Unlimited Futures

Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning author, editor, and educator of Mununjali (Yugambeh language group) and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, and non-fiction on unceded Turrbal and Yuggera land. Ellen's first book, Heat and Light (UQP, 2014), a novel-in-stories, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award, and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. Ellen's poetry collection Comfort Food (UQP, 2016) won the Tina Kane Emergent Award and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize. Rafeif Ismail is a third culture youth of the Sudanese diaspora. Rafeif sees all forms of art as mediums for change and is committed to creating accessible spaces for young people of marginalised backgrounds in the arts. She is the winner of the 2017 Deborah Cass Prize for writing with the story 'Almitra Amongst the Ghosts.' Her short story 'Light at the End' was published in the anthology Ways of Being Here (Margaret River Press, 2017). She is committed to writing diverse characters and stories in all mediums, is currently working on her first novel and hopes to also one day write for screen.