Melanie Cheng (The Burrow), Katia Ariel (Ferryman) and Gabriel Weston (Alive) talk about the things that make life worth living when faced with darkness.

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MELANIE CHENG is a writer and general practitioner. She was born in Adelaide, grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Melbourne. Her debut collection of short stories, Australia Day, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2016 and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2018. Room for a Stranger, her highly acclaimed first novel, was published in 2019.

KATIA ARIEL is an award-winning author, book editor and educator from Melbourne/Naarm. She was born in Odesa, Ukraine. Her memoir, The Swift Dark Tide, was shortlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize and was the winner of the 2024 Society of Women Writers NSW Non-fiction Prize. Katia has been published in a variety of literary journals, including Womankind, Archer and Antithesis. She was the recipient of the Varuna Residential Fellowship (in 2022) and Bundanon Writing Residence (in 2024). Ferryman: The Life and Deathwork of Ephraim Finch is her second book.

GABRIEL WESTON was born in 1970. She studied English at Edinburgh University before attending medical school in London and becoming a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2003. Her Sunday Times bestselling debut, Direct Red, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the PEN-Ackerley Award for Autobiography, while her novel Dirty Work won the McKitterick Prize. The presenter of several BBC TV series, including Trust Me I'm a Doctor and Incredible Medicine- Dr Weston's Casebook, she currently works as a part-time surgeon and lives in London with her husband and children.