Queerstories

Authors

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  Bob Brown

  Bob Brown is an environmental and social justice campaigner and former senator. A founding member of the Wilderness Society, from 1978 he led the successful campaign against the construction of the Franklin Dam. He served in Tasmanian state parliament for a decade, was leader of the Australian Greens, and in 1996 was elected to the federal Senate.
  
  His books include Memo for a Saner World and Optimism. After retiring from the Senate in 2012, he established the Bob Brown Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation supporting environmental causes.
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  Brendan Maclean

  Brendan Maclean kicked off his career in 2013 with the global success of his break-up anthem Stupid. He was then cast alongside Marcia Hines in the disco spectacular Velvet and made his film debut as Klipspringer in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. Maclean has since gone on to release five EP’s and two albums.
  
  Maclean made his first small onscreen appearance in the ABC comedy F**king Adelaide and in 2025 played opposite Hugo Weaving in the feature How To Make Gravy; scoring an AACTA for his single ‘Fine’ written by Meg Washington from the ARIA award winning original cast album.
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  Chris Tse

  Chris Tse is the author of three poetry collections published by Auckland University Press: How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes (winner of the 2016 Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry), HE’S SO MASC, and Super Model Minority (a finalist for the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and longlisted at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards).
  
  He and Emma Barnes edited Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa. In 2022, Chris was named Aotearoa New Zealand’s 13th Poet Laureate and completed his term in August 2025.
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  Maeve Marsden

  Maeve Marsden is the Creative Director of Varuna the National Writers’ House and the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival. A writer and theatremaker, she has presented work at major festivals and venues across Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
  
  Maeve is perhaps best known for producing Queerstories, a national storytelling project that has brought more than 500 LGBTQI+ writers to stages around the country, with a collection published by Hachette in 2018.
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  Tareq Baconi

  Tareq Baconi is a Palestinian writer, scholar, and activist. He is the grandson of refugees from Jerusalem and Haifa and grew up between Amman and Beirut. His work has appeared in, among others, The New York Times and The Baffler, and he contributes essays to The New York Review of Books and London Review of Books. His award-winning BFI short One Like Him, a queer love story set in Jordan, screened in over thirty festivals. He is the author of Hamas Contained: A History of Palestinian Resistance, which was shortlisted for the Palestine Book Award, and Fire in Every Direction.
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  Zoe Terakes

  Zoe is one of Australia’s most exciting new writers whose first book, Eros, a collection of Greek Myths retold through a Queer lens, is published by Hachette Australia who will also publish Zoe’s forthcoming novel. Zoe’s first play Hermaphroditus, based on the story in their book Eros, will premiere in development at the inaugural Trans Theatre Festival in 2026, and is also being adapted as a feature film.
  
  As an actor, Zoe was most recently seen in the Marvel Studios / Disney+ series Ironheart. Other TV credits include the Australian remake of The Office, Nine Perfect Strangers, alongside Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy, and SBS On Demand’s Creamerie.
  
   Zoe identifies as nonbinary and trans masculine. They are a vocal advocate and activist for trans rights within the industry and on a global scale.
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  Nikita Gill

  Nikita Gill is an Irish-Indian poet, playwright, illustrator and actor who has the attention of 750,000 Instagram followers worldwide for her work. Her work offers a shift of perspective which centres women in both Greek and Hindu myth as well as folklore. She has given a TEDx Talk, spoken at every major literary festival in the UK and been shortlisted for the Goodreads Choice Award in poetry three times, the Children's Poetry Award two times and longlisted for the Jhalak Prize. Gill has written seven poetry collections and two verse novels.

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