Melbourne Jewish Book Week Opening Night Gala: Of Ghosts and Golems

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).

Eleanor Reissa is a storyteller in English and Yiddish – her first language. She is an award- winning director and playwright, actress, singer, translator, choreographer, and author. She was last seen on Broadway in ‘Indecent’, plays the matriarch in ‘The Zweiflers’, winner of the Cannes TV Series Award 2024, and has an anthology, The Last Survivor and Other Modern Jewish Plays. She has sung in every major venue in New York and at international festivals. A daughter of Holocaust fighters, her memoir, The Letters Project: A Daughter’s Journey, is a search to discover the truth about her father, as well as herself.

Marina Benjamin’s books include the memoirs Last Days in Babylon (longlisted for the Wingate Prize), The Middlepause (finalist for the Art Foundation’s Creative Non-fiction Award) and Insomnia. Her essays have appeared in Granta, Aeon and the Paris Review and her journalism is published in Prospect, The Guardian, The New Statesman and New York Times. Her latest memoir A Little Give completes her midlife trilogy.

Hila Blum lives in Jerusalem where she was born and raised. In her youth she also lived in Hawaii for two years. She began her professional career as a journalist, writing feature articles, profiles, personal columns and book reviews. Hila has been a literary editor for the past 27 years. Her second novel, How to Love Your Daughter, won the prestigious Sapir Prize for Israeli Literature.

Bram Presser is a semi-reformed punk rocker, recovering academic and lapsed lawyer. His novel, The Book of Dirt, won the National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction (USA), the Voss Prize and three categories at the NSW Premiers Literary Awards. In his spare time, Bram reads, reviews, blogs and judges literary prizes.

Arnold Zable is an acclaimed writer, novelist, much-loved storyteller, and recipient of an Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. His books include Jewels and Ashes, Cafe Scheherazade, The Fig Tree, Scraps of Heaven, Sea of Many Returns, Violin Lessons, The Fighter, The Watermill, and forthcoming, The Glass Horse of Venice, beautifully illustrated by Anita Lester. He has published numerous features, essays, columns, poems and works for theatre, and lectured widely on the art of story in Australia and internationally. He is immediate past president of PEN International Melbourne, and its current patron.

Tami is a Sydney-based author with background in theatre, comedy and spoken word poetry. She facilitates creative writing workshops for school students and contributes humorous op- eds for online and print magazines. Tami wrote the best-selling picture book Tiny Tradies and her debut middle grade novel So That Happened … But Maybe You Already Knew That was long listed for the DANZ Children’s Book Award and is a CBCA ‘Notable’ Book of the Year in the Younger Readers category. Tami is also a celebrant and co-host of The Jewish Independent’s podcast Ashamed to Admit.

Evelyn Krape is artistic Director of the Kadimah Yiddish Theatre.

In 2023 she completed a highly successful season of Bloom and also A Very Jewish Christmas Carol for the Melbourne Theatre Company.

In March this year, Evelyn performed in the award-winning production of Yentl at the Malthouse Theatre, and will be reprising her role at the Sydney Opera House in October later this year.