarterly Essay 45 Us and Them: On the Importance of Animals. Anna’s work has been published in the Monthly, the Age, the Big Issue, The Best Australian Essays, The Best Australian Stories, Griffith Review, and Dazed & Confused.

Inga Simpson
Inga Simpson began her career as a professional writer for government before gaining a PhD in creative writing and a second PhD in English literature. In 2011, she took part in the Queensland Writer’s Centre Manuscript Development Program and as a result, Hachette published her first novel, the acclaimed Mr Wigg, in 2013, followed by Nest in 2014, and Where The Trees Were in 2016. Her memoir, Understory, will publish in 2017.

Rebecca-Anne Do Rozario
Rebecca-Anne Do Rozario is a lecturer at Monash University. She tackles fairy-tales, musical theatre, children’s literature, and speculative fiction in her research and teaching. She has published in a variety of scholarly collections and journals on topics including Disney princesses, Wizard Rock, pantomime, and witches. Her fiction has appeared in places like Aurealis Magazine and Scheherezade’s Bequest. She has also released the odd knitting pattern.

Buy tickets to the National Writers Conference now.