Emily Bitto is an award-winning writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She has a Masters in Literary Studies and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne. Her debut novel, The Strays, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, and the published novel went on to win the 2015 Stella Prize. The Strays was published in the US, UK, Canada and Portugal, and rights for a television adaptation are currently under option. Her second novel, Wild Abandon, was published in October 2021 by Allen and Unwin. It is currently longlisted for the 2022 ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year award and shortlisted for the 2022 ALS Gold Medal.

Emily has been teaching creative writing for over a decade, and is currently a teacher and course advisor at the Faber Writing Academy. She is also the co-founder of Melbourne wine bars Heartattack and Vine and Shabooh Shoobah.