The Next Big Thing
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In this edition of the Next Big Thing, glimpse works-in-progress from our first intake of 2019 Hot Desk Fellows – fresh from ten weeks of work on their projects inside the Wheeler Centre.
Featuring new writing from Vanessa Giron, Yvette Holt, Josefina Huq, Nimity James, Adalya Nash Hussein, Kaitlyn Plyley, Cher Tan and Thabani Tshuma.
Who?

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.

Vanessa Giron
Vanessa Giron is a Latinx writer and editor from Naarm/Melbourne. Her work explores identity, culture, and womanhood and has been published by Meanjin, Feminartsy and others. She is also a Small Screens Critic for the Big Issue, and has written reviews for Junkee, Kill Your Darlings and more. In 2018 Vanessa was an inaugural Featured Author for Djed Press and New Review Critic for Witness. Vanessa Giron is a proud member of West Writers Group with Footscray Community Arts Centre.

Yvette Holt
Brisbane born Yvette Henry Holt heralds from the Bidjara, Yiman and Wakaman Nations of Queensland. A multi-national award-winning poet, academic, editor, stand-up comedienne and photographer of Central Australian desert landscapes, Yvette has lived and worked in the greater region of the Australian Central Deserts for ten years.

Josefina Huq
Josefina Huq is a creative writer and PhD candidate based in Melbourne. She is into place phenomena, memory, and anything that might involve icky feelings. You can cry to her short stories in publications such as Homer, GORE Journal and Alien She Zine.

Nimity James
Nimity James studied writing at RMIT University. In 2016 she was awarded a Varuna Residential Fellowship and was a finalist in the 2017 Newcastle Writers Festival joanne burns Microlit Award for her prose poem 'Anniversary', published in the Spineless Wonders Time anthology. She lives in Melbourne.

Adalya Nash Hussein
Adalya Nash Hussein is a writer, editor and educator. Her work has appeared in Voiceworks, the Lifted Brow, the Suburban Review and Going Down Swinging. She has been shortlisted for the Scribe Nonfiction Prize and has been an Emerging Writers' Festival Melbourne Recital Centre Writer in Residence. She is the Online Editor of the Lifted Brow and a nonfiction editor for Voiceworks.

Kaitlyn Plyley
Kaitlyn Plyley is a writer, poet and comedian based in Melbourne's inner north. She comes to Melbourne via Cairns, Perth, and Brisbane. Kaitlyn has been featured everywhere from triple j to frankie magazine to ABC TV's Get Krack!n. Her writing has been published by the Lifted Brow, the Sydney Morning Herald, Junkee, VICE and Seizure, among others. Her podcast Just A Spoonful interviews young people living with disability and/or chronic illness. Kaitlyn is herself disabled and lives with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

Cher Tan
Cher Tan is an essayist, editor and critic. Her work has appeared in the Sydney Review of Books, The Saturday Paper, Overland, Runway Journal and elsewhere. She is the reviews editor at Meanjin, an editor at LIMINAL and a commissioning editor at the Feminist Writers Festival.

Thabani Tshuma
Thabani Tshuma is Zimbabwean born and raised, living abroad for the greater part of the last decade. His work is influenced by the myriad identity challenges of the diaspora, expatriates and immigrants, while also addressing awareness around addiction, mental health and generational trauma.
The Next Big Thing
The Next Big Thing takes place every month at the Moat and is a cherished Melbourne institution. It's the place to be if you want to hear great emerging writers read from new and adventurous work.
Enjoy a delicious drink and a bite to eat, while sampling writing from tomorrow's best and brightest literary stars.