Colly Campbell is a Scottish born, North Queensland bred novelist and poet who started writing at the age of eight and hasn’t stopped - although full-time work as a journalist and political adviser got in the way for a bit.

He is published in LINQ magazine, North of Capricorn - An Anthology of Verse, Island Magazine and other arty outlets and chapbooks.

As a member of the fiction faction, he has also published two cli-fi novels - The Capricorn Sky, The Kyoto Bell plus Judge Rosa Somberly – a young adult novel about environmental justice.

Alan Jefferies is a poet and children’s author born in Brisbane and raised in Quandamooka Country, the Redlands. He started writing in High School and publishing after moving to Sydney in the mid-seventies.

For many years he worked as a librarian and teacher at The Workers’ Educational Association in Sydney. In 1998 he moved to Hong Kong wherehe co-founded OutLoud - a poetry and performance collective.

He’s published six books of poetry, his most recent chapbook “Thirty poems: 2022-2025” (Oodnadatta Press) was launched in Melbourne in 2025.

These days he convenes a small poetry group (Bay Island Poets) on the Southern Moreton Bay Archipelago in Queensland.

His most significant achievement in literature - indeed in life - is to be still writing, still publishing, and still performing after 50 years.

Open mic - sign up on the night - each poet has three minutes.