2026 Festival Artists - Canberra Writer Festival 2026

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2026 Festival Writers

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Studio portrait of Majeda Awawdeh wearing a pink jacket against a flat grey background.

Majeda Awawdeh

Majeda Awawdeh is an academic, entrepreneur and advocate for women’s education based in Sydney, Australia. Born in the 1948 region, one of two million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship living under occupation, her early life was shaped by patriarchy, civil discrimination, the rise of Islamic conservatism and the complex realities of being a Palestinian citizen of Israel. Majeda holds a PhD in Mathematics Education and Cognitive Load Theory. She is also a winner of a Telstra Businesswomen’s Award. Her newest book is The Sky is Concave.

Malcolm Knox

Malcolm Knox is the author of nine novels, most recently The Second Child, which was released in September 2026. The Second Child is the sequel to The First Friend, which was listed for the Sir Walter Scott and ARA Historical Novel Prizes. As a journalist, he has won three Walkley Awards and a Human Rights Award. He lives in Sydney.

Studio portrait of Marc Fennell with a small smile looking at the camera.

Marc Fennell

Marc Fennell is a Walkley-winning journalist, AACTA-nominated filmmaker, broadcaster and author. He is the creator of the acclaimed Stuff the British Stole and quizmaster of SBS’s Mastermind. Marc’s documentary credits include The School That Tried to End Racism, Framed, The Kingdom, The Mission, Australia’s Greatest Conman, The State of Man and The Secret DNA of Us. His work has earned honours, including a Walkley Award, Canadian Screen Award, James Beard Foundation Award and Australian Writers Guild Award. He spent nine years anchoring SBS’s The Feed. In audio, Marc has created award-winning Audible Originals including It Burns, Nut Jobs, House of Skulls, This Is Not A Game, Corked and Unreal: When AI Becomes Us.

A moody studio portrait of Marika Sosnowski leaning forward on a wooden chair. She has a serious expression on her face, which is half in shadow.

Marika Sosnowski

Marika Sosnowski is a legal anthropologist. She is the granddaughter of Polish and Dutch Holocaust survivors. She went to Syria in 2007, primarily to eat makdous, hummus and ghazl al banat, and has worked on Syria – its revolution, war, governance and legal systems – ever since. Her new book is 58 Facets: On law, violence and revolution.

Outdoor portrait of Marly Wells smiling at the camera.

Marly Wells

Marly Wells is a proud woman of Warlpiri and white Australian descent. She grew up in Alice Springs. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University with majors in Sociology and Indigenous Studies. Marly lived in England for two years in her early twenties. She then returned to Alice Springs where she worked in the management of children’s services. Marly has also worked as a freelance editor and researcher for Hardie Grant Publishing. She co-wrote a children’s book for the Girls Can Boys Can project in Alice Springs and an article for The Saturday Paper about the killing of Kumanjayi Walker at Yuendumu. Her recent book is Desert Tracks.

Martin Dolan

Martin Dolan is a Canberra poet who has been writing and publishing for twenty-five years. Some years ago, he gave up his moonlighting as a public servant to pursue his writing. He has been one of the organisers of That Poetry Thing, Canberra’s home of poetry, since 2017. Martin is also chair of Australian Poetry, the national body for Australian poetry.

A black and white close-up of Martin McKenzie-Murray standing in front of a brick wall.

Martin McKenzie-Murray

Martin McKenzie-Murray is The Saturday Paper’s associate editor and a staff writer for The Monthly. He is a two-time Walkley finalist and winner of the Melbourne Press Club’s Quill Award for commentary. He has worked as a teacher, speechwriter, columnist for The Age and adviser to the chief commissioner of Victoria Police. His first book, A Murder Without Motive, was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Awards for crime writing. His second, The Speechwriter, won the Russell Prize for Humour Writing. His most recent book is Sirens.

Outdoor portrait of Matt Bevan smiling at the camera.

Matt Bevan

Matt Bevan is the host and writer of the award-winning ABC News podcast If You’re Listening. He has been a journalist at the ABC since 2008, and spent six years as newsreader for Radio National Breakfast. In 2022 he was awarded Podcast Host of the Year by Radio Today. In 2023 he was nominated for a Walkley Award for Explanatory Journalism. His recent book is If You’re Listening: Declassified.

Portrait of Maura Pierlot sitting at a desk with a small grey dog lying on a rug beside her feet.

Maura Pierlot

Maura Pierlot is an international award-winning author of eight books for children and young adults. She is the creator of Fragments, a groundbreaking multi-format work (stage play, YA novella, web series) on youth mental health, and founder of Canberra’s community reading initiative, The Book Bench Project. Maura holds a PhD in philosophy, specialising in ethics, and is a qualified art therapist. She divides her time between Canberra and Jamberoo. Her recent books include Clutterbugs and Our Family Zoo.

A studio portrait of Melissa Bray smiling, wearing a white dress shirt with her hands crossed on a table. She is in front of a white background.

Melissa Bray

Melissa Bray is an author, economist and former Treasury Assistant Secretary. She grew up in Canberra, studied at the Australian National University, and has spent most of her life in the national capital. With former colleague Catie Bradbear, she has co-authored Power in Numbers: Australian women in economics, which explores the lives of 16 trailblazing women over the past 200 years. Her first book, Australian Carillonists, was highly commended in the 2025 ACT Literary Awards, and she writes fortnightly opinion pieces for the Australian Financial Review.

Interior portrait of Mia Martin Hobbs smiling at the camera with a blurred red brick wall in the background.

Mia Martin Hobbs

Mia Martin Hobbs is an oral historian of war and conflict. Her first book, Return to Vietnam: An Oral History of American and Australian Veterans’ Journeys, won the Oral History Australia Book Award in 2022. She has written widely on veteran anti-war activism, war crimes, and the impact of the Anzac revival on Australian veterans’ memory. With Carolyn Holbrook and Joan Beaumont, she recently published Challenging Anzac: Stories that don’t fit the legend.

A low angle of Michael Brissenden who is looking off into the distance with a serious expression.

Michael Brissenden

Michael Brissenden has published both fiction and non-fiction books. He has published four crime thrillers – The List, Dead Letters, Smoke, and the most recent DUST published in 2025. Before he filled his time writing books, Michael was a political journalist and foreign correspondent with the ABC for 35 years.

Michael Robotham sits on some wooden stairs, smiling at the camera.

Michael Robotham

Michael Robotham grew up in small country towns that had more dogs than people and more flies than dogs. He is now a multi-award-winning crime writer whose psychological thrillers have been translated into 25 languages and sold more than 8 million copies around the world. His newest novel is Tell Me Something True, and it was released in September 2026.

Portrait of Michael Williams against a background of colourful splattered paint.

Michael Williams

Michael Williams is the editor of The Monthly. He was previously the Artistic Director of Sydney Writers’ Festival and at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne as its founding Head of Programming in 2009 and then as its Director from September 2011. A regular host and interviewer for literary and ideas events around Australia – including a long-standing association with Sydney Writers’ Festival – his background is in publishing and broadcasting. Michael has also has written extensively for The Guardian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and elsewhere.

Studio portrait of Michelle Grattan smiling at the camera with a plain light grey background.

Michelle Grattan

Michelle Grattan AO is chief political correspondent at The Conversation and a professorial fellow at the University of Canberra. A longstanding Australian journalist, Michelle was the first woman to become editor of an Australian metropolitan daily newspaper and has written and edited for many of our significant newspapers. She recently co-edited The First Albanese Government: Governing in an age of disruption and division, 2022–2025 with John Halligan and John Hawkins.

Michelle Staff stands in front of a brick wall, smiling at the camera. She is leaning slightly to one side.

Michelle Staff

Dr Michelle Staff is a feminist historian based at the Australian National University in Canberra/Kamberri. She is the online and outreach manager for the National Centre of Biography and the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and in 2025, she received the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship in support of her current project, a biography of the Western Australian feminist Bessie Rischbieth. She is also an avid amateur soccer player and dog mum to Billie the cavoodle.

Miki Perkins stands against a white wall with paragraphs of text behind her. She is smiling broadly.

Miki Perkins

Miki Perkins is an award-winning senior journalist who specialises in coverage of the climate crisis and environment. She has reported from the ground on many facets of Australian society, from bushfires to school to social issues. She is currently the Environment + Energy Editor at The Conversation. Miki’s first novel, a queer coming-of-age story of a woman in her 60s, will be released in 2027.

Portrait of Mirandi Riwoe standing in a bright red shirt in front of a white background smiling.

Mirandi Riwoe

Mirandi Riwoe is the author of A Short History of Longans. Her novel, Stone Sky Gold Mountain, won the ARA Historical Novel Prize and the Queensland Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. The Fish Girl was shortlisted for the Stella Prize while Sunbirds was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award. The Burnished Sun is a collection of her short fiction. She lives and works on Yugara and Turrbal land.

Studio portrait of Morris Gleitzman, seated and smiling mildly, against a plain brown background.

Morris Gleitzman

Morris Gleitzman grew up in England and came to Australia when he was sixteen. After university he worked for ten years as a screenwriter. Then he had a wonderful experience; he wrote a novel for young people. Now, after 45 books including Childish (2025), he’s one of Australia’s most popular authors. He was appointed the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2018–2019.

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