Judges

Michael Williams

Michael is the editor of The Monthly and host of weekly books podcast Read This. He was previously the Artistic Director of Sydney Writers’ Festival and CEO of The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne for a decade. He has worked in publishing, media, broadcasting and books for an awfully long time.

Christos Tsiolkas

Christos Tsiolkas is the author of eight novels, Loaded, The Jesus Man, Dead Europe, The Slap, Barracuda, Damascus, 7 1/2, and The In-Between, as well as the short story collection, Merciless Gods. He and Sasha Soldatow co-authored the dialogue, Jump Cuts: An Autobiography. His work has been published in over twenty languages and many of his novels and stories have been adapted for the stage and screen. Christos has also written a monograph on Patrick White for the Writers on Writers book series, as well as a monograph on Fred Schepisi’s The Devil’s Playground for The Australian Screen Classic Series. In 2022 he and Alana Valentine wrote the libretto for the oratorio, Watershed: the Death of Dr Duncan. Christos is also a playwright, scriptwriter and film reviewer. He is a patron of Writers Victoria. He has been a past winner of the Melbourne Prize for Literature. Along with Casey Bennetto and Clem Bastow, Christos is a co-host of the musical program, Superfluity, on community radio station, 3RR.

Photo by Zoe Ali

Evelyn Araluen

Evelyn was born and raised on Dharug country and she is a descendent of the Bundjalung Nation. She is the youngest winner of the 2022 Stella Prize for women and non-binary writers, and the first poet to win the Australian literary award for her book of poetry Dropbear. She has a PhD in contemporary Aboriginal women's literature. She is a co-editor of Overland Literary Journal and Chairing Director of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies.