Six of Australia’s best emerging literary voices share their work at a special Melbourne Writers Festival edition of The Next Big Thing.
Discover new works and celebrate cutting-edge writing talent at this much-loved readings series from The Wheeler Centre.
Raya Goldtwig reflects on a childhood shaped by the long shadow of World War II in her evocative memoir The World Belongs to Children. In her fearless debut Periodic Bitch, Emma Hardy interrogates menstrual monsters and the culture that created them, drawing on her own experience with premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Journalist Antoun Issa’s Rebirth traces his mother’s journey through love, migration and renewal amid the upheaval of the Lebanese Civil War. Graphic storyteller Soolagna Majumdar shares work from her forthcoming project Food Bird. Dženana Vucic reads from her poetry collection after war, an unflinching exploration of the Bosnian War and its aftermath. And Olivia Wood presents her Voiceworks piece, ‘Privilege of a Peaceful Grief’, a meditation on the strange undercurrents flowing beneath suburban family life.
Hosted by Pranati Narayan Visweswaran.
Presented in partnership with Melbourne Writers Festival
The Next Big Thing series is generously supported by George and Rosa Morstyn.
Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Saturday 9 May
3.30 - 4.30pm
Tickets
$19.50
Full
$15.50
Concession
$15.50
Under 30
$0.00
Pay What You Wish
Location
Accessibility
Accessible toilets available
Registered Assistance Animals welcome
Wheelchair accessible
For information regarding accessibility at The Moat, click here.
Please notify us of all access requirements when booking online so we can assist you with your visit. If you require further information, please contact ticketing@wheelercentre.com.
Additional Notes
Featuring
Emma Hardy
Emma Hardy is an Australian writer based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her writing has been published in Guernica, The Monthly, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Lifted Brow, Voiceworks and Going Down Swinging. Emma lives with premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which is the topic of her debut book, Periodic Bitch. She often writes about women, animals, madness and the lines between. She has recently returned from three years living and writing in Nevada, where she was an MFA candidate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She taught university-level English and creative writing and was the nonfiction editor at Witness Magazine.
Dženana Vucic
Dženana Vucic is a Bosnian–Australian writer and editor based in Berlin. Her poems have been shortlisted for numerous prizes and her writing has been widely published, including in Australian Book Review, Australian Poetry Journal, Crikey, Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin, Overland, Sydney Review of Books and elsewhere. Dženana is a Fiction Editor at SAND Journal and the Reviews Editor at Cordite Poetry Review. Her debut poetry collection, after war, is out with UQP in 2026
Pranati Narayan Visweswaran
Artist, creative worker, and culture junkie, Pranati is a staunch supporter of the arts. They have worked with emerging, independent BIPOC artists, and are the founder of local initiative South by South East Asian (SXSEA ...