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Speaker Type: New Speakers

Shivaun Plozza

Author, New Speakers

Shivaun Plozza is an award-winning author of books for young adults. Her novel, Frankie, was shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year and the Gold Inky; it won the Davitt Award for best YA Crime Novel. She is a former English and Philosophy secondary school teacher and regularly teaches creative writing skills to adults and teens around the country. When she isn’t writing or teaching, Shivaun works as a freelance editor, manuscript assessor and graphic designer.

» Read more about Shivaun Plozza

Mark Brandi

Author, New Speakers

Mark Brandi is an award-winning Melbourne author who was born in Italy, then raised in country Victorian pub. He was the first Australian to win the coveted British Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger, but his road to becoming a successful novelist took a few unusual detours.

» Read more about Mark Brandi

Emily Conolan

Author, New Speakers

Emily Conolan is a writer and teacher, also known for her humanitarian work.  She is the author of The Freedom Finders series, migration stories from colonization to the present day with an interactive pick-a-path format.

» Read more about Emily Conolan

Tyson Yunkaporta

Academic, Author, New Speakers

Tyson Yunkaporta is an academic, an arts critic, and a researcher who belongs to the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland. He carves traditional tools and weapons and also works as a senior lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University in Melbourne.

» Read more about Tyson Yunkaporta