Rafeif Ismail is a third culture youth of the Sudanese diaspora. Rafeif sees all forms of art as mediums for change and is committed to creating accessible spaces for young people of marginalised backgrounds in the arts. She is the winner of the 2017 Deborah Cass Prize for writing with the story ‘Almitra Amongst the Ghosts’. Her short story ‘Light at the End’ was published in the anthology Ways of Being Here (Margaret River Press, 2017). She is committed to writing diverse characters and stories in all mediums, is currently working on her first novel and hopes to also one day write for screen.

Ellen van Neerven is a Yugambeh writer from South East Queensland who now lives in Melbourne. They are the author of the poetry volume Comfort Food (UQP, 2016) and the fiction collection Heat and Light (UQP, 2014), which won numerous awards, including the 2013 David Unaipon Award, the 2015 Dobbie Award and the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers’ Prize.