writer & thinker
If you missed the Industry Insight panel at Emerging Writers Festival yesterday with me, Vivienne Pearson and Jeanette Severs, you can watch it here:
And below are some resources we shared during the session.
Continue reading “Industry Insight | EWF”I’m doing a couple of events at Emerging Writers’ Festival:
Dream House
Saturday 19 June 2021, 7 pm to 8 pm
Footscray Community Arts Centre
$15/$20 – book here
Where are the houses, rooms or places you return to in your memory or imagination? Which spaces have stuck inside of you long after you’ve vacated? These Western suburbs artists paint rooms with words, telling us about the places, homes and lives they’ve inhabited and how those spaces have shaped them, in an evening of works that ponder place and interrogate transfiguration. Hosted by Irihipeti Waretini (full list of performers at the link.)
Industry Insight
Monday 21 June, 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm
presented via YouTube in partnership with MEAA
free – join/view here
With writing being such a solitary practice, entering into the world of words can be confusing and isolating. So, what are your rights as a writer? How much can you expect to make from your words and how do you go about advocating for yourself as a freelancer? Our panelists (Jinghua Qian and Vivienne Pearson) discuss their experiences and what they have learned along the way.
The whole program is pretty rad so go check it out. A lot of the events are free and online too which is great to see. And I’m thrilled that quite a few people I’ve mentored over the last year as part of The Drop-In are featured!
I don’t know if anyone is ready for this, least of all me, but next Friday I’m making my fanfiction debut at Footscray Community Arts Centre as part of the Smut: Queer Erotic Fan Fiction Salon curated by Sissy Screens.
Here’s a sneak peek of my piece – can you guess who the primary pairing is? (Clue: It’s a crossover fic.)
The event is part of Midsumma Festival and it also features Vidya Rajan, Nkechi Anele, Tali Polichtuk, Zoey Dawson, Alistair Baldwin, Ruby Slippers, Wilk Crate and Zoe Terakes. Auslan interpreted. It’s gunna be hot and nerdy!
I’m going to be reading some smut tomorrow night along with Mia Walsch, Ella Baxter and Liz Hicklin for our belated Valentine’s Day date. Tickets are sold out but if you’re lucky enough to have nabbed one, come join us down at the local for cocktails and dirty words.
Sun 14 March 2021
5 pm to 7 pm
Trouble in Dreams
297 Barkly Street, Footscray, VIC 3011
booking required
Liz and I are running a short course at Maribyrnong Community Centre! Best of all, it’s free for participants.
Over four fortnightly workshops, develop research and storytelling skills with community historians Liz Crash and Jinghua Qian (co-creators of Underfoot, a multimedia project uncovering Footscray’s history). Participants will learn how to write, produce and share their own stories, and contribute to a visual presentation displayed at the centre. This hands-on workshop series is open to participants of all ages and skill levels. Please note: participants will need to attend all four sessions.
Thu 18 Mar, 1 Apr, 15 Apr, 29 Apr 2021
2 pm to 4 pm
Maribyrnong Community Centre
9 Randall St, Maribyrnong, Victoria 3032
free | booking required
There’s a book launch for Silent Dialogue 沉默的对话 tomorrow night in Collingwood if you’d like to join us in a celebration and meet some of the folks involved in the project. The book is an illustrated multilingual publication that accompanies the Silent Dialogue exhibition with images of original artworks and specially commissioned pieces of original writing by leading scholars and writers from across the country. I’ll be reading from my essay in the book, ‘We need new names’, which looks at the politics of changing your name.
Fri 5 Feb 2021
6:15 pm to 7:30 pm
Art Echo Gallery, Collingwood
free | booking required
You can also order the Silent Dialogue book here.
Apologies for the super late notice but I’m doing a gig tonight! It’s part of Amplify, a series of live music and literary performances by local artists from the Western suburbs. Tonight is Tariro Mavondo, Gabriela Georges, Ruby-Rose Pivet-Marsh and me.
Mon 1 Feb 2021
doors at 6 pm, performances 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm
live in-person at Bluestone Church Arts Space, Footscray, or livestream online
tickets from $5 + booking fee | book here | more info here
The 2020 Wollongong Writers Festival is all about the body, and every session will be delivered online so you can attend wherever your body is. I’ll be on the ‘Beyond monogamy: love outside the mainstream‘ panel alongside Lee Kofman (Split, Imperfect) and Paul Dalgarno (Poly). Full festival program here – lots of great stuff on pleasure, pain, visibility and mortality so go check it out.
Sat 28 Nov 2020
11am to noon AEST
live online event
$10 + booking fee | book here
In November I’ll be presenting a workshop on editing criticism at the Editing Micro-Festival. The online festival runs 13 to 15 November with a fab line-up of presenters: Elena Gomez, Khalid Warsame, Hella Ibrahim, Cher Tan, Alison Evans, Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, Mel Campbell, and Matilda Dixon-Smith (who’s also the festival organiser). Check out the full program here and please come along if you have even a passing interest in critical writing, it’s fine if you can’t pay anything.
Sat 14 Nov 2020
12 noon AEST
live online event
book here (pay what you feel – 50% of profits go to Pay the Rent)
On Thursday, I’ll be chatting about online and offline communities with Pauline Vetuna and Huna Amweero in a live event hosted by Areej Nur. It’s part of BLEED, a new festival from Arts House and Campbelltown Arts Centre. The talk is via Zoom so you can attend from anywhere in the world but you need to register.
The Virtual Co-presence of the Internet
Thu 2 July 2020
12 noon – 1 pm
live online event – free – booking required
Take a look at the rest of the BLEED program too – there’s a lot of interesting stuff happening. I’m one of the artists in residence for Assembly of the Future there too which I’m pretty pumped for.
Jinghua Qian 