Alison Croggon is a novelist, poet, librettist and critic. She is the author of the popular and critically acclaimed fantasy series The Books of Pellinor, published in Australia, the UK, the US and across Europe. The Books of Pellinor was re-released by Candlewick Books in the US in 2017 with the publication of a fifth book, The Bone Queen, an Aurealis Awards finalist. Other internationally published novels include Black Spring (shortlisted for the 2014 NSW Premier's Award) and The River and the Book (shortlisted for the 2016 WA Premier's Award and winner of the Wilderness Society's Environmental Writing for Children Award). Her opera libretti have been performed on major stages across Australia. The libretto for Mayakovsky (score Michael Smetanin) was shortlisted for the 2015 Victorian Premiers Prize for Drama, and The Riders (score Iain Grandage) was awarded the Vocal/Choral Work of the Year in the 2015 Australian Arts Music Awards. Other awards include the 2009 Geraldine Pascal Critic of the Year for her performance criticism, and the Dame Mary Gilmore and Anne Elder Prizes for poetry. alisoncroggon.com Daniel Keene has written for the theatre since 1979. His plays have been performed on main stages around Australia and in China, America and Europe. He has won numerous awards, including six Premier's Literary Awards for drama, the Sydney Myer Performing Arts Award and the Kenneth Myer Medallion for the Performing Arts for his contribution to Australian theatre with the Keene/Taylor Theatre Project. Since 2000, over 80 main stage productions of his work have been presented in Europe, predominately in France. He is the only Australian playwright to have been produced in the main program at the Festival d'Avignon. In 2009 his work for Young Audiences was awarded the Prix Theatre en Pages by Scene Nationale de Toulouse. Seven volumes of his plays (French translations by Severine Magois) have been published by editions Theatrales, Paris. In 2016 Daniel was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture for his contribution to French culture. danielkeene.com.au