Debra Adelaide is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at UTS where she currently oversees the postgraduate coursework program. She is the author or editor of 17 books including several best-selling anthologies and four novels: these latter include the critically acclaimed THE HOUSEHOLD GUIDE TO DYING (2008), which was sold in 12 countries including the UK and the USA, and THE WOMEN’S PAGES (2015). Her two collections of short fiction, LETTER TO GEORGE CLOONEY (2013) and ZEBRA (2019), have also been widely praised. Her research and teaching interests include the culture of reading and the writing life, both reflected in the edited collection THE SIMPLE ACT OF READING (2015) and in her latest book INNOCENT READER (2019). She has been the judge of numerous literary awards and has been shortlisted or longlisted for several herself – including the former Orange Prize – and is a member of Sydney PEN, an author ambassador for the Sydney Story Factory, and the fiction editor of Southerly, Australia’s oldest literary journal.