We Who Saw First

Authors

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  Dank, Debra

  Debra Dank is Gudanji/Wakaja/Kalkadoon and grew on the Barkly Tablelands of the Queensland and Northern Territory borderlands. For almost 40 years she worked in various roles in primary, secondary and tertiary education.
  
  She is particularly interested in how narrative is practiced in Aboriginal communities and why semiotics is critical to understanding the breadth of communicative mechanisms and functions in this practice, specifically how Aboriginal communicative function and form is impacted by Standard Australian English.Her first book, We come with this place, won an unprecedented four categories of the New South Wales Premiers Literary Awards in 2023 as well as the 2023 ALS Gold Medal and the 2023 Non-Fiction Book Award in the Queensland Literary Awards.
  
  She has had a further two books, Terraglossia and Ankami, published in 2025 and is currently working with a graphic designer/artist to produce illustrations for two manuscripts for children’s literature
  
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  Eckermann, Ali Cobby

  Ali Cobby Eckermann is a Yankunytjatjara grandmother. Her poetry is influenced by her love for red sand country. The first collection little bit long time was written in the desert launching her literary career in 2009. In 2014, Ali attended the International Writing Program in Iowa USA. In 2017, Ali won the inaugural Windham Campbell Award for Poetry from Yale University. Her latest release S he is the Earth won the NSW Literary Book Of The Year award in 2024.
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  Heiss, Anita

  Anita Heiss (Wiradyuri Nation) is an internationally published, award-winning author of 25 books across genres. Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Prize for Indigenous Writing, was shortlisted for the 2021 HNSA ARA Historical Novel (Adult Category) and longlisted for the 2022 Stella Prize. In 2023, she released a children’s book Bidhi Galing (Big Rain) illustrated by Samantha Campbell. Her latest book is The Paradise Pact. Anita is also Publisher-At-Large for Bundyi Publishing, an S& S imprint.
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  Birch, Tony

  Tony Birch is the author of four novels: Women & Children, which won the 2024 The Age Fiction Book of the Year; The White Girl, winner of the 2020 NSW Premier’s Award for Indigenous Writing, and shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award; Ghost River, winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing; and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2012.
  
  He has also published two poetry books and four short story collections, the most recent of which, Dark as Last Night, won both the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Award and the Queensland Literary Award for Fiction. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award. Tony Birch is an activist, historian and essayist, and is currently the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne. Pictures of You: Collected Stories is his latest book.
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  McGaughey, Jasmin

  Jasmin is a Torres Strait Islander and African American writer working at Books+Publishing. She is the author of Moonlight and Dust and Ash Barty’s Little Ash Series (illustrated by Jade Goodwin). In 2023, she won a Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award. She is a black&write! editor alum, and has written for Overland, Kill Your Darlings, SBS Voices and Griffith Review and recently co-edited Words to Sing the World Alive.