Bem Le Hunte is an internationally acclaimed Australian author, educator, creative practitioner and advocate for human unity. She is the author of four novels, including The Seduction of Silence, set in the Himalayas, and There, Where the Pepper Grows, both of which became number-one bestsellers and have been published internationally to critical acclaim.
A multi-award-winning educator, Bem is the founding Director of the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), a pioneering, transdisciplinary and future-facing degree that explores creativity across 26 different disciplines. Her academic work focuses on creativity, storytelling and transformative learning, and she is developing what she calls a “Curriculum for Being, not just knowing”—an approach that places imagination, empathy, curiosity and human possibility at the heart of education.
Bem holds a BA and MA in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, a Creative Doctorate from the University of Sydney, and a professional qualification in journalism. Before entering academia, she spent three decades working across the creative industries in three countries as a Creative Director, Strategist and Copywriter, bringing together storytelling, cultural insight and creative practice.
Her writing and academic work are deeply informed by her interest in identity, belonging, culture and the spaces between worlds. Describing herself as a “liminal human”—half Indian, half English, and Australian by choice—Bem explores the possibilities of living between cultures and perspectives. Across her novels, teaching and research, she advocates for human connection, unity and what she describes as “unity consciousness.”
At HLF–WWK 2027, Bem Le Hunte brings together the perspectives of a novelist, anthropologist, journalist, educator and creative thinker whose work crosses borders between literature, culture, imagination and the future of being human.