writer & thinker
My first gig of the year is this, I’ll be reading a couple of silly sexy poems (including a Banjo Patterson parody).
Wicked Words x Archer Magazine
Thursday 23 January 2025
7:00 pm to 10:00pm
Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre
189 High Street, Northcote VIC 3070
Tickets $25-$40 | Booking and access info here
I recently met two artists who are currently showing at Arts House as part of Bleed 2024 and I was so chuffed to be commissioned for written responses because both their works are so relevant to my interests and predilections. I was particularly struck by how both works foreground desire and intentionality so I chose to write my responses in the style of Lex posts or personal ads, because I’m a bit obsessed with that form at the moment.
Ciwas Tahos/Anchi Lin 林安琪 is an Indigenous Taiwanese artist whose installation and durational performance work Finding Pathways to Temahahoi connects Atayal oral history with contemporary queer community. It’s very sensual and expansive. You can read my response, ISO Temahahoi, and watch our filmed artist talk here.
Jarra Karalinar Steel is a local Koori artist whose work anyone in Naarm would have seen on the Melbourne Art Tram. Her installation for Bleed 2024, love.exe, draws from video games and fandom to explore romantic love and social surrogacy in digital realms. Our artist talk is here along with my written response, </love>.
I am a bit bummed I only just met Jarra and Anchi now and not, say, on Livejournal in 2002, because I feel like we could’ve been great friends as teenagers.
Anyway if you’re in Melbourne, the installations are open until September 28 and there is also more digital work at the links above.
I’m so excited for this one! A multigenerational line-up of storytellers surrounded by projected images of unapologetic dykes from the archives of Wicked Women (1988–96), an erotic zine published by Lisa Salmon and Jasper Laybutt. I’ll be reading my dirty Lex posts/poems, drinking up the queer gaze. Horny on main, we love it.
Wicked Words is a storytelling event that celebrates dyke and queer and trans sexuality. Gird your loins and prepare yourself to be swept off your feet. The lineup of storytellers includes Maude Davey, Jinghua Qian, Annaki Kisses, Tomoko Yamasaki, Gavril Aleksandrs, Bumpy Favell, and Lisa Salmon with videopoems by ReVerse Butcher.
Wicked Words
Saturday 29 June 2024
7 pm to 10 pm
Victorian Pride Centre
79-81 Fitzroy Street
St Kilda VIC 3182
Tickets here
Solicited advice for trans & gender diverse folks starting out in the creative industries.
All through May 2022, I’m running five online workshops for trans/nonbinary/gender diverse folks on starting out in the creative industries, featuring an all-star line up:
They’re all free, you can join from anywhere in the world, and you can come to as few or as many as you like. More info at the booking links above. Can’t wait!
Dinner Party Press’s annual vaguely-Valentine’s Day feminist erotica salon is back, and I’m in the line-up again, this time with Tuesday Atzinger, Kat Capel and Joan Fleming.
Saturday 5 March 2022
7 pm to 10 pm
Willows & Wine
315 Victoria St, West Melbourne VIC 3003
Tickets from $22.20 | book here
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
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
Jinghua Qian 