2025 First Word Keynote
ABOUT THE SHOW
Brisbane Writers Festival’s 2025 opening speech will be delivered by one of Australia’s most beloved and prolific authors, Dr Anita Heiss AM. Festival audiences will also hear from Brisbane Writers Festival’s 2025 First Nations Cultural Curators, Jillian Bowie and Sharlene Allsopp, Singaporean poet Theophilus Kwek, and Brisbane Writers Festival’s Artistic Director, Jackie Ryan.
PART OF BRISBANE WRITERS FESTIVAL
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author of over two books. Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Prize for Indigenous Writing and was shortlisted for the 2021 HNSA ARA Historical Novel. In 2023, she became Publisher-At-Large for Bundyi Publishing, an S&S imprint. Her latest historical novel is Dirrayawadha.
Jillian is a Zenadth Kes woman from the Samsep and Zagareb tribes of Erub and Mer. Jillian’s first book Bakir and Bi was a winner at the 2012 Black&write! Fellowship competition with State Library Queensland. Published by Magabala Books, Bakir and Bi achieved international acclaim when it was chosen for the White Raven’s Catalogue produced by the International Youth Library in Germany, and went on to be displayed at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy, 2014. The sequel to Bakir and Bi, Bid Buai – Dolphin People was published in March 2021 by Balboa Press accompanying the reprint of Bakir and Bi. Jillian’s poetry was highly commended by Judges of the 2018 Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize, published in Overland Journal Magazine and Borderless Transnational Feminist Australian Anthology.
Sharlene Allsopp was born on Bundjalung Country into the Olive mob. She has been published widely, including in Griffith Review, Portside Review, and Aniko Press. She was the University of QLD’s Ford Memorial Poet of the Year in 2021. Her debut novel The Great Undoing, released with Ultimo Press, won the QLD Literary Awards Fiction Book of the Year 2024. She is currently working and studying at the University of QLD and developing her next novel. Sharlene lives in Meanjin/Brisbane with her family and her beloved doggo—Morty.
Theophilus Kwek is a writer, editor and translator based in Singapore. His work has been published in The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, The Straits Times, and elsewhere; and performed at the Royal Opera House. Two of his previous collections of poetry were shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize, while his pamphlet, The First Five Storms, won the inaugural New Poets’ Prize. In 2023, he was the youngest writer and first Singaporean to be awarded the Cikada Prize by the Swedish Institute, for poetry that “defends the inviolability of life”. He is a member of the Folio Academy, and part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2024. His latest book is Commonwealth (Carcanet Press, 2025).
PERFORMANCE DATES & TIMES
VENUE
TICKETS
DURATION
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Suitable for all ages
18 months and under free on the knee; all other ages must hold a vaild ticket
ACCESSIBILITY
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author of over two books. Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Prize for Indigenous Writing and was shortlisted for the 2021 HNSA ARA Historical Novel. In 2023, she became Publisher-At-Large for Bundyi Publishing, an S&S imprint. Her latest historical novel is Dirrayawadha.
Jillian is a Zenadth Kes woman from the Samsep and Zagareb tribes of Erub and Mer. Jillian’s first book Bakir and Bi was a winner at the 2012 Black&write! Fellowship competition with State Library Queensland. Published by Magabala Books, Bakir and Bi achieved international acclaim when it was chosen for the White Raven’s Catalogue produced by the International Youth Library in Germany, and went on to be displayed at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy, 2014. The sequel to Bakir and Bi, Bid Buai – Dolphin People was published in March 2021 by Balboa Press accompanying the reprint of Bakir and Bi. Jillian’s poetry was highly commended by Judges of the 2018 Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize, published in Overland Journal Magazine and Borderless Transnational Feminist Australian Anthology.
Sharlene Allsopp was born on Bundjalung Country into the Olive mob. She has been published widely, including in Griffith Review, Portside Review, and Aniko Press. She was the University of QLD’s Ford Memorial Poet of the Year in 2021. Her debut novel The Great Undoing, released with Ultimo Press, won the QLD Literary Awards Fiction Book of the Year 2024. She is currently working and studying at the University of QLD and developing her next novel. Sharlene lives in Meanjin/Brisbane with her family and her beloved doggo—Morty.
Theophilus Kwek is a writer, editor and translator based in Singapore. His work has been published in The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, The Straits Times, and elsewhere; and performed at the Royal Opera House. Two of his previous collections of poetry were shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize, while his pamphlet, The First Five Storms, won the inaugural New Poets’ Prize. In 2023, he was the youngest writer and first Singaporean to be awarded the Cikada Prize by the Swedish Institute, for poetry that “defends the inviolability of life”. He is a member of the Folio Academy, and part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2024. His latest book is Commonwealth (Carcanet Press, 2025).
