Program Launch: Divinations

Madison Griffiths is an author, artist and producer. Her debut book Tissue (Ultimo Press) was released in 2023, and is a boldly poetic meditation on abortion and what it has the power to represent. She is the co-producer of Tender, a podcast that tracks the journey of individuals as they decide to leave an abusive relationship. In 2022, she was awarded the Walkley Foundation Our Watch Award for Excellence in Reporting on Violence Against Women, alongside co-producer, Beth Atkinson-Quinton. Her work largely centres around the lived experiences of women, especially those whose realities are shrouded in stigma, opposition and rebellion.

Mackenzie Lee is a queer First Nations poet. With Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman, and Karajarri ancestry, mixed with Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Anglo-Australian heritage, they are a creative whose ties to culture, country, and saltwater connects them to their storyteller ancestors. Lee writes a variety of poems in response and reaction to the world around them.

Adalya Nash Hussein is a writer and editor. Her work has appeared in Meanjin, Overland, Voiceworks, The Lifted Brow, Ibis House, Going Down Swinging and others. It has also been shortlisted for the KYD Creative Non-Fiction Essay Prize and the Scribe Nonfiction Prize. She has been a CA-SRB Emerging Critic, an Emerging Writers’ Festival Melbourne Recital Centre Writer in Residence, and Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellow. She has edited for Voiceworks, Liminal and The Lifted Brow, and currently sits as Managing Editor of Australian Poetry and the Victorian Writer.

Ruby-Rose Pivet-Marsh is a writer, producer and arts worker living and creating on unceded Wurundjeri land. Ruby is currently the Artistic Director and co-CEO of Emerging Writers’ Festival and is a co-founder of the Latinx arts collective, Yo Soy.

Xiaole Zhan (they/them) is a Chinese-New Zealand writer and composer based in Naarm. They are the recipient of the 2024 Kat Muscat Fellowship and a 2024 Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship. They were the winner of the 2023 Kill Your Darlings Non-Fiction Prize for their essay-memoir ‘Think An Empty Room, Moonly With Phoneglow’ about growing up in a Pākehā-Chinese family, as well as the winner of the 2023 Landfall Young Writers Essay Competition for their essay ‘Muscle Memory’ exploring music and the body. As a composer, Zhan was the 2024 New North Emerging Artist.

Latoyah Forsyth is an impact-driven and creative thinker, maker and leader in the arts, culture and creative industries. She is Head of Marketing and Visitor Experience at Melbourne Recital Centre, Chairperson of the Board at Emerging Writers’ Festival and a Board Director at Music Victoria. Latoyah has graduated from renowned leadership programs at Melbourne Business School and London Business School and channels her multifaceted skills into harnessing the power of the arts, culture, literary and creative industries to create positive value, impact and change for the community.

Kanika is an avid reader, occasional writer, and all around curious person. She started the literary zine known as More than Melanin which publishes writings by POC and Bla(c)k women and LGBTQIA+ people from these communities. The zine is currently on its third issue.

Jess Zanoni is a writer and musician, and the current Program Coordinator of the Emerging Writers’ Festival. She is the singer and bassist of alt-rock band Arbes, whose debut record Counterways is set for release on 1 November. She also makes music under her solo alias, Za Noon. Her writing has appeared in The Age, Cordite Poetry Review, Voiceworks, The Victorian Writer, Beat Magazine and sick leave.