Dr. Merlinda Bobis is an award-winning Filipino-Australian writer, performer and scholar. She published 4 novels, 6 poetry books, 2 collections of short stories, and had 10 dramatic works performed/produced in Australia, Philippines, US, Canada, Spain, Singapore, and France. She also published more than a hundred literary and scholarly works in journals, books and magazines. Her research links creative and critical practice with issues around gender, environment, migration, borders, war and colonisation.

Her latest book of short stories, The Kindness of Birds, received the Canberra Critics’ Circle Award, was Highly Commended for the ACT Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award (Queensland Literary Prize) and the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction (NSW Premiers’ Award in Literature), which she won previously for her novel Locust Girl, A Lovesong. Her other awards include three Philippine National Book Awards, the Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature, the Australian Writers’ Guild Award, and the Prix Italia.

She developed and facilitated community arts and advocacy projects on environment, resilience of women and girls, migration and language, and cross-cultural engagement. She is currently working on these research themes: climate change, gender and empowerment, and human rights.