Don’t Look Away: New contemporary fiction 

Elise Esther Hearst is an award-winning Melbourne-based playwright, author and performer, working and living on Boon Wurrung country. Her debut novel, One Day We’re All Going to Die, was published by Harper Collins in 2023 and was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year Award 2024. Her theatre work has appeared at various theatres around Australia, most recently including ‘A Very Jewish Christmas Carol’ (Melbourne Theatre Company) and ‘Yentl’, which won the Green Room Award for Outstanding Writing 2023 (Malthouse Theatre and Arts Centre Melbourne).

Nadine J. Cohen is a Sydney-based writer working across media, screen, and literature with bylines in The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, SMH/Age, ABC, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. Her debut novel, Everyone and Everything, was released in 2023 to critical acclaim, nominated for two Australian Book industry Awards and named Booktopia’s debut release of the year. Nadine also co-hosts and produces SBS podcast Grave Matters, about death, grief, and the business of dying, and is a passionate advocate for refugees and asylum seekers affected by offshore detention.

Jonathan Seidler is an author, creative director and music critic. His work is published frequently in The Guardian, The Age and The Australian. Jonathan launched two nationally syndicated fiction series for Broadsheet and edited an Unyoked nature writing anthology. His memoir, It’s A Shame About Ray, was adapted for an immersive live performance for SWF 2023. Jonathan is an Esquire columnist, writing weekly about men, mental health and fatherhood. All the Beautiful Things You Love is his first novel.

Elissa Goldstein is a writer, editor and collector of library memberships (her most recent acquisition is a Library of Congress researcher card). She has an MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College and previously worked at the ABC and Tablet. She is currently a digital producer at The Age.