Sydney Jewish Writers Festival

The Sydney Jewish Writers’ Festival begins next week, with an outstanding line-up of international and Australian presenters, including:

· Peter Manseau, author of Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter, and most recently Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World's Holy Dead. He has won the National Jewish Book Award, the Sophie Brody Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Jewish Literature, the Ribalow Prize for Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Mercantile Library First Novel Award. His books have published in eight languages and on four continents.

· Steve Toltz, author of Man Booker prize-nominated A Fraction of the Whole which the Courier Mail described as “Brilliantly funny… every sentence is a quotable aphorism clothed in light-hearted observations about human behaviour. A 700-page modern classic.”

· Joanne Fedler, author of When Hungry, Eat and a number of other best sellers.

· Mia Freedman, magazine editor, popular blogger and media personality.

· Paul Sheehan, columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald and The National Times and the author of three best-sellers, including Girls Like You and Among The Barbarians.

· Akmal Saleh leading comedian who has performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and many other comedy festivals and regularly on TV shows such as Rove Live, The Footy Show, The Glass House

· Morris Gleitzman, bestselling Australian children’s author whose books explore serious and sometimes confronting subjects in humorous and unexpected ways.

· Barry Cohen, served as a Minister in the Hawke government and is the author of eight books.

> Immanuel Suttner, author of The African Animal Football Cup, Cutting Through the Mountain, Learn about South Africa Series and the poetry collection Hidden & Revealed