Bright Shining

Julia Baird is an author and journalist. She co-hosts ABC's The Drum on ABC and writes columns for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Harper's Bazaar. Julia has written three books - Media Tarts, Victoria, her critically acclaimed biography of Queen Victoria, and multi-award-winning bestseller Phosphorescence.

Christos Tsiolkas is a playwright, essayist, screenwriter and novelist whose award-winning works have been adapted into feature films and television series. His bestselling fourth novel, The Slap, won Overall Best Book in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009 and the Australian Literary Society Gold. It was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and named Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards. In 2021, he won the Melbourne Prize for Literature.