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Parliament: Melbourne, 2008

When

Event Status

It’s 2008. We’re about to become a City of Literature … but what does a literary city have to do and be? And what would a parliament of the City of Literature look like? Step back in time – and into the hypothetical chamber – as we hammer out a shape for our literary city.

The Speaker of the House will formally open the first parliamentary session, call us to order and introduce the press gallery. Then, our elected representatives from across the literary world – including writers, librarians, publishers and booksellers – will be sworn in on a book of their choosing, before delivering maiden speeches outlining their visions for constituent readers and writers in Melbourne.

Presented in partnership with the Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature Office.

Featuring

Alison Croggon

Alison Croggon is an award-winning novelist, poet, theatre writer, critic and editor who lives in Melbourne, Australia. She works in many genres and her books and poems have been published to acclaim nationally and internationally. She is arts editor for The Saturday Paper and co-founder of the per... Read more

Beth Driscoll

Beth Driscoll is a Lecturer in Publishing and Communications at the University of Melbourne, and is part of a team that recently received a Romance Writers of America academic grant to study the genre world of romance in twenty-first century Australia.  Beth has written about her experienc... Read more

Lili Wilkinson

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of eighteen books for young people, including The Erasure Initiative and After the Lights Go Out. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it, establishing the Inky Awards at the Cen... Read more

Lachlann Carter

Lachlann Carter is co-founder of 100 Story Building, a centre for young writers in Footscray that has 99 floors below ground accessible via a secret trapdoor. Before he started working in Melbourne’s deepest building, he worked on Melbourne’s tallest ship, the Polly Woodside, as a not-very-smart... Read more

Christine Gordon

Christine Gordon is the Programming Manager of Melbourne’s pre-eminent independent bookshop, Readings, and has been in that role for over a decade. She considers this the best job in Australia. Christine was one of the founding members of the Stella Prize, sits on the Readings Foundation board and... Read more

Marian Blythe

Marian Blythe is director of Australia’s premier independent comic art festival, Homecooked, and is publicity manager at Black Inc. books. She wrote, produced, and performed in the sellout storytelling show Lose the Plot at Melbourne Fringe Festival, and has hosted numerous radio and podcast... Read more

Shalini Kunahlan

Shalini Kunahlan is Marketing Manager at Melbourne-based independent Text Publishing. She has worked in publishing for over a decade – her interests include digital marketing and bettering diversity outcomes within publishing. She is the inaugural winner of the ABIA Rising Star Award. ... Read more

Sam Cooney

Sam Cooney runs the literary organisation TLB, which houses the independent book publishing press Brow Books and quarterly literary magazine The Lifted Brow, as well as running a website, writing prizes, events, and more. He is publisher-in-residence at RMIT, teaches sessionally at several universit... Read more

Jax Jacki Brown

Jax Brown (they/them) is an esteemed disability and LGBTQIA+ rights activist, writer, educator and consultant. Their tireless commitment to LGBTIQA+ disability human rights and advocacy has been recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM). Jax utilises their experience as a queer, trans... Read more

Sista Zai Zanda

Sista Zai Zanda (Sista Zai/Achihera) is an Afrofuturistic Storyteller. Sista Zai was born in Harare, Zimbabwe and raised in a large extended family. Achihera is Karanga and now lives as a Black African settler on Kulin Nations. Amongst career highlights, Achihera is a 2019 recipient of the Neilma Si... Read more

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 for adults and children. Her forthcoming poetry collection is It’s The S... Read more

Elizabeth Flux

Elizabeth Flux is an award-winning writer and editor whose fiction and nonfiction work has been widely published. She is a judge for the 2019 Award for and Unpublished Manuscript for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and is an editor for Melbourne City of Literature’s ‘Reading Victoriaâ€... Read more

Claire G. Coleman

Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family have belonged to the south coast of Western Australia since long before history started being recorded. Claire writes fiction, essays, poetry and art writing while either living in Naarm (Melbourne) or on the road. During an extended circuit of the c... Read more

Justine Hyde

Justine Hyde is a writer, critic and librarian who lives in Melbourne. Her criticism, essays and short fiction are published in the Age/Sydney Morning Herald, the Saturday Paper, Meanjin, LitHub, Electric Literature, Kill Your Darlings and a range of anthologies. ... Read more

Candy Bowers

Candy Bowers is an award-winning writer, actor, social-activist, comedian and producer. The co-artistic director of Black Honey Company, Candy has pioneered a fierce sub-genre of hip hop theatre that delves into the heart of radical feminist dreaming.   Born of multi-racial South African parents an... Read more

Emilie Collyer

Emilie Collyer writes plays, prose and poetry. Her writing has appeared in Cordite, Overland, the Lifted Brow, Kill Your Darlings and Aurealis, among others. Recent award winning and nominated plays include: Contest, Dream Home, The Good Girl (New York, Hollywood and Florida) and Once Were Pirates (... Read more

Kirsty Murray

Kirsty Murray is a multi-award winning author of 25 books for children and young adults. Her works include eleven novels as well as picture books, non-fiction and junior fiction titles. Kirsty’s books are widely studied in schools and universities and are published internationally. Every year, sh... Read more

Eleanor Jackson

Eleanor Jackson is a Filipino Australian poet, performer, arts producer and sometimes community radio broadcaster. She is the author of Gravidity and Parity, winner of Small Press Network’s Book of the Year (2022), and A Leaving, both by Vagabond Press. Her live album, One Night Wonders, is produc... Read more

Alia Gabres

Alia Gabres is a Melbourne based creative producer, cultural broker and storyteller. She has worked with diverse and creative communities in Melbourne in various roles such as Lead Creative Producer for Industry and Creative Initiatives at the Footscray Community Arts Centre, and Lead Youth Arts and... Read more

Location

The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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