Host Evelyn Araluen at the Wheeler Centre

First Nations writers are at the forefront of the most exciting writing being produced on this continent today, subverting creative forms and decolonising Australian literature.

In this event, four emerging First Nations writers from The Next Chapter writers’ scheme – Jasmin McGaughey, Racheal Oak Butler, Lorna Munro and Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi – discuss the creative process, writing for Blak and settler readerships, and how they respond to expectations of genre, character and identity, with host Evelyn Araluen.

Presented in partnership with the Emerging Writers’ Festival.

This event was originally scheduled to take place at the 2020 Sydney Writers' Festival.

Take Home Reading is a new short-form audio series for readers and writers – shining a spotlight on Australian writers with recently released books. In each instalment, you’ll be introduced to a writer, learn a little about what they’ve been reading lately, and hear a short reading from their latest work. Find it on the Wheeler Centre podcast.

In this episode we’re talking to Sean O’Beirne about his debut short story collection, A Couple of Things Before the End. 

A bitingly satirical collection, A Couple of Things Before the End employs a remarkable range of voices to explore suburban end times.  

'What happens if you give a very white, very male, very working class people sort of a whole country… you know, the idea of Australia as the working man’s paradise, or the lucky country, … [what are] the strangenesses and the distortions that can go along with that? … And if you can’t participate... you’ve gotta have a kind of argument to have with the country and what the hell you’re going to be able to do here.'

Sean was programmed to appear in our Next Big Thing: Australiana Edition, which was unfortunately cancelled as part of our preventative measures to stem the spread of coronavirus COVID-19.

A Couple of Things Before the End is out now through Back Inc.

With entries now open for the third year of The Next Chapter, the Wheeler Centre’s writers’ scheme, join three recipients and their mentors – Arthur Bolkas and Arnold Zable, Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi and Ellen van Neerven, and Jean Bachoura and Maria Tumarkin – to discuss the varied forms support for emerging writers can take, and the unique qualities of writing mentorships. Hosted by Veronica Sullivan.

Veronica Sullivan, Maria Tumarkin and Jean Bachoura

Presented annually, The Next Chapter gives ten outstanding emerging writers the time and space to write, and a 12-month mentorship with an experienced writer. Through these mentorships, tomorrow’s great voices are steered and supported by today’s literary icons.

Presented in partnership with the Emerging Writers’ Festival.

 

Take Home Reading is a new short-form audio series for readers and writers – shining a spotlight on Australian writers with recently released books. In each instalment, you’ll be introduced to a writer, learn a little about what they’ve been reading lately, and hear a short reading from their latest work. Find it on the Wheeler Centre podcast.

For the first batch of episodes, we’ve partnered with our friends at the Emerging Writers’ Festival to spotlight four brilliant new voices from around Australia writing across fiction, memoir and poetry. 

In this episode we’re talking to Prithvi Varatharajan about his debut collection, Entries. Entries playfully explores form, using a combination of poetry and prose to consider memory and experience. 

'The writing … arose from states of joy, anguish, ambivalence and contemplation. The poems come from a period of ten years, while other poetic, essayistic and diaristic pieces were produced with intensity over a shorter duration.'

Entries is out now through Cordite Books.

Take Home Reading is a new short-form audio series for readers and writers – shining a spotlight on Australian writers with recently released books. In each instalment, you’ll be introduced to a writer, learn a little about what they’ve been reading lately, and hear a short reading from their latest work. 

For the first batch of episodes, we’ve partnered with our friends at the Emerging Writers’ Festival to spotlight four brilliant new voices from around Australia writing across fiction, memoir and poetry. 

In this episode we’re talking to Monica Tan about her memoir, Stranger Country.

'Will I ever really belong to this country? As a Chinese Australian? As a non-Indigenous Australian...? I was 32 years old and barely knew the country of my birth. It was time to change that.'

Stranger Country is a compelling account of Monica's six-month solo trip to some of Australia's most beautiful and remote landscapes. A thoughtful and provocative reflection on cultural and national identity, Stranger Country grapples with what it means to call Australia home as a non-Indigenous person.

Stranger Country is out now through Allen & Unwin.