writer & thinker
In case you missed it, my poem ‘Still life’ appears in Best of Australian Poems 2021, the Australian Poetry anthology edited by Ellen van Neerven and Toby Fitch. Ask for it at your local bookstore or library or order it online.
Maddee Clark and I are in Overland today writing about whiteness, Masterchef and the demise of the ethnic aisle at Footscray Coles.
A couple of months ago, curator Sophia Cai asked me to pen some fanfiction for Sincerely Yours, an exhibition in collaboration with West Space x Arts Project Australia that explores fannish love and devotion.
So of course, : ‘One night snatch, or Brother Wang’s guide to eating out in Tashkent’. I think it’s one of the best and certainly the most embarrassing thing I wrote in the last six months.
If you’re in Melbourne, the exhibition is on until 6 March 2022 and you can also explore the other online pieces on West Space Offsite.
URST = unresolved sexual tension
RPF = real person fic
AU = alt universe
Here are some other local history and place-inspired art projects to check out.
Sun 27 Mar, 2 – 3:30pm
Artist Roberta Joy Rich’s exhibition The Purple Shall Govern explores the resilience of people during Apartheid-era South Africa, alongside those living on the unceded sovereign lands of Australia. As part of the exhibition program, you can join the artist and Elders Uncle Larry Walsh and N’arweet Dr Carolyn Briggs AM as they guide you through the rich landscape of Kulin Country along the Maribyrnong river banks. More info and bookings here.
Thu 20 Jan, Wed 16 Feb and Fri 4 Mar 2022
Artist Hoang Tran Nguyen presents these participatory karaoke performances as part of his ongoing series, Labour. With a list of songs that are themed and or titled in relation to work, working and workers, the repertoire spans trade union songs to pop music, and includes tracks in both English and Vietnamese. The sites are also all connected to histories of labour – the ANA Building, University Square, and the Westgate Bridge. Register here.
Check out Hoang’s past work too, or you can read about it in Liminal or in this incredible essay by Scott Brook for Meanjin, ‘Footscray, for example‘ – I think Underfoot listeners will really appreciate it!
Wander the Wood is a self-guided walking tour through the flats of one of Melbourne’s most well worn neighbourhoods, starting from the iconic Smith and Stanley Street corner in Collingwood. As you walk the grounds of the public housing estate, listen to stories of the area’s creative history and hear about its residents’ talents and journeys. Created by Izzy Brown, Joshua Tavares, Mini Miller and Viv Malo with producer Annaliese Redlich, as part of Rising festival.
Created by Bec Fary on Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung lands in Footscray, this durational listening experience is algorithmic and shifts through the night, and day to day. You’re invited to come and go as you please, whether you choose to forefront these listenings or use them as background soundtracks.
A blog and now book by Nick Gadd based on a series of walks he and his late wife Lynne took around Melbourne’s suburbs, forming a circle around the city. Gadd says, ‘The walks are an experiment in psychogeography – which I define as an attempt to understand a place by experiencing it at close range, and seeking to make a connection with the lives and the stories embedded in the place.’
Please add your suggestions in the comments! I know I had a couple of other things bookmarked that I can’t find anymore.
The Canadian series Sort Of is a wry, thoughtful take on family and gendered labour with one of the best nonbinary characters I’ve seen on TV. My review here.
A workshop for members of marginalised, underrepresented and misrepresented groups on how to assess and respond to media requests. Presented by freelance reporter Jinghua Qian with support from the Foundation for Young Australians.
Sat 12 Feb 2022
2pm to 3:30pm
online via Zoom
free – register here – add to cal
People from marginalised backgrounds often have good reason to distrust the media. At the same time, it can be a valuable way of getting your voice heard. So I wanted to offer a workshop on how to talk to journalists without feeling like you’re losing control of your own story.
Continue reading “Workshop: How to talk to journalists”I don’t see a divide between literary and genre. Writing spec fic and horror connects me to a sense of who I am, my roots and psyche where the world of the real and the world of the unreal isn’t so binary.
Lian Low
Lian Low is a writer and a former editor-in-chief of Peril. I interviewed her for Liminal, mining her insights on the queer, the monstrous, and the last thirty years of Asian Australian arts and culture.
It’s baby’s first crossword! A collaboration with the marvellous Erik Agard and you can play on dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster, or in any of the many newspapers that publish the Universal Daily Crossword. Just look for 27 December 2021 or ‘Q&A’ (that’s the theme). Huge thanks to Erik for inducting me into the delightful sorcery of crossword construction.
I have a piece in Liminal’s second anthology and it’s my very first collage, a sort of annotated time capsule from Chinatown, Melbourne in the 1880s, 1930s and 1980s. Pre-order here to get 200+ pages of Asian Australian excellence including art, poems, essays, fiction, comics, conversations & more.
For ABC, I wrote about how you can’t separate LGBTIQ issues in China from politics, and why international support is a double-edged sword.
The article is a follow-up to my TV story for China Tonight (video below). You can also watch the full 30-min episode on iview, which includes my chat with Stan Grant about the issue, as well as other stories from the China Tonight team.
Jinghua Qian 