Judith Rodriguez has had ten books of poetry published, including New And Selected Poems from University of Queensland Press. Her poems have been translated into other languages, with collections in Romanian and French. She collaborated with Moya Henderson on the opera Lindy, produced in the Sydney Opera House in 2002, and with Robyn Archer on a play with songs Poor Johanna, produced in 1994. During the 1990s she was Series Editor at Penguin Books Australia, with a poetry list of 50 titles. She has taught in university English Departments on four continents, and most recently taught writing at Deakin University and at the Council of Adult Education in Melbourne, where she lives with her husband Tom Shapcott. She enjoys working for the writers’ association International PEN.

Bunny Banyai spent ten years slumming it in a series of mind-numbing jobs, including stints as a market research assistant, shopgirl and brothel receptionist before finally knuckling down to study Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT in 2006. In 2008 she had daughter Clementine, and in 2009 joined forces with Madeleine Hamilton to start a blog devoted to the sublimely weird world of birthing and babies. She lives in Melbourne with her daughter and two Burmese cats.

Blog weblink: shitonmyhands.tumblr.com

Madeleine Hamilton is the author of Our Girls: Aussie Pin-Ups of the 40s and 50s (Arcade, 2009). She has a PhD in Australian History from the University of Melbourne. She lives in Melbourne with her husband, a daughter called Theodora Posy, another called Patience Juliette, and two Burmese cats. (Check out Madeleine's blog, or follow her on twitter.)

Rod Howard is a writer based on the mid north coast of NSW. His career has spanned a range of published work including non-fiction and fiction books as well as feature writing for Australian newspapers and magazines. His critically acclaimed book, The Fabulist, was published by Random House in 2006 and is currently in early development as a feature film by Essential Media and Entertainment. Rod was awarded an Australia Council Literature Board grant in 2008 and the resulting manuscript won the Fellowship of Australian Writers Walter Stone Award for Life Writing in 2010. A Forger's Tale: The Extraordinary Story of Henry Savery, Australia's First Novelist will be published by Arcade in November 2011. 

Rod has recently been appointed Executive Officer of NSW regional arts body, Arts Mid North Coast.

Jill Robertson lives with her husband on a peaceful pastoral property in Western Victoria. She is fascinated by local history, so when she moved into one of the converted factories that once made up the MacRobertson chocolate empire in inner-city Fitzroy, she eagerly began to research the company and its founder. Jill has authored a number of publications and enjoys unearthing lesser-known subjects from history.

Seamus O’Hanlon teaches contemporary urban and public history at Monash University. Born in London to Irish parents he has lived in Australia since he was one year old, and in Melbourne since his early 20s. He is the author of Together Apart: Boarding house, hostel and flat life in prewar Melbourne (2002) and co-editor of Go!: Melbourne in the Sixties (2005). When not exploring the darker recesses of Melbourne’s inner city streetscapes he can be found cheering on the Saints at what is currently known as Etihad Stadium (nee Telstra Dome, Colonial Stadium and Docklands).

Oslo Davis was born in Brooklyn, Tasmania. He's now a Melbourne-based illustrator and cartoonist. He draws regularly for the Age and Readings Monthly. (Follow Oslo on Twitter, friend him on Facebook and check out his website.)

Simon Caterson writes on literature, art, ideas, history and popular culture for newspapers and magazines. Born in Melbourne he trained as a lawyer before traveling to Ireland where he completed a postgraduate degree in Irish literature at Trinity College, Dublin.

LM Robinson moved to Melbourne from a farm in South Gippsland 18 years ago. She’s worked as a tutor, university lecturer, freelance writer and teacher. In January 2009 she submitted the final copies of her PhD thesis. Three weeks later, and while completing the final draft of This Moral Pandemonium, she went into labour with her first child, Ruby Rose.

Jenny Lee came to Melbourne for a few weeks in 1979 and decided to stay. Since then, she has lived in five houses, raised two daughters and worked variously as an archivist, editor and university lecturer.

Lisa Lang wrote EW Cole: Chasing the Rainbow with the assistance of a City of Melbourne grant. It's her first work of creative non-fiction. In 2007 she was awarded a place on the Australian Society of Authors’ mentorship program and in 2009 co-won the Australian/Vogel literary award for 'Utopian Man', based on Cole's life.