Tuesday 29th September, 6.30pm at Riverbend Books

What is it about Brisbane?!

Brisbane has birthed many amazing books across a lot of different genres. Our city has housed two Miles Franklin Winners, Several Stella Prize shortlisted authors, the winner of the ARA Historical Novel prize and many many more literary prizes. In fact,it could be said that Brisbane is punching well above its weight in the literary landscape.

Brisbane is also know for the most collegial lit-scene in Australia. This panel brings four Brisbane authors who all have books published in 2026 to discuss the thriving literary landscape in this city. Anita Heiss, Mirandi Riwoe, Kris Kneen and Sally Piper will talk about how Brisbane has shaped their writing and what we expect from this wonderful city in the future. 

Mirandi Riwoe

Mirandi Riwoe is the author of Stone Sky Gold Mountain, which won the Queensland Literary Award – Fiction Book Award and the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Her second novel, Sunbirds, was set in wartime Java during World War II and was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award. Her debut novella, The Fish Girl, was also shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the Queensland Literary Award – Fiction Book Award. Her work has appeared in Best Australian Stories, Meanjin, Review of Australian Fiction, Griffith Review and Best Summer Stories. Mirandi has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies and lives in Brisbane. Her latest book is A Short History of Longans.

Sally Piper

Sally Piper is the author of three novels: Grace’s Table (2014); The Geography of Friendship (2018), which was shortlisted for the ABIA Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year; and Bone Memories (2022), a finalist in the Queensland Literary Awards for a Work of State Significance and the People’s Choice Book of the Year Award, and longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and a Davitt Award. Her short fiction and non-fiction have been published in Australia and the UK, including in Griffith Review, The Saturday Paper, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Weekend Australian. Sally holds a Master of Arts (Research) in Creative Writing from Queensland University of Technology. She is an active member of the Queensland writing community, where she presents workshops, leads in-conversations and mentors other writers. Her latest book is People Like Us.

Kris Kneen

Kris Kneen is the award-winning author of memoir: Affection, Fat Girl Dancing, The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen and fiction: An Uncertain Grace, Steeplechase, Triptych, The Adventures of Holly White and the Incredible Sex Machine, Wintering, as well as the Thomas Shapcott Award-winning poetry collection Eating My Grandmother. They have written and directed broadcast documentaries for SBS and ABC Television. Their latest book is Rite of Spring.

Anita Heiss

Dr Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author of over 20 books; non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction and children’s novels. She is a proud member of the Wiradyuri Nation of central New South Wales, an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the GO Foundation, and Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland. Anita is also the Publisher at Large of Bundyi, an imprint of Simon & Schuster cultivating First Nations talent.

As an artist in residence at La Boite Theatre, she adapted her novel Tiddas for the stage. It premiered at the 2022 Brisbane Festival and was produced by Belvoir St for the Sydney Festival in 2024. Her novel, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, about the Great Flood of Gundagai, won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Indigenous Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the 2021 ARA Historical Novel Prize and the 2022 ABIA Awards. Anita’s first children’s picture book is Bidhi Galing (Big Rain), also about the Great Flood of Gundagai. Anita released Dirrayawadha (Rise Up) in about the frontier war in Bathurst in 2024. Her most recent novel is Red Dust Running. Her latest book is The Paradise Pact