With Happy Indulgence book-blogger Jeann as moderator, it’s sure to be an enlightening afternoon, as the authors discuss the diversity of their audience in terms of backgrounds, interests, aspirations, sexuality and outlook, and the responsibility they feel as authors needing to reflect that in their writing.

Sarah Ayoub is a  freelance journalist and author based in Sydney, Australia. Her novels Hate is Such a Strong Word and The Yearbook Committee are contemporary stories of identity, belonging and discovery. She regularly speaks at schools and writer’s festivals about identity and self-worth in YA fiction, and is passionate about empowering young people to see the value in their own personal stories.

Kirsty Eagar was raised by her mum and grandmother under the big skies of Capricornia in Queensland. Her debut novel, Raw Blue, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Young Adult fiction. Her follow up novels, Saltwater Vampires and Night Beach, were shortlisted for numerous literary awards. Her latest work, Summer Skin (Allen & Unwin, Feb 2016) has been described by Bookseller+Publisher as a must-read for older teens for its frank examination of love, sex and intimacy.

Gabrielle Tozer is an internationally published author with a background in journalism, editing and copywriting. Her YA novel, The Intern, won the State Library of Victoria’s 2015 Gold Inky Award, and its sequel Faking It is out now. Gabrielle’s third YA novel, Remind Me How This Ends, and first picture book, Pip and Pop (illustrated by Sue deGennaro), both hit shelves in 2017.

Erin Gough is a fiction writer whose short stories have been published in a number of journals and anthologies, including Best Australian Stories, The Age, Overland, and Going Down Swinging. Her novel for young adults, The Flywheel, won the Ampersand Prize and was published by Hardie Grant Egmont in 2015. It has since been long-listed for the Indie Book Awards and the Gold Inky Awards and short-listed for the CBCA Book of the Year (Older Readers) 2016.

Tamar Chnorhokian is Associate Director of SWEATSHOP: Western Sydney Literacy Movement. She completed a communications degree in writing and publishing at the Western Sydney University in 2004. Her debut novel is The Diet Starts On Monday (SWEATSHOP, 2014) and she has also worked as a columnist, journalist and freelance writer. She is the recipient of the 2016 CAL WestWords Western Sydney Emerging Writers’ Fellowship. Tamar identifies strongly with her Western Sydney community and her Armenian background.

RSVP in store, by phone: 02 9262 7996, email or via Eventbrite.