The Melbourne Jewish Writers Festival celebrates books and writing by and about Jewish people from Saturday 21 May to Monday 23 May. Here are 11 festival guests to check out from the program. (You can browse the full program here.)

Nir Baram

Nir Baram, born in Jerusalem to an Israeli political (Labor) family, has worked as a journalist, editor, and advocate for equal rights for Palestinians. He is the author of five widely translated novels. Journey Along the Green Line, a work of reportage, will be published by Text in 2017.

See him at: Spotlight on Nir Baram; The Inspirational Muse

Elana Sztokman

Elana Sztokman is an award-winning Israeli author, sociologist, educator, international columnist, activist, thinker in the field of Orthodox Jewish feminism, and instrumental in founding several Jewish feminist organisations. Her husband Jacob is founder of Gabriel Project Mumbai, a Jewish initiative combatting poverty and illiteracy among children in Mumbai.

See her at: Judaism and the Man

Ann Goldstein

Ann Goldstein, the translator of all of Elena Ferrante’s novels, is an editor at The New Yorker, a recipient of a PEN Renato Poggioli Translation Award and of a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the editor of the complete works of Primo Levi.

See her at: Translating Primo Levi & Elena Ferrante

Renata Singer

Renata Singer is a writer, educator, community activist, and as a Yiddishist, president of the Kadimah. Her most recent books are, Older & Bolder: Life after 60, “a rallying cry to live audaciously in the last third of your life”, and (with Peter Singer) The Moral of the Story: Ethics Through Literature.

See her at: Older and Bolder

Miriam Rosenbloom

Miriam Rosenbloom, Art Director at Scribe, has been a book-cover designer for over a decade. In 2016 she launched Scribe’s first picture book imprint ‘Scribble’. She is one of the founders and current Vice President of the Australian Book Designers Association.

See her at: The Alchemy of Words and Pictures

Arnold Zable

Arnold Zable is an acclaimed Australian writer, novelist and human rights advocate. His books include Jewels and Ashes, Café Scheherazade, Violin Lessons, and this year, The Fighter. He has conducted workshops for refugees and survivors of many kinds, using story as a means of self-understanding.

See him at: Arnold Zable’s The Fighter; Singing for All He’s Worth

Jami Attenberg

Jami Attenberg’s five novels, translated and published internationally, include The Middlesteins (2012 New York Times bestseller list) and Saint Mazie (2015). In 2017, HMH Books will release All Grown Up. Jami’s complex protagonists, “guilt-ridden sensualists”, explore family, compassion, sexuality, compulsion and faith. She lives in New York and New Orleans.

See her at: Exclusive Bookclub Event with Jami Attenberg

Elizabeth Finkel

Elizabeth Finkel is an Australian science journalist best known for her books Stem Cells: Controversy at the Frontiers of Science and The Genome Generation. Dr Finkel is editor-in-chief of Cosmos Magazine and previously worked as an award-winning broadcaster for ABC Radio National.

See her at: Expanding the Boundaries of Science

Joan London

Joan London is the author of two collections of stories and three novels. Gilgamesh, The Good Parents, and The Golden Age (2015 Prime Minister’s Literary Award) have all won many prestigious prizes. Joan won the 2015 Patrick White Award for a lifetime of outstanding contribution to Australian literature and was named a State Living Treasure by the WA government.

See her at: Joan London Reading The Golden Age; Beauty, Loss and Solitude

Lior Attar

Lior Attar is an Israeli-Australian singer-songwriter. His debut album Autumn Flow was one of the most successful independent debut releases in Australian music history. Lior has toured extensively in Australia and abroad, engaged in innovative collaborations, and most recently played Motl Kamzoil in Fiddler on the Roof in Melbourne.

See him at: Gala Opening Night

Andrea Goldsmith

Andrea Goldsmith has written seven novels, including The Prosperous Thief (2003 Miles Franklin Literary Award short list), and The Memory Trap (2015 Melbourne Prize for Best Writing). Her work explores memory, and how people behave badly, even brutally, when they believe they have a right to do so.

See her at: Writing out of the Rubble; The Necessary Jewish Poet

Readings is the official bookseller of the Melbourne Jewish Writers Festival. You can browse the full program here.