Javant Biarujia is a poet, playwright and essayist. His play Comfort won the Irene Mitchell Short Play Competition and his poetry has been widely published in journals across Australia.  During his residency, Javant gave lectures and talks in Jakarta, Medan and Surabaya. Despite being somewhat overwhelmed by the political and social upheaval in Indonesia, he was able to complete his Java Suite of poems, included in his collection Low/Life, which was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year award in 2003. 

Supported by Arts Victoria and the Australia Indonesia Institute.

Max Lane is a writer and translator with an interest in Indonesian and Southeast Asian affairs. He has translated five Pramoedya Ananta Toer novels including the Buru Tetralogy, starting with This Earth of Mankind. His latest books include Unfinished Nation: Indonesia before and after Suharto and Catastrophe in Indonesia. At Historia Magazine Group Max will write a dramatised semi-fictional tale of the conception, birth and career of Toer's This Earth of Mankind and its sequels. (SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS AND THE AUSTRALIA-INDONESIA INSTITUTE)

Jan Cornall is a scriptwriter and performance artist who has written 10 plays and a feature film.  Since 2004, Cornall has been travelling to Indonesia, teaching, writing and meeting with Indonesian writers. Her residency was hosted by Teater Utan Kayu, Jakarta where she held numerous workshops and presentations and participated in Perfurbance Performance Festival.  Cornall also attended the Ubud Readers’ and Writers’ Festival, produced a CD of collaborative works with poet Sitok Srengenge, composed and sung by herself, as well as publishing a book of writing in English and Indonesian.  

Supported by the Australia-Indonesia Institute and Arts NSW.

Bill Lines graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1973 then spent several years backpacking around the world. His first book, Taming the Great South Land, was published in Australia and in the United States in 1991. Lines' most recent book, Open Air: Essays, was released in September 2001. Lines currently lives in Canberra where he is researching the history of the modern conservation movement in Australia. Lines will spend time at Petra University whilst researching two new books. A non-fiction book, Nature Fear, investigates attitudes and practices towards nature and conservation in Australia and Indonesia. The second is a novel, Loose Stones which explores issues of connectedness between people and looks at this through the prism of Indonesian culture.

Supported by Arts ACT and the Australia Indonesia Institute.

Andy Fuller is an Indonesia scholar, translator and author of short fiction, essays and poetry. During his residency at the Lontar Foundation in Jakarta, Fuller worked on editing, compiling and translating works of contemporary Indonesian short fiction for The Lontar Anthology of Indonesian Short Fiction, which aims to provide readers access to modern Indonesian cultural and philosophical thought. Throughout his residency Fuller also wrote extensively - inspired by his surroundings he completed many 'definition poems' from observations of Jakarta, which he hopes to work into a collection larger pieces. Fuller's translation skills were also further developed by subtitling the film Serambi, and he produced a small collection of his translations entitled Water Exits from Skin.

Supported by the Australia-Indonesia Institute and the Australia Council.

Gabrielle Lord’s award winning career spans a quarter of a century, and includes work on several screenplays, a book on meditation and 12 novels including Fortress, Tooth & Claw, Jumbo, and Lethal Factor, the second novel about Dr Jack McCain, forensic analyst with the Australian Federal Police.  The third book in this series, dealing with the trafficking of human beings, takes Dr McCain to Indonesia where Lord undertook her residency. She spent two months researching her novel, giving talks, lectures and workshops at universities and colleges across Java.  During the residency Lord met writer Stefani Hid whose novels deal with contemporary Indonesian women’s concerns around feminism, sex and social services.  She is currently facilitating the translation and publication of Hid’s second novel into English.

Supported by the Australia-Indonesia Institute and the Australia Council.

Melissa Lucashenko is a novelist and writer for young adults. She is the author of Steam Pigs, winner of the 1998 Dobbie Award, Killing Darcy and Arms Full of Flies. In 1997 Lukashenko spent a year living in Tonga and she was keen to further develop her understanding of the connections between her Indigenous culture and that of Polynesia and Indonesia. During her residency she spent time at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta and Petra Christian University in Surabaya where she gave talks and lectures to staff and students. 

Supported by the Australia Council.

 

Julie Janson works as a playwright, screenwriter, producer, script editor and assessor. She has worked on many cross-cultural projects enabling artists to express the connections and clashes between traditional forms and contemporary sensibilities, particularly between Asia, indigenous and non-indigenous Australia. She has received numerous grants and fellowships, has made several short films and had a number of her plays produced at Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre and overseas. Janson worked with the Perempuan Perkeja theatre company toward the presentation of her play Tsunami Tsunami.

Supported by the Australia Council.

Steven Conte is the author of The Zookeeper's War, which in 2008 won the inaugural Prime Minister's Award for Fiction and has been published in Britain and translated into Spanish and Portuguese. Steven also holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne. At Komunitas Salihara in Jakarta he aims to forge connections with authors, journalists and intellectuals, and to conduct research for a novel partly set in Indonesia. (SUPPORTED BY THE MALCOLM ROBERTSON FOUNDATION)

Clare Mendes is the author of three novels. Drift won the 1995 Angus & Robertson Fiction Prize for first fiction and was followed by A Race Across Burning Soil in 1997 and Streets and Curtain Raiser in 1998 published by Flamingo. In 1997 Clare spent four months at the Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta. There she researched material for a novel set in Indonesia. 

Supported by Arts Victoria and the Australia Indonesia Institute.

Julie Janson began writing plays with the Australian Aboriginal community while living in Arnhemland in the Northern Territory. She writes plays that have an international and inter-cultural focus. During her residency in Indonesia Janson workshopped her new work, The Crocodile Hotel, set in the Northern Territory in the 1970s and Sulawesi in 1920. Janson maintained a busy schedule visiting theatres and arts organisations across Java, Sumatra and Bali. She was also hosted by Petra University in Surabaya where she was warmly welcomed by staff and students and gave a number of lectures and workshops. 

Supported by the Australia Indonesia Institute and the Australia Council.