What's worth fighting for? When do we switch sides, redraw the battle lines or concede defeat? And how are we altered by the fights of our lives? At July's Next Big Thing session we'll hear from four writers whose work is concerned with bruising confrontation – with nature, with politics and even in the boxing ring.
Alice Bishop's debut short story collection, A Constant Hum, is about the Black Saturday bushfires. Elizabeth Kuiper's novel, Little Stones, is about race and power in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Alex McClintock's book, On the Chin, is about the history and culture of boxing, and his own progress through the sport's amateur ranks. And Carly Stone's essay in the upcoming edition of Voiceworks (#115 Goth) is called 'A Sentence is a Power Struggle'.
Readings will be our bookseller for this event.
Featuring
Alice Bishop
Alice Bishop grew up in Christmas Hills, a town ravaged by the Black Saturday bushfires. A Constant Hum, her much-anticipated debut, was commended by the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and shortlisted for the Penguin Random House Literary Prize. Stories in the collection won the 2017 Lord Mayor’s Prize and the Rachel Funari Prize.
Elizabeth Kuiper
Elizabeth Kuiper grew up in Zimbabwe before immigrating to Perth with her mother. In 2016 she graduated from the University of Melbourne with a degree in politics and philosophy. An early extract of Little Stones was longlisted for the Richell Prize, received the Express Media prize for best work of fiction, and was published in Award Winning Australian Writing. Elizabeth is currently studying law at the University of Melbourne. Little Stones is her first novel.
Alex McClintock
Alex McClintock grew up grew up in Sydney and now lives in Toronto, Canada. His sports writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Monthly. Alex’s debut book, memoir On The Chin: A Boxing Education, chronicles his own unlikely progress through the amateur ranks of the sport of boxing.
Carly Stone
Carly Stone is a non-fiction writer using experimental forms to challenge distinctions: subject-object, body-environment, cockroach-god. Their essays have appeared in Voiceworks and the Lifted Brow's Experimental Non-fiction Prize longlist. Carly is also the founding director of Talkbox, a spoken word night for emerging creators in Melbourne.