Skip to content

Live-stream: Alice Bishop

When

Event Status

As Australia reels from the trauma of devastating, unprecedented bushfires, many of us have been left searching for the language to process the grief and trauma of what’s been lost – and what the future might look like.

In recent years, writers have tried to articulate some of the questions that remain in the wake of a disaster, and in the shadow of a broader climate crisis. Alice Bishop is among them: her 2019 short story collection, A Constant Hum, offers a series of crystalline and poetic vignettes of heartache, anger and survival after the 2009 Black Saturday fires.

A Constant Hum’s haunting stories are drawn from experience. Bishop grew up in Christmas Hills, and her family home was razed on Black Saturday. Her writing has been widely praised for its stunning detail, and its gripping and attentive language – and, sadly, its renewed immediacy. With our live-stream, join Alice Bishop for a conversation about regrowth, resilience, and its cost.

Presented in partnership with Montalto. This event was originally scheduled to take place at Montalto; it was held online-only owing to precautions about the coronavirus pandemic.

If you have a ticket for this event, you’ll have heard from us directly via email. Refunds have been issued. You can find more information about our response to the COVID-19 coronavirus here.

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 A Constant Hum, her much-anticipated debut, was commended by the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and shortlisted for the Penguin Random House Literary Prize.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 col... Read more

Elizabeth McCarthy

Elizabeth McCarthy is a Melbourne-based radio producer and presenter. Her book reviews can be heard on ABC Radio Melbourne. She was a judge for the 2021 Stella Prize, and was convenor of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction 2019. She interviews writers and artists at live events and ... Read more

Stay up to date with our upcoming events and special announcements by subscribing to The Wheeler Centre's mailing list.

Privacy Policy

The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.