Arnold Zable is an acclaimed writer, educator, and human rights advocate. He is known as a compelling storyteller, who speaks and writes with passion about memory and history, displacement and community.
His books include Jewels and Ashes, (1991), Wanderers and Dreamers, (1998) and his best selling novel, Cafe Scheherazade, (2001). Other works include The Fig Tree, (2002) which was accompanied by an award-winning CD of music, Scraps of Heaven, (2004), Sea of Many Returns (2008) and Violin Lessons (2011). His latest book, The Fighter, was published in 2016.
A former lecturer in the Arts Faculty in Melbourne University, Arnold has worked in the USA, Papua New Guinea, China, and throughout Europe and Southeast Asia. He has written feature articles, columns, short stories, reviews and essays and his work regularly appears in The Age newspaper and a range of literary journals. He has also written several works for theatre, and performed in many venues across Australia. His shows include Wanderers & Dreamers—tales of Yiddish theatre, and Anytime The Wind Can Change—tales of immigrant journeys, performed with singer-songwriter Kavisha Mazzella.
Arnold has conducted writing workshops throughout Australia, and has been a visiting lecturer in creative writing at Deakin, Melbourne, Monash, RMIT, La Trobe and Victoria Universities. He is a patron of Sanctuary, the Eastweb Foundation and the Victorian Storytellers Guild, and is a former member of the Immigration Museum Advisory Committee, and President of International PEN Melbourne. He was recently awarded a doctorate in the School of Creative Arts at Melbourne University and was appointed a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at Melbourne University in 2012.