who

Dr Lyn Gallacher is a long-time radio documentary-maker with over two decades of experience with ABC Radio National.

Over the years her stories have won a variety of awards, including a European Union Award for Journalism 2010. She’s also been a Creative Fellow at the State Library of Victoria, an Artist-in-residence at Bundanon, a judge for both the Prime Minister’s and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, and a presenter at Writers’ Festivals around the country.

In 2012 she was a Harold White Fellow at the National Library of Australia where she undertook research into the Australian poet and literary trailblazer Nancy Keesing.

Lyn’s current project is an intimate look at one of Melbourne’s most iconic record stores, Discurio.

For more information, go to lyngallacher.net

Dr Michael Shirrefs has spent his life engaged in a mix of radio, music, art and people’s stories, connecting with creative ideas and creative people worldwide.

For 35 plus years Michael worked as a radio broadcaster, program-maker, sound designer and feature-writer with the ABC, with an extraordinary freedom in the range and scope of the stories he can communicate.

In recent years Michael has had a strong focus on Europe, with its increasing tendency to morph and shape-change. He’s been particularly drawn to the cultural, social and political melting-pot of the European ‘project’, resulting in the German Journalism Award, which he received in 2012. In addition, Michael spent quite some time in Paris after winning a State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowship to research a large and mysterious set of French books in the Library’s collection. Most recently, he has started a PhD that examines the much understood role of long-form journalism in the way we tell contemporary history, drawing on the life and work of German writer, philosopher, critic, and journalist, Walter Benjamin.

Michael also has a background in fine art, having degree in print-making. But music has been a major part of his life, performing in indie bands, writing music for radio features, and, more recently, composing scores for dance productions and designing soundscapes for theatre works.

For more information, go to michaelshirrefs.net