Journalist, columnist and author Thomas Friedman has been one of the world’s most influential media figures for over a decade. In his twice-weekly New York Times column he’s written widely on issues ...

David Mitchell is a widely-acclaimed novelist. His novels, which include Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas, have won many awards and established his reputation as a master prose stylist. His latest book is ...

Michael Palin’s second novel, The Truth, was published in July 2012. His new four-part BBC1 travel series, Brazil, will be broadcast in Australia in November. Michael Palin was born in Sheffield, went ...

Danielle Scrimshaw is a writer, historian and lighthouse enthusiast. Her 2019 essay ‘Be Gay, Do Crime: Or, the Ballad of Catherine and Ellen’ was shortlisted for the Deakin University Nonfiction Prize ...

Rodney Croome is an advocate for gay human rights and author of Why vs Why: Gay Marriage. Rodney Croome fronted the high-profile campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in Tasmania in the 1990s and ...

Sir Tom Stoppard is one of British theatre’s most prolific exports: a giant of modern playwriting, and one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. The writer – whose ...

Christopher Paolini was educated at home by his parents. His abiding love of fantasy and science fiction inspired him to write his debut novel, Eragon, when he graduated from high school at 15.

John Safran recounts his time squatting in a celebrity’s abandoned mansion. On the page and on the small screen, John Safran is known for pushing boundaries – his own, other people’s and society’s – ...

Vicki Laveau-Harvie is passionate about writing, education and communication. Her memoir, The Erratics, won the 2018 Finch Memoir Prize and the 2019 Stella Prize. Laveau-Harvie was born in Canada, but ...

Jeffrey Eugenides’ first novel, The Virgin Suicides (1993) was translated into 15 languages and made into a major motion picture. In 2003, Eugenides received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex ...

Liao Yiwu is a Chinese poet, novelist and screenwriter currently living in exile in Germany because of government suppression of his work in China. He is the author of the epic poem ‘Massacre’, the ...

Nazanin Boniadi is an Iranian-born, Screen Actor’s Guild and AACTA Award-nominated actress and a renowned activist. Her TV and film credits most notably include How I Met Your Mother, Homeland, ...