Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Monday 29 October
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
A comical trip through the bureaucracy of local government. A memoir of adolescence lived alongside the heart-rending rollercoaster of a mother’s mental illness. A gap between an ex-policeman father and his artsy son, bridged by stories of colourful criminal hijinks.
In this edition of The Next Big Thing, we’ll hear excerpts from three darkly funny new books tackling the spaces between people, and how we make sense of them – plus a writer from Voiceworks, to be announced.
Katherine Collette will read from her big-hearted satire, The Helpline; Justin Heazlewood from his endearing light-and-shade memoir, Get Up Mum; and Paul Verhoeven from Loose Units, a vibrant and sensitive pursuit of lineage and understanding.
Readings will be our bookseller at this event.
Featuring
Stella Charls
Stella is the Wheeler Centre's Programming Coordinator.
An emerging arts manager and event producer, Stella was previously the Marketing and Events Coordinator for Readings, and the Festival Manager for the National Young Writers’ Festival, Australia’s largest gathering of young and innovative writers working in both new and traditional forms.
Drawn to both programming and operations, with a particular interest in education and support for young creatives, she has worked for Teach for Australia, Melbourne Writers Festival, Melbourne Comedy Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Emerging Writers’ Festival and Melbourne Fringe Festival. She really likes festivals.
Stella has a BA in Philosophy, Political Science and Literature and a Diploma of Italian from the University of Melbourne, but has definitely learnt more useful things working on the floor as a both a front of house manager and a bookseller for Readings since 2012.
Justin Heazlewood
Justin Heazlewood is one of Australia’s most versatile storytellers. Music and comedy fans know him best as the ARIA award-nominated Bedroom Philosopher, a moniker under which Heazlewood has released several albums of incisive, brutally funny and often heartbreaking songs. Heazlewood is also a writer of journalism and essays – bringing humour and critical thinking to important issues such as mental illness, unemployment and the frailty of human relationships.
He has written two acclaimed books: the memoir The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries (2012), followed by Funemployed (2014), which focused on the ecstasies, horrors and realities of being a working artist. The latter earned praise from Tony Martin, Dave Graney and international writer Neil Gaiman, and featured interviews with over 100 local and international artists including Gotye (Wally De Backer), Clare Bowditch, John Safran, Tony Martin, Amanda Palmer, Christos Tsiolkas, Tim Rogers and Adam Elliot.
After its release as a book, Funemployed was commissioned into a radio series for ABC RN (Radio National) under the same name. Heazlewood also recorded the Funemployed LP, described as 'a soundtrack to life as an artist in Australia – from rejection to fame to selling out and giving up'.
He has written for Frankie, JMag, the Big Issue and literary journals such as Voiceworks, Sleepers and Going Down Swinging. Heazlewood is also accomplished in the world of television. In 2013, he was commissioned to make two station IDs for ABC2; he then won ABC’s Fresh Blood competition in 2014, allowing him to produce three episodes of Crazy Bastards – a parody of Mad Men set in mid-80s Australia.
Paul Verhoeven
Paul F. Verhoeven is a writer, broadcaster and entertainer. A mainstay of the Australian media landscape, he has written for ABC News Online, IGN, Smith Journal and Yen Magazine, and has spent years working extensively as a games journalist. After beginning his career hosting Weekend Breakfast on Triple J, he went on to host and write Steam Punks on ABC TV, and currently co-hosts the critically acclaimed podcast 28 Plays Later.
Katherine Collette
Katherine Collette is a writer and sewage engineer living in Melbourne with her husband and two children. Her debut novel, The Helpline, is being published in Australia and New Zealand by Text Publishing in September and then in the UK, North America and Italy next year.
Madison Griffiths
Madison Griffiths is an author, artist and producer. Her debut book Tissue (Ultimo Press) was released in 2022, and is a boldly poetic meditation on abortion and what it has the power to represent. She is the co-producer of ...