Ava Nunan (Australia)

Ava Nunan is a writer from Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. She is currently completing her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne, where she double-majors in creative writing and cultural studies.

She primarily writes fiction and poetry. Her work uses absurdist representations to critique dominant systems. Ava infuses poetics into her atmospheric worlds, at once romanticizing and warping the mundane.

Most recently, her fiction piece Dead Roses was shortlisted for the Born Writers Award. Her poem ‘Ode to My Mother’ was also shortlisted for the Above Water Poetry Prize. Ava’s other works can be found at Social Alternatives, Verandah and Verve, amongst others.

 

Amanda Maciuba (USA)

Born and raised in the Buffalo, NY area, Amanda Maciuba graduated from the University at Buffalo with a degree in Visual Studies. She has a MFA in printmaking and a Certificate of Book Arts from the University of Iowa. Amanda Maciuba’s work is concerned with the landscapes, communities, development practices and environmental practices throughout the United States. By reacting directly to the landscapes and environments she is living in at the time, her work examines, celebrates, and critiques place. The work, which consists of drawing, printmaking, book arts and animation, considers how humans influence and attempt to change, destroy and recreate the natural environments around them. She shows her work regularly throughout the United States and has participated in artist residencies at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Fire Island National Seashore, the Lawrence Arts Center, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center and the Haystack Open Studio Residency. Currently, she teaches printmaking, drawing and book arts at Mount Holyoke College in Western Massachusetts.