‘In fairytales, the characters who look different are often cast as the villain or monsters. It's only when they shed their unconventional skin that they are seen as "good" or less frightening.’

Carly Findlay looks different. She’s an award-winning writer, appearance activist and speaker who lives with ichthyosis – a rare, severe skin condition. Say Hello is her new memoir, filled with anecdotes and observations on her life to date, and on ableism, representation and beauty privilege. Of its name, she explains it’s ‘what I want people to do, instead of ignoring me, looking shocked or scared, or making a rude comment about my face’.

Findlay’s book serves as a confident manifesto on disability and appearance diversity. Also recently announced as the editor of a forthcoming collection, Growing Up Disabled in Australia, she joins us at Montalto for a chat about disability-led literature, difference and telling your story on your own terms.

Presented in partnership with Montalto.

Mary Norris

Copy editor and grammar nerd Mary Norris has seen the fabled linguistic traditions of the New Yorker up close – she has worked at the magazine for 40 years, most famously as query proofreader and Comma Queen. That experience forms the backbone of her first book, Between You & Me. ‘I hope writers will see that we are not the enemy,’ she has said of her profession. ‘We love the language.’

In her latest book, Greek to Me, Norris shares her love of all things Greek. Of course, it’s about language – how the Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet, and the surprising ways Greek informs English – but it also documents Norris’s encounters with Greek gods, wine, men, and olive groves. Myths are reinterpreted; landmarks are sought out; beautiful coincidences of word and symbol are excavated.

Mary Norris returned to Melbourne for a chat about her travels through Greek language, culture and art (and, of course, so much more) with Penny Modra.

Penny Modra and Mary Norris

In this special short episode, we hear a reading of a story that first appeared in the 'Trick' edition of our online publication, Notes. In 'The Gospel According to Angelina', Angelina Hurley testifies to fizzling miracles and the knack of holding firm and fast to family.

Illustration: Jon Tjhia

Angelina Hurley is an Aboriginal woman from Brisbane, Australia. Her heritage is of Jagera, Gooreng Gooreng, Mununjali, Birriah and Kamilaroi descent. 

She is the daughter of renowned Aboriginal visual artist Ron Hurley. For more than 20 years, Hurley has worked in Indigenous arts, education and community cultural development. In 2011, Angelina was awarded the Australian-American Fulbright Commission's Indigenous Scholarship and she is now working on a doctoral study entitled Pointing the Funny Bone: Blak Comedy and Aboriginal Cultural Perspectives on Humour. Angelina is also co-host of the popular radio show Wild Black Women with Dr Chelsea Bond on Brisbane's 98.9 FM Let's Talk programme. 

In Notes: Trick edition 20 Dec 2018 Note The Gospel According to Angelina  /  Biography & memoir

Guest post by Angelina Hurley

20 Dec 2018 Note Life After Death  /  Animals & nature

Guest post by Ivy Shih

20 Dec 2018 Note The Doubles  /  Biography & memoir

Guest post by Chris Somerville

20 Dec 2018 Note Unsolicited Advice: The Strange Allure of Life Hack Videos  /  Digital culture

Guest post by Isabella Trimboli

20 Dec 2018 Note The Theatre Technician: ‘magicians fool others by fooling themselves’  /  Performing arts & pop culture

By Sophie Quick