Hyderabad Literature Festival 2020 has Australia as the guest nation

The Hyderabad Literature Festival goes bigger this time. During the 10th edition of the festival, Malayalam is the language in focus and Australia is the guest nation; inviting a foreign country to showcase its literature, art and culture is a unique feature of HLF. A large unit of several delegates including a former cricketer will be present at HLF to mark their participation in different literature events. Here's a low down.

Kim Wilkins is the author of more than twenty-five mass-market novels, including her debut horror novel, 'The Infernal' (1997), which won Aurealis Awards for both horror and fantasy. She has been published in twenty languages. She was born in London, and grew up at the seaside north of Brisbane, Australia. She is an Associate Professor of writing and book culture at the University of Queensland.

Lisa Heidke is an Australian author, currently living in Sydney. She has written 'Lucy Springer Gets Even' (2009), 'What Kate Did Next' (2010), 'Claudia's Big Break' (2011), and 'Stella Makes Good' (2012). She is also the author of 'It Started with a Kiss' (2015), and 'The Callahan Split' (2015).

Anita Heiss is one of Australia's most prolific and well-known authors publishing across genres including non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial fiction, and children's novels. Her memoir 'Am I Black Enough for You?' (2012) was a finalist in the 2012 Human Rights Awards and she was a finalist in the 2013 Australian of the Year Awards. A proud member of the Wiradjuri nation of central New South Wales, she is also a marathoner

Andrew Whitehead, a journalist with BBC for 35 years, is an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham, England and a visiting professor at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. His book 'A Mission in Kashmir' (2007) was the basis for his PhD from the University of Warwick. His most recent book, 'The Lives of Freda': the Political, Spiritual and Personal Journeys of Freda Bedi' (2019), is the biography of an English woman who married a Punjabi fellow student and made her life in India, where she was a prominent nationalist, leftist and later a Tibetan Buddhist nun—among her children is the distinguished actor Kabir Bedi.

Caroline Overington is one of Australia's most successful writers and journalists. As a journalist for The Age, she has profiled many of the world's most famous women, including Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton, and twice won Australia's most prestigious award for journalism, the Walkley Award for Investigative Journalism. She has written 12 books, the latest being The One That Got Away (2018).

Bronwyn Fredericks is a researcher and published author with over 30 years of experience working in and with the Australian universities, State and Federal Governments, and Indigenous community-based organisations. She has been a leader in the strategic vision, direction and achievement of results in relation to Indigenous Australians within the higher education sector, editing 'Yatdjuligin: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing and Midwifery Care' (2014) and contributing to dozens of book chapters and journal articles. She is the current Pro-Vice Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement) at the University of Queensland, Australia.

Gideon Haigh has been a club cricketer since he was nine and a journalist since he was 18. He is the author of 30 books, 20 of them about cricket. Born in London, raised in Australia, he writes for The Australian and The Times; his latest book, 'The Standard Bearers' (2019), is an account of Australia's 2018-19 summer of cricket against India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Filipa Martins is an award-winning Portuguese author, screenwriter, and journalist. Her latest novel, 'From the Rousinol Memoirs' (2018) received the Manuel Boaventura 2019 Literary Prize. Her other publications include the novels 'Mustang Branco' (2014), 'Quanta Terra' (2009), 'Praise of the Public Promenade' (2008; winner of the Revelation Award), and the co-authored short story collection 'Mães que tudo' (2019). She is also the co-writer of the television series Three Women (winner of the Impala Best Television Series 2019 Award), and the co-author of a weekly radio show "The Library of" dedicated to the promotion of books and reading, and a literary multimedia show on the digital platform NiT.pt.

Glen Phillips was born in Western Australia at Southern Cross and graduated from University of WA (MEd) and Edith Cowan University (PhD). He was founding Assistant Director of Mt Lawley CAE (now part of ECU). Currently he is Director of ECU's International Centre for Landscape and Language and an Honorary Professor. Some 60 of his books (including 50 poetry collections) have been published. His poems have won prizes, are translated into several languages and appear in over 40 anthologies. His recent books include 'Poems of the Wheatbelt' and 'In the Hollow of the Land', Collected Poems (1968-2018).

Kieran Dolin is an Associate Professor in English and Literary Studies at the University of Western Australia. He mainly teaches Australian Literature and nineteenth-century English Literature. He is currently researching connections between Australian writing and the recognition of native title in Australia. He is the author of Fiction and the Law (1999) and A Critical Introduction to Law and Literature (2007), has edited Law and Literature (2018), and on Australian Literature has published articles on Martin Boyd, Patrick White, Judith Wright, novels by Dorothy Hewett and Alex Miller, and property and environment in Randolph Stow and Charmaine Papertalk Green.

Stephen Alomes grew up in Tasmania, and has written the stories of the varieties of Australian nationalism (A Nation at Last?, 1988), war memory, popular culture and sport (Australian Football: The People's Game 1958-2058, 2012, 2017). He explored the call of London to Australians in writing and the creative arts (When London Calls, 1999). His forthcoming prose poetry collection is entitled 'Selective Ironies' (2020). His expressionist portraits explore the faces of populist leaders across several continents—from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin— and follow contemporary populism, the subject of his academic research in global studies at RMIT University of Melbourne.

John Zubrzycki is a Sydney-based author, journalist, and researcher, specialising in South Asia, in particular India. His latest book is 'Jadoowallahs, Jugglers and Jinns: A Magical History of India' (2018), a vibrant narrative on Indian magic from ancient times to the present day. He is the best-selling author of 'The Mysterious Mr Jacob: Diamond Merchant, Magician and Spy' (2011) and 'The Last Nizam: An Indian Prince in the Australian Outback' (2006).

Lynnette Lounsbury is an Australian writer and lecturer at Avondale University College, NSW. She is the author of Afterworld (2014) and We Ate The Road Like Vultures (2016).

Alfred Taylor is a member of the Stolen Generation and Australia's leading senior Nyoongar writer. He is the author of three collections of poetry and short stories, Singer, Songwriter (1995), Winds (1994), and Long Time Now (2001). Long Time Now was translated and published in Spain as 'Voz del Pasado'. His memoir, 'God, the Devil, and Me' plus a selection of his poetry and prose is being published in 2020. He has given readings of his work at writers' festivals and other events in Australia, England, France, India, and Spain.