Name: Mum's the Word Gala
Start: 2023-03-04
End: 2023-03-04
Location: The Edge, Fed Square

Event and Ticketing Details

Dates & Times

Saturday 04 March

7:00 PM - 9:30 PM

Location

The Edge, Fed Square

The Atrium Flinders Street Federation Square Melbourne Victoria 3000

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Accessibility

Wheelchair accessible

Accessible toilets available

Auslan Interpreted

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 reception on 03 9094 7800 or ticketing@wheelercentre.com.

Additional Notes

The bookseller for M/OTHER event is Neighbourhood Books.

About

To celebrate M/OTHER, the Wheeler Centre invites beloved international and Australian personalities to wax lyrical on the maternal figures that take centre stage in their lives in an honest and cathartic night of storytelling, song and reflection. Join British-Indian behavioural scientist Pragya Agarwal, author of the bestselling novel Nightbitch Rachel Yoder, social commentator Monica Dux, feminist trailblazer Clementine Ford, Melbourne writer Tony Birch, British novelist Esther Freud, journalist Patricia Karvelas, cabaret star Libby O’Donovan, Shirley author Ronnie Scott, writer and illustrator Sophie Beer, poet and author Maxine Beneba Clarke and her teenage son – stand-up comedian Mali Hawke – for this special night of storytelling, rounded out by a musical ode to motherhood by musician, writer and disability advocate Eliza Hull. Prepare to celebrate and commiserate with our guests as they share stories about their rich variety of maternal figures and influences, explore the complexities of maternal relationships, and ponder whether mum really is the word?

This event is presented in partnership with the Edge at Fed Square.

Conversations in M/OTHER may include references to topics such as mental health, reproductive rights, and childbirth. If you need assistance with any of these issues, you can learn more and seek advice via the Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE), Perintal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) and Beyond Blue.

About M/OTHER

M/OTHER is a weekend of fearless conversation about the ways ‘motherhood’ is experienced, portrayed and labelled by those who mother, have been mothered, wish they were mothers, do not identify as mothers, cannot or do not want to mother, and by society at-large.

Featuring

Pragya Agarwal

Dr Pragya Agarwal is a professor of social inequities, behavioural and data scientist, founder of a research think-tank investigating gender inequities, and author of four widely acclaimed non-fiction books for adults on racism, gender bias and motherhood, and a picture book for raising non-racist children. Her writing has also appeared in places such as The Guardian, The Independent, New Scientist, Scientific American, Literary Hub, and her essay 'Mother Tongue' was recently nominated as 'best of net' by The Florida Review. Pragya was selected as a 'creative thinker' for innovative research by Nesta and awarded the Transmission Prize for ‘making complex scientific ideas accessible.’ She has also been nominated as one of 50 people creating change in the ‘India-UK’ corridor, and one of 100 leading women in social enterprise in the UK. Pragya is a fellow of Royal Society of Arts and Royal Geographical Society.

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Sophie Beer

Sophie Beer is an award-winning illustrator/author living in Brisbane, Australia. She rejoices in creating bright, funny picture books which centre equality, inclusion and kindness. Her books have been printed all over the world and have sold close to one million copies. She has published with Penguin Random House New York, Simon & Schuster, Hardie Grant, Scholastic, and many more. As an illustrator, she has worked with the likes of Disney, Google, The Guardian, The Boston Globe. As a writer, her work has appeared in Frankie Magazine and The Big Issue. In 2022 she received a Varuna Writers Space Fellowship to complete her first middle grade novel. When she's not illustrating and writing, she thinks a lot about plants, animals, music, books, equality and Aldi choc-chip biscuits.

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Maxine Beneba Clarke

Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of the acclaimed memoir The Hate Race, the award-winning short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the poetry collections Carrying The World and How Decent Folk Behave, and many other books ...

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Tony Birch

Tony Birch is the author of four novels, five short fiction collections, and two poetry books. His most recent book is the novel, Women and Children (UQP).

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Monica Dux

Monica Dux is a writer and commentator. She is the author of Lapsed: losing your religion is harder than it looks (HarperCollins ABC Books, 2021), Things I Didn’t Expect (when I was expecting) (MUP, 2013), co-author of The Great Feminist Denial (MUP, 2008), and editor of the anthology Mothermorphosis (MUP, 2015). Monica was a founding board member of the Stella Prize, and the Feminist Writers Festival. From 2013 until 2022 she was a columnist for The Saturday Age. She is currently doing a PhD in Creative Practice at RMIT.

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Clementine Ford

Clementine Ford is a Melbourne-based writer, speaker and feminist thinker. She is a columnist for Fairfax’s Daily Life and is a regular contributor to the Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Through her twice-weekly columns for Daily Life, Clementine explores issues of gender inequality and pop culture. Fight Like a Girl is her first book.

Her ability to use humour and distilled fury to lay bare ongoing issues affecting women has earned her a huge and loyal readership. Clementine’s work has radically challenged the issues of men’s violence against women, rape culture and gender warfare in Australia, while her comedic take on casual sexism and entertainment has earned her a reputation as an accomplished satirist.

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Esther Freud

Esther Freud trained as an actress before writing her first novel, Hideous Kinky, which was made into a film starring Kate Winslet. After publishing her second book she was chosen as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. Her other novels include The Sea House, Lucky Break and Mr Mac and Me, and most recently, I Couldn’t Love You More. Her first full length play Stitchers was produced in 2018, and in 2019 she was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

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Mali Hawke

Mali Hawke is a stand-up comedian. He has most recently hosted Up Next Comedy at Arts Centre Melbourne, was a finalist in The Melbourne Comedy Festival's Class Clowns in 2021, and has since performed in various ...

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Eliza Hull

Eliza Hull is an award-winning musician, writer and disability advocate. Eliza is a disabled woman, with a physical disability ‘Charcot Marie Tooth.’ Eliza is the editor and creator of the book We’ve Got This: Stories by Disabled Parents ...

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Patricia Karvelas

Patricia Karvelas is a prominent Australian journalist, beginning her professional career at the ABC and SBS 20 years ago. She currently presents Radio National’s flagship radio current affairs programme RN Breakfast ...

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Libby O’Donovan

Libby O’Donovan OAM is a 'powerful and sassy performer' (The Sydney Morning Herald), renowned for her nuanced interpretations and extraordinary voice. Libby is the recipient of the 2022 Cabaret Icon Award and has received an OAM in recognition of her service as a critically acclaimed jazz and cabaret performer and an award-winning musical director. Libby has entertained audiences world-over with her unique talents, performing in New York, Tokyo and Toronto as well as Australia-wide. Equally at home in small ensemble acts as well as solo, theatre, musicals and cabaret, Libby’s versatility is matched by her positive energy. Libby is also highly in demand as a composer, arranger and musical director, for which she has won a Green Room Award.

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Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott’s first novel The Adversary was shortlisted for a Queensland Literary Award and the ALS Gold Medal; his second novel, Shirley, will be published in February. He teaches Creative Writing at RMIT.

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Rachel Yoder

Rachel Yoder is the author of Nightbitch, her debut novel released in July 2021. Selected as an Indie Next Pick in August 2021, Nightbitch has gone on to be named a best book of the year by Esquire and Vulture and recognized as a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction, finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and on the shortlist for the McKitterick Prize. To date, Nightbitch has been translated into 13 languages. A film adaptation directed by Marielle Heller and starring Amy Adams will be released in 2023. Rachel is a graduate of the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and also holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Arizona. She grew up in a Mennonite community in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Ohio and now lives in Iowa City.

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