The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction: Judges 2003  

Louise Adler (Convenor)

Louise Adler is the CEO & Publisher of Melbourne University Publishing. Between 1977 and 1987 she taught English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and the University of Melbourne. She then became the editor of Australian Book Review the Publishing Director of Reed Books Australia. In 1994 she became the Arts & Entertainment Editor for The Age. Following this, Louise joined the ABC's Radio National as the presenter of Arts Today. She has been appointed inaugural Deputy Director (Academic & Research) at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Des Cowley

Des Cowley is the Rare Printed Collections Manager at the State Library of Victoria. He regularly reviews books for Australian music magazine Rhythms and for ABC Gold Coast FM. He has previously edited the literary broadside Overland Extra and is currently a member of the editorial panel of the Bibliographic Society of Australia & New Zealand Bulletin. His most recent publication, 'Women's Work: Illustrating the Natural Wonders of the Colonies', appeared in The La Trobe Journal (Autumn 2002).

Kate Darian-Smith

Kate Darian-Smith is Director of the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne, where she is also Associate Professor in the Department of History. She is the author and editor of a number of books, including On the Home Front: Melbourne in Wartime 1939-1945, Memory and History in Twentieth Century Australia. She is also Chair of the Board of Meanjin literary journal.