2026 Program
Friday 17 April
Workshops
Studio Take Care, Brunswick
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The World in Your Hands: Fantasy and Sci-fi Worldbuilding workshop
with Eli Sutherland
09:30 - 11:30
Art Room, Studio Take CareWorldbuilding in fantasy and science fiction can create a living, breathing environment that a story lives within. Connect with other writers, and explore and play in crafting a new fantastical world with others in this worldbuilding workshop.
This workshop is for trans and gender diverse people only.
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Be Queer, Make Books: Writing and Editing workshop
with Savannah Hollis
09:30 - 11:30
Big Room, Studio Take CareEditing your own work can be hard and getting it published can be even harder! Editor Savannah Hollis (Hardie Grant Publishing), will take you through developing and editing your own work with an eye towards publication.
This workshop is for trans and gender diverse people only.
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A Creative Introduction to Interactive Literature workshop
with Alexander Swords
12:00 - 14:00
Art Room, Studio Take CareBring your laptops and tablets for a dive into narrative design, an introduction to the interactive writing tool “Twine”, and develop your own playable interactive story.
This workshop is for trans and gender diverse people only.
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Poems of Possibilities: Poetry workshop
with Kaya Ortiz
12:00 - 14:00
Big Room, Studio Take CareTo desire is to reach for what is im/possible. To write desire is to inhabit that possibility and make it real. In Poems of Possibility, join award-winning queer Filipino poet Kaya Ortiz in a poetry writing workshop to explore desire and possibility in all its forms.
This workshop is for trans and gender diverse people only.
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Body Percussion & Call and Response workshop
with Malaika Mfalme
14:30 - 16:30
Art Room, Studio Take CareThis 2-hour embodied, ancestral music-making workshop with Malaika Mfalme invites participants into collective rhythm-making rooted in East African ancestral knowledge, where music is not something you perform for others, but something you create with each other.
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Prose Pals: Literary Speed-Friending session
with Eli Sutherland and Logan Trask
14:30 - 16:30
Big Room, Studio Take CareExcited for Trans Book Festival but nervous to walk into a big festival without knowing many people yet? Come along to Prose Pals: a Literary Speed-Friending session with other trans and gender diverse writers!
This workshop is for trans and gender diverse people only.
Workshop day bookseller:
Saturday 18 April
Panels
The Wheeler Centre, Melbourne
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Opening Address
10:00 - 10:30
The Wheeler CentreTrans Book Festival 2026 will open with a Welcome to Country from a Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elder, followed by a short opening address from Festival Director Eli Sutherland.
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Ode to (Trans) Joy
A Conversation with Zoe Terakes and Dylin Hardcastle
11:00 - 12:00
The Wheeler CentreJoin literary friends Zoe Terakes (Eros) and Dylin Hardcastle (A Language of Limbs) for a loving tribute to the power of trans writing—on the page and on the screen.
This session will be Auslan interpreted. -
Writing the Neuroqueer Experience
12:30 - 13:30
The Wheeler CentreWhat does it mean to live and write at the intersection of gender diversity and neurodivergence? Join these acclaimed scholars and writers for a deep dive into all things neuroqueer.
This session will be Auslan interpreted. -
Evening the Score: Sports Writing
14:30 - 15:30
The Wheeler CentreAmid regressive debates about trans participation in sport, how can we reclaim a love of movement, play, and team fandom? Joins writers at the intersection of sport and literature for an energetic conversation spanning AFL, soccer, surfing, and more.
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Transing the Canon
16:00 - 17:00
The Wheeler CentreTrans books—a new thing, right? But what about all the gender crossing in ancient mythology and Shakespeare? Maybe trans stories have always existed, hiding in plain sight. Join us for a conversation that asks: what does it mean to retrospectively claim our trans literary forebears?
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The Book that Made Me Trans: an Evening of Storytelling
Hosted By Lantana Literary Journal
18:30 - 19:30
The MoatAround the world, queer books are being banned, lest they ‘corrupt’ children and young people. What if we flipped the script and celebrated the power of literature to help us become our truest selves? In this intimate evening of storytelling, top trans and gender diverse writers share the book that made them trans.
Sunday 19 April
Panels
The Wheeler Centre, Melbourne
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Trans Poetics
09:30 - 10:30
The Wheeler CentrePoetry is a form that lends itself to fluidity and challenging the confines of the page. Join the discussion to learn how these trans poets use their unique perspectives and experiences to both embrace and challenge the form, as well as explore an ideological desire to transform.
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Selling Out (Complimentary): a Literary Industry panel
11:00 - 12:00
The Wheeler CentreWant to share your words with the world? From editing and acquisitions to finding your audience, this panel offers insight into how trans writing is being shaped and championed today by trans industry insiders.
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Musical Performance: Malaika Mfalme
12:15 - 12:45
The Wheeler CentreLondon-born and raised across continents, Malaika Mfalme is a Tanzanian/Australian singer, songwriter, guitarist, and event producer creating on Gadigal Land (Sydney). In their mother tongue, Swahili, their name translates to “Angel King.”
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Words of Resistance: Navigating Intersectional Solidarities
13:00 - 14:00
The Wheeler CentreIn a time of genocide, environmental crisis, and a resurgent far right, how can we write with care—bearing witness to grief while fighting for justice? A vital conversation on how literature and activism can help change the world.
This session will be Auslan interpreted. -
Trans Femmes to the Front
14:30 - 15:30
The Wheeler CentreMissing that femme energy in your life? This one goes out to the girls, the dolls, and those who love and uplift us: a panel that brings together fierce trans femme artists to talk craft, identity, and what sisterhood can mean in today’s world. Curated by Liz Duck-Chong.
This session will be Auslan interpreted. -
TRANScendent: First Nations panel
16:00 - 17:00
The Wheeler CentreBeing an Ancestor is beyond the limitations of time, space, and the material world. Join First Nations writers and poets as they yarn about what it means to be a trans Ancestor, the responsibility of truth-telling with ink, and how Blak Love transcends all expectations. Curated by Lay Maloney.
Festival weekend bookseller:
2026 Artists
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Arlie Alizzi
he/him
Arlie is a Yugambeh editor at Magabala Books. Based in Rubibi/Broome, he is a writer, researcher and anti-racism educator who has been published by outlets such as the Sydney Review of Books, Liminal Magazine…
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Kai Ash
he/him
Kai Ash was raised in Yuggera country, Brisbane region, Queensland, where he grew up amid bush-covered ranges. Once he was old enough, he set off to explore the world: Europe, the Middle East and Oceania. He studied gender, language, law…
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Dr Clem Bastow
they/them
Dr Clem Bastow is a screenwriter, cultural critic and award-winning critical Autism studies researcher from Naarm–Melbourne. By day, Clem is Senior Tutor in Screenwriting at the University of Melbourne; by night, Clem works as a screenwriter…
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Liz Duck-Chong
she/her
Liz Duck-Chong is a writer, researcher and carpenter whose work focuses on LGBTQ+ lives, technologies, and the natural world. Her essays, memoir, and poetry have been published widely in so-called Australia….
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Stone Motherless Cold
Coming soon!
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Michael Earp
they/them
Michael Earp is a non-binary writer and bookseller living in Naarm, the editor of Everything Under the Moon: Fairy tales in a queerer light, Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories, Out-Side: Queer Words and Art from Regional Victoria and…
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Sam Elkin
he/him
Sam is the author of Detachable Penis (Upswell) and co-host of Triple R's Queer View Mirror.
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Bri Fallen
she/her
Gabrielle Fallen is a Naarm-based writer and performer. Her performance credits include Democracy Repair Services (Fringe), Poems of a Transsexual Nature (MTC, Fringe), and Embrace The Cringe (EWF). Her original play Mature Skin was presented…
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Darcy Green
they/them
Darcy Green is a Melbourne/Naarm-based author who writes queer stories across a variety of genres. Their debut novel, After the Siren, was published by Penguin in 2025.When Darcy is not writing, they can be found gaming, playing ice hockey…
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Dylin Hardcastle
he/him
Dylin Hardcastle is an award-winning author, artist, screenwriter and former Provost’s Scholar at the University of Oxford, currently living on Gadigal Land. He’s the author of four books, which have been published internationally to critical acclaim…
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Jess Ho
they/them
Jess Ho is a freelance writer, journalist and critic based in Naarm/Melbourne. Raised By Wolves, their memoir, was published in 2022 by Affirm Press. They are the host and producer of Bad Taste…
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Savannah Hollis
she/her
Savannah Hollis is an editor living in Naarm. She has edited everything from literary fiction to picture books, and has been lucky enough to work with award-winning authors from around Australia…
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Hasib Hourani
he/him
Hasib Hourani is a writer, editor, educator and arts worker living on Gadigal Country. His debut book, rock flight, was released with Giramondo in 2024. It won the NSWLA Kenneth Slessor Prize…
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Marcel Liemant
they/them
Marcel is an Indie Fantasy Author based in Naarm. They write queer-centered magical adventures that explore the power of trans embodiment, teach storytelling workshops…
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Amao Leota Tu
she/her/suga
Amao Leota Lu is a proud Samoan fa’afafine and Pasifika indigenous trans woman of colour. She is an LGBTIQ community elder and leader who is a trans advocate, consultant, public speaker…
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Lay Maloney
they/them
Lay Maloney is a genderfluid storyteller belonging to the Gumbaynggirr and Guggandji nations and is South Sea Islander. They are the author of Weaving Us Together (2025), and published in Australian Poetry Journal…
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Malaika Mfalme
he/they
Malaika Mfalme is a Tanzanian–Australian singer, songwriter, guitarist, and community facilitator creating on Gadigal Land (Sydney). Their name, Malaika, means Angel in Swahili, and Mfalme means King, a reminder that…
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moirra.
xe/xer, he/him/hir
moirra. is a Yorta Yorta, Boonwurrung & Jewish transsexual writer, poet, and artist living on unceded Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country. Hir work uses the genres of speculative fiction and horror to interrogate settler-colonialism…
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Jazz Money
she/her, they/them
Jazz Money is a multi-award winning queer Wiradjuri poet and artist. Jazz is the author of the acclaimed poetry collections how to make a basket (2021) and mark the dawn (2024), and two illustrated children's books…
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Jack Nichols
they/them
Jack Nicholls is a British-Australian essayist and speculative fiction writer living in Melbourne. They write with equal gusto about housing crises and haunted houses, capitalism and clones, and are particularly drawn to the zone…
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Kaya Ortiz
they/them
Kaya Ortiz is a queer Filipino poet of in/articulate identities and record-keeper of ancient histories. Kaya hails from the southern islands of Mindanao and lutruwita/Tasmania and is obsessed with the fluidity of borders, memory and time…
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Jasper Peach
they/them
Jasper Peach is a trans, non-binary and disabled writer, speaker and parent. They are passionate about equitable access and inclusion, working with the aim of dismantling misplaced shame across written word, visual and audio mediums.
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Yves Rees
they/them
Dr Yves Rees (they/them) is a writer and historian based on unceded Wurundjeri land. They are a Senior Lecturer in History at La Trobe University, the co-host of Archive Fever podcast and author of Travelling to Tomorrow…
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Eli Sutherland
they/them
Eli Sutherland is an award-winning poet, writer, and creative consultant living on Wurundjeri Country. They are a non-binary, queer, disabled creative, the Festival Director of Trans Book Festival, the Treasurer of Overland…
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Alexander Swords
they/them
Alexander Swords is currently narrative lead on the transmedia interactive experience Totem Teller and creative lead for unannounced game by CerebralFix. With over 10 years experience, their other work has included Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora for Ubisoft and the Future Water mixed reality educational experience for Melbourne Water…
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Sasja Sÿdek
she/her
Sasja Sÿdek is an Indigenous Singaporean transgender woman of colour (TWOC), activist, advocate, and cultural practitioner based in Naarm/Melbourne. She is the co-founder of Trans Sisters United, an organisation dedicated to celebrating transgender women while addressing violence against them…
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Zoe Terakes
they/he
Zoe Terakes is an actor and writer living and working on Gadigal Land. They are a vocal advocate for trans rights within arts industries and on a global scale. Zoe was most recently seen on screen in A24’s critically acclaimed film Talk to Me. Their other acting credits include Nine Perfect Strangers, Wentworth and Marvel Studios series…
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Logan Trask
they/he
Logan Trask is a writer, educator, and musician based in Naarm. As a writer they explore themes of mental health, neurodiversity, and chronic illness in genre fiction for ages 8+. As a musician, they examine the complexity of their queerness, gender identity, and immigration journey through folk-pop songs…
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Ellen van Neerven
they/them
Ellen van Neerven (EvN) is a Mununjali Yugambeh neurodivergent writer, editor and educator living on Yagera and Turrbal land. Ellen‘s first book, Heat and Light (UQP, 2014) was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award…
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Monte Weir
she/her
Monte Weir is a queer author, artist and support worker living on unceded Wurundjeri land in Naarm/Melbourne. She is the Chair of creative writing collective Meridian Australis, through which she has helmed…
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Rae White
they/them
Rae White is the author of poetry collections Milk Teeth (UQP 2018) and Exactly As I Am (UQP 2022), and the picture book All the Colours of the Rainbow (Lothian Children’s Books 2025), with illustrations…
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Xiaole Zhan
they/them
Xiaole Zhan (詹小乐) is a Chinese-Aotearoa writer and composer based in Naarm. Their work features in Auckland University Press’s New Poets 11. They are a 2025 Creative New Zealand Fellowship recipient, a 2025 Red Room Poetry…
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Nevo Zisin
they/them
Nevo Zisin is a white Ashkenazi Jewish settler living on unceded Wurundjeri Land. They are a storyteller, educator on transgender topics for almost a decade, TEDx speaker, poet, workshop facilitator in schools and workplaces, and award-winning author of Finding Nevo…
Supported by:
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body
With gratitude for TGV’s ongoing auspice support