Aleesah Darlison is a multi-published, award-winning Australian children’s author. She has written forty-five books for children including picture books, chapter books, novels and series. Aleesah has won numerous awards for her writing including the 2015 Environment Award for Children’s Literature (Our Class Tiger - Non-Fiction) and an Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Mentorship. Her picture book, Warambi, was a 2012 CBCA Notable Book and was shortlisted for the Eve Pownall Award and the 2012 Environment Award. Her picture book, Emerald: The Green Turtle’s Tale was shortlisted for the 2018 Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards.
 
Aleesah works across various genres including non-fiction, fantasy, and social realism. Aleesah has also written numerous award-winning short stories and non-fiction articles for adults and children. Her novels include the Little Witch Series, Running from the Tiger, Awesome Animal Stories for Kids, the Netball Gems Series, the Unicorn Riders Series, and Ash Rover: Keeper of the Phoenix. Her picture books include Warambi, Puggle’s Problem, Stripes in the Forest: The Story of the Last Wild Thylacine and Mama and Hug (koalas).

Aleesah travels throughout Australia and internationally delivering talks and workshops to children and adults at preschools, schools, libraries, literary festivals and writers’ centres. She also works as a writing mentor and tutor. Her 8-book fantasy adventure series, Unicorn Riders, has been released in hardcover and paperback in the US, while many of her other books have also been released internationally.

Alex Adsett is a literary agent specialising in fiction for all ages, as well as a freelance publishing consultant offering commercial contract advice to authors and publishers.  She has more than twenty years’ experience working in the publishing and bookselling industry and has managed Alex Adsett Publishing Services since 2008.

As a literary agent, she is focused on finding exceptional fiction and non-fiction manuscripts for adults, young adults and children. She represents more than forty authors including Jodi McAlister, Robert Henderson, Shelly Unwin, and many more.  She is often to be found on twitter at @alexadsett or via her website www.alexadsett.com.au

Award-winning Melbourne writer Anne Gracie spent her childhood on the move. The gypsy life taught her that humour and love are universal languages and that favorite books can take you home, wherever you are.

A lifelong bookworm, Anne began writing her first novel while backpacking solo around the world. She's now a full-time writer working on her 23rd book. A nationally bestselling author in the USA (published with PenguinRandom House) her historical romances have been translated into more than eighteen languages. 

Anne has conducted writing workshops for most Australian state writers’ centres, many tertiary institutions, and has delivered keynotes and workshops in the US, Australia and NZ. Her book,The Autumn Bride, has been on the curriculum of several Australian universities. 

Belinda Murrell is a bestselling, internationally published children’s author with a history of writing in her family that spans over 200 years. Belinda has written more than 30 books including The Sun Sword trilogy, 13 books in the popular Lulu Bell series and her award-winning timeslip novels.  Her latest series is called Pippa’s Island about a group of best friends who start a secret club, which meets after school in a tower on top of a boatshed. 

Belinda thinks she has the best job in the world because it brings together three of her greatest loves – writing, reading and travelling the world with her family! 

And when she’s not writing books (or escaping on wonderful travel holidays with her family) she’s often out talking to kids at schools, festivals and literary events around Australia.

Brian Falkner was born and raised in Auckland. He is the award-winning, bestselling author of several novels for children and young adults, including The Flea Thing, The Real Thing and The Super Freak. His action–adventure sci-fi novels The Tomorrow Code and Brainjack were short-listed for the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children & Young Adults and the Esther Glen Award at the LIANZA Awards. 

In 2010 Brainjack won the New Zealand Post Book Awards, Children’s Choice Award (Young Adult Fiction category) and the Sir Julius Vogel Award, Best Young Adult Novel. The Project was short-listed on the 2011 Storylines Notable Books List. The first book in the Recon Team Angel series, Assault, was short-listed for the 2012 LIANZA Award (Young Adult Fiction category) and the third book, Ice War, was short-listed for this award in 2014.