In This Desert, There Were Seeds

Elizabeth Tan

Elizabeth Tan was born in Perth to Singaporean parents. She completed her PhD in Creative Writing at Curtin University, where she now works as a sessional tutor. Her debut novel, Rubik, has been published in Australia (Brio, 2017), North America (The Unnamed Press, 2018), and the United Kingdom (Wundor Editions, 2018). More recently, her work has appeared in Overland, Stories of Perth, Catapult, Lenny Letter, and Best Summer Stories.

Alicia Tuckerman

Alicia Tuckerman is a driving force for young LGBT voices within Australia. Raised in rural NSW before she left home at the age of sixteen, she accepted a position to study at the Hunter School of Performing Arts. Described as having an overactive imagination as a child, she recalls writing stories her entire life. Alicia attributes surviving her teenage years to the comfort, release and escape writing offered and she hopes to inspire the next generation of readers and writers to embrace their true passions. Alicia’s debut novel If I Tell You, explores the joys, triumphs and cruelties of modern day adolescence.

David Whish-Wilson

David Whish-Wilson is the author of five crime novels and three non-fiction books. He writes essays, reviews, text for public artworks and award-winning short fiction. His most recent novel is The Coves, out now with Fremantle Press. David lives in Fremantle and coordinates the creative writing program at Curtin University.

Jay Anderson

Jay Anderson is a professional writer and editor with a background in cultural studies. He managed and contributed to Centre for Stories LGBTI+ storytelling project, Bright Lights, No City, and has the privilege of sitting on their Board. An emerging creative writer, Jay has been published by Margaret River Press, and is currently researching Queer Writing at Curtin University.

Laurie Steed

Laurie Steed is the Patricia Hackett Prize-winning author of You Belong Here, published in March, 2018. His fiction has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and has been published in Best Australian Stories, Award Winning Australian Writing, The Age, Meanjin, Westerly, Island, and elsewhere. He is a recipient of fellowships from The University of Iowa, The Baltic Writing Residency, The Elizabeth Kostova Foundation, The Katharine Susannah Prichard Foundation and The Fellowship of Writers (Western Australia). He lives in Perth, Western Australia with his wife and two sons.

Leslie Thiele

Leslie is a writer based in the south west of Western Australia. Her short fiction centres around her characters reactions to the world they live in and social change. A keen student of human nature in all its manifestations, Leslie drops people into imagined situations and environments and waits to see what they will do. Recently completing her Bachelor of Arts in creative writing and literature at Edith Cowan University’s regional campus in Bunbury has further refined her writing and led to her gaining recognition for pieces of her work in various competitions, events and spoken performances.

Rashida Murphy

Rashida Murphy is the author of the novel, The Historian’s Daughter (UWA Publishing), which was shortlisted in the Dundee International Book Prize in 2016. Rashida has published short fiction and poetry in various international journals and anthologies, including Westerly, Open Road Review and Veils Halos and Shackles. She was Writer-In-Residence at the Katherine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in 2017 and is currently an Adjunct at Edith Cowan University in Perth. Her essays, poems and stories are published and forthcoming in Landscapes Journal, Red Hen Anthology, Of Indian Origin, The Newcastle Short Story Anthology and Feminine Divine.

Rachelle Rechichi

Rachelle was first published in 2014 after winning the Margaret River Press South West Writer’s Prize. Rachelle’s further published works, including short stories and a poem, reinforce her interest in the body as an interface between the self and the world. The bodies that Rachelle inhabits are forced into strange situations and small spaces. They look out to the world with fresh eyes; and they are watched—or are they? Rachelle enjoys the escape that writing provides and cherishes the times when her psychology studies permit it.

Sabrina Dudgeon-Swift

Sabrina Dudgeon-Swift is a descended from the Bardi people from north of Broome and the Giga people in the East Kimberley. Sabrina grew up in Darwin but now lives in Perth and works for the School of Indigenous Studies at The University of Western Australia. Sabrina enjoys writing and telling stories to all ages and is inspired by her heritage and children when writing.

Tinashe Jakwa

Tinashe Jakwa is a PhD Candidate in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Western Australia. She is a political and security risk analyst who has written extensively on geopolitical developments on the African continent. She has appeared on various TV and radio platforms, including the ABC News, Channel 10’s The Project, CNN, and Radio National Australia, providing commentary on African political developments. Tinashe is also a published author of short stories. Her writing has appeared in the anthology, Ways of Being Here, published by Margaret River Press. She has also spoken at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes

Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes is a writer, researcher and poet from the historic town of Lalibela in Ethiopia. His poetry is published in የተራሮችጩኸት (The Cry of Mountains), in which he uses his native language of Amharic to reflect on Ethiopia’s history of loss and resilience. His creative writings appeared in Ways of Being Here (Margaret River Press), Born Free Created Poor (Westerly), and in the anthology Stories of Perth (Brio Books). Yirga’s research at Curtin University focuses on the critical study of development, education and law, and the importance of lived experience and epistemic diversity for decolonial and sustainable futures. He developed the theory ‘native colonialism’ to examine the process whereby a country colonises itself with Western institutions and ideals that do not serve the interest of its people. He researches African experiences and Ethiopian traditions, and writes creatively on belonging and diasporic lives.