SUE SMITH is a multi-award winning screenwriter, playwright and script editor. Smith’s recent screen credits include co-writer of feature film Saving Mr Banks, produced by Disney Pictures in 2013 and starring Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson, ABC telemovie MABO (screened SFF in 2012 and winning an AWGIE and Queensland Literary Award), ABC miniseries Bastard Boys (won AFI Award for Best Screenplay in Television), feature film Peaches (nominated AWGIE Award) and SBS miniseries RAN, which Smith co-wrote with John Alsop and Alice Addison, receiving another AFI Award for Best Screenplay in Television. Other credits include telemovies Temptation and The Road from Coorain, and, in partnership with John Alsop, ABC series Bordertown, and miniseries The Leaving of Liverpool and Brides of Christ, both of which won AWGIE and AFI awards. Smith’s first stage play Thrall, was produced by Tamarama Rock Surfers in 2006. Smith’s professional theatre debut, Strange Attractor, received a very successful premiere at the Griffin Theatre in 2009. Smith also wrote the libretto for Rembrandt’s Wife, which premiered at the Victorian Opera, and won the 2010 AWGIE award for Music Theatre. Her adaptation of Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata premiered at the State Theatre Company of South Australia to rave reviews. Kryptonite was produced by State Theatre Company of South Australia and the Sydney Theatre Company in 2014 to rave reviews and was nominated for Best Play at the 2014 Sydney Theatre Awards. Her latest play Machu Picchu starred Lisa McCune in the 2016 program for the STC and STCSA.

CHARLOTTE WOOD is the author of seven novels and three books of non-fiction. Her new book Stone Yard Devotional was described by the UK Guardian as ‘a quiet novel of immense power’ and has been praised by authors Anne Enright, Tim Winton, Karen Joy Fowler, Hannah Kent and Paula Hawkins among others. Her previous books include The Luminous Solution, a book of essays on the creative process; the international bestseller, The Weekend; and The Natural Way of Things which won a number of prizes including The Stella Prize and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award. Her features and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Literary Hub, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Saturday Paper among other publications. In 2023 Belvoir Theatre Company staged an adaptation of her novel The Weekend, and her novel The Natural Way of Things featured in ABC Television’s 2021 series The Books That Made Us. She has produced a podcast of interviews with artists, The Writer’s Room with Charlotte Wood, and in 2024 launched a monthly newsletter on the creative process titled Subtraction.