Cirrus@Austlit

'Are we a nation of racists? Thirty-nine writers confront our darkest truths in this fearless collection of short stories, poems and essays from the margins of Australia.

'Featuring Tyree Barnette, Meyrnah Khodr, Adam Phillip Anderson, Guido Melo, Janette Chen, Riley Ingersole, Sydnye Allen, Chris Tupouniua, Rizcel Gagawanan, Amani Haydar, Christine Shamista, Krisneth Paddy, Ting Huang, Heikmah Napadow, Mark Mariano, Daniel Nour, Monikka Eliah, Shirley Le, Kabien Parker, Ayoub Jama, Ferdous Bahar, Ayusha Nand, Pamela Asare, Natalia Figueroa Barroso, Sara Saleh,  Nellie Tapu Nonumalo Mu, Cassandra Taylor, Noor Abuzamaq,  Dezheen Shivan, Fiti Fainifo, Elisha Toese, Mahran Asghari, Lara Ahmed, Sopanha Chea, Yash Bab, Zoyal Dahal, Cleveland Brown, Max Edwards & Sarah Ayoub. Edited by Winnie Dunn, Stephen Pham & Phoebe Grainer.'(Publication summary)

'On the day that Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in 2016, four hood-rats clash in a string of violence, substance abuse and sexual encounters. This is a vivid and compelling portrait of life growing up in Western Sydney. 

'Experienced as a multi-screen installation Sex, Drugs & Pork Rolls is an oral storytelling experience from the heartland of multicultural Australia. The four-part monologue weaves together a portrait of young people of colour (POC) growing up in the Western suburbs of Sydney. Presented across four screens, live audiences will experience the work from the comfort of a socially-distanced chair while enjoying a complimentary Bánh mì. 

'Sex, Drugs & Pork Rolls has been created by a team of extraordinary artists and technicians, all of whom are from a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse background, infusing the work with depth and authenticity. The work resonates with an astute sense of place, connection and shared experiences of those traversing the tensions and challenges of mixed cultural mores and behaviours with empathy, humour and uncompromising clarity of truth. 

'Written by Winnie Dunn, Stephen Pham, Shirley Le and Omar Sakr, with script editing and dramaturgical support from acclaimed author Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Sex, Drugs & Pork Rolls has been crafted for the screen by Helpmann Award winner S.Shakthidharan and performers Hazem Shammas, Emily Havea, Aileen Huynh and Henry Vo.' (Production summary)

'Vietnamatta is a collection of autobiographical fiction, nonfiction and criticism that explores life in and around post-gangland Cabramatta, a suburb in Western Sydney. It includes pieces on Flannery O’Connor, hardstyle, The Fast and the Furious , Carly Rae Jepsen, and bitter melon, each and all of which interrogate how aesthetic taste, trauma, love, desire, and culture are shaped by broader questions of class, race, masculinities, and geography.'

Source: Publisher's catalogue.

'Recently, Wilson, a Chinese-Australian writer, asked to hang out with me. He wanted to collaborate on a work that explored class, race and toxic masculinity in Western Sydney. We agreed to meet at Volcano's Steakhouse in Parramatta. I'd seen him around online and, because he was Asian, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. When I met him in person, he was wearing Nike TNs and an Off White-brand bum bag slung over his shoulder. His outfit was riffing on lads, a Western Sydney subculture made up of young men from low socio-economic backgrounds. Lads draw inspiration from Black American hip-hop, British chav and Dutch gabber cultures, with interests in rap, hardstyle, graffiti and sneakers. An Australian sense of irony ties these together - in the early days, they dressed in Nautica polos tucked into tracksuit pants, bent-brim dad hats balanced precariously on the crowns of their heads. Lad-speak includes words like 'shank' (stabbing) and 'eshays' (Pig Latin for a pot-smoking 'sesh'), and thus lads as a subculture are associated with criminality.' (Publication abstract)

'Shirley Le is a second generation Vietnamese-Australian writer who is part of the Sweatshop Writers Collective.

'Her short stories and essays have been published in Meanjin, The Lifted Brow, The Griffith Review and SBS Online. She is one of the recipients of the 2017 WestWords Emerging Writers Fellowships.

'Shirley Le talked to Stephen Pham about astrology, day jobs, and the struggles of writing literary fiction while eating.'

Source: Abstract.