At our May edition of The Next Big Thing, debut writers Manisha Anjali, Alex Creece, Cher Tan and Ruby Todd join us to explore dreams, the cosmic, the otherworldly and the digital realm. Cher Tan’s debut book Peripathetic is a collection of non-linear essays that bend and break boundaries. Ruby Todd’s 2023 Unpublished Manuscript Award-shortlisted literary thriller Bright Objects blends mystery, astronomy, and romance. Manisha Anjali journeys across oceans and explores the language of dreams in her debut poetry collection Naag Mountain. Alex Creece’s Potty Mouth is a delightfully vulgar and bawdy collection of poems. Jamil Badi’s Voiceworks piece, ‘Why the Waterholes Went Mad’, is influenced by folktales and oral storytelling practices from East Africa. Join us at The Moat to celebrate these influential and exciting emerging voices in Australia’s literary landscape.
The Next Big Thing series is generously supported by George and Rosa Morstyn.
Accessible toilets available
Auslan interpreting available by-request
Companion tickets available
Registered Assistance Animals welcome
Wheelchair accessible
The bookseller for this event is Readings.
Manisha Anjali is the author of Naag Mountain (Giramondo, 2024). She is the founder of Neptune, a research and documentation platform for dreams, visions and hallucinations. Manisha was a recipient of BLINDSIDE’s Regional Arts & Research Residency ...
Jamil Badi is a writer living on unceded Wurundjeri land with a particular interest in folktales, oral storytelling, and African myths. His work strives to emulate the style and performative aspects of these stories, whilst ...
Alex Creece is a writer, collage artist, and average kook living on Wadawurrung land. Alex works as the Online Editor for Archer Magazine and the Production Editor for Cordite Poetry Review. She's also on the ...
Cher Tan is an essayist and critic. Her work has appeared in the Sydney Review of Books, Hyperallergic, Catapult, The Age, Disclaimer Journal, Cordite Poetry Review and Overland, amongst many others. She is an editor at Liminal and ...
Ruby Todd is an Australian writer with a PhD in writing and literature. She is the recipient of the 2019 Ploughshares Emerging Writer's Contest award for Fiction and the inaugural 2020 Furphy Literary Award, among others ...
Diem is the Wheeler Centre’s Program Coordinator. She has worked at the Emerging Writers’ Festival, Writers Victoria, and the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) ...