Kirli Saunders is the 2020 NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year, a proud Gunai Woman, award-winning international children’s author and poet as well as a teacher.

She leads Poetry in First Languages, delivered by Red Room Poetry.

Her debut picture book The Incredible Freedom Machines was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and CBCA notables.

Her poetry collection, Kindred, was shortlisted for the ABIA 2020 Book Awards and FAB Booktopia Awards.

She is the inaugural winner of the Daisy Utemorrah Award and University of Canberra ATSI Poetry prize (2019).

This year Kirli is an esteemed judge for the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Val Vallis Award, a member of Merrigong Theatre Company’s board and has begun work on her first theatre script.