Cirrus@Austlit

In partnership with the State Library of Victoria, The Garret hosted a series of live events with leading Australian writers in 2018. In our final event, Clementine Ford, Hannah Kent and Alice Pung discussed the status of women writers and the challenges they face.

Clementine Ford is a writer, broadcaster and feminist thinker and speaker. She has been writing freelance for more than a decade, and has published two bestselling non-fiction works: Fight Like A Girl (2017) and Boys Will Be Boys (2018).

Hannah Kent made waves in Australia's literary scene in 2013 with her first novel, Burial Rites. It won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier's People's Choice Award, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her second novel, The Good People (2016), received similar acclaim. Hannah is also the co-founder of the literary journal Kill Your Darlings.

Alice Pung is a writer, editor, teacher and lawyer. She has won numerous awards for her memoirs, and her writing has appeared in The Monthly, The Age, Meanjin, Best Australian Stories and Best Australian Essays. Her long-form works include: Unpolished Gem (2007), Her Father's Daughter (2011) and Laurinda (2014). Alice also edited Growing Up Asian in Australia (2008).

'Love writing? Looking to improve your writing? Or do you just love listening to writers talk about their craft? If yes, The Garret is for you. The Garret interviews the best Australian writers writing today about their writing craft. These writers represent many genres, but the common thread is their success: they are the top of their fields. The interviews explore how the best of the best draft, edit, pitch and publish their writing. Every episode is published with a complete transcript to increase educational value and access. The Garret is a labour of love on behalf of all emerging writers. The Garret is supported by grants and the time of Astrid Edwards. It does not operate for revenue or profit.'

Source: The Garret.

'What makes Melbourne unique? And where does it get its x-factor? Journalist Jenny Sinclair goes in search of the answers and discovers that it's actually all in our head - or, more precisely, our collective imagination.

'When We Think about Melbourne is a wry and whimsical survey of our city's creativity. It observes with a keen and appreciative eye the changing physical, social and cultural landscape of Melbourne through its literature, music, art, maps, travel and transport.' (From the publisher's website.)

Throughout the nineteenth century, British women as diverse as Louisa Meredith, Marianne North and Beatrice Webb travelled to the Australian colonies and wrote about the emerging white civilization they found there. Some were visitors, others settlers, but all were fascinated by the possibilities of this 'new world'. Here, Australia is seen through the eyes of such women writers. It is a land of strange and un-English flora and fauna and of wondrously growing cities; a place where European cultural institutions were beginning to flourish - and where Indigenous culture was becoming invisible. (Publisher's blurb)

This site includes an interview with Ivan Southall (available in text, audio and video formats), biographical information, an extensive bibliography of the author's works and images relating to Southall's works and life. It was developed to accompany an exhibition, curated by Sandra Ferguson, and compiled from the Ken Pound Collection and the Children's Literature Research Collection of the State Library of Victoria and displayed in the Queen's Hall of the State Library of Victoria 6 April to 3 July, 1998.