Cirrus@Austlit

'Every story deserves a good ending. What’s yours?

'When the acclaimed author Cory Taylor was diagnosed with a terminal illness, what followed was an astonishing creative surge that resulted in a memoir Barack Obama named as one of his favourite books of 2017.

'Taylor’s wry insights into the rituals, language and taboos surrounding mortality can be witty, provocative or eye-opening – sometimes in the same breath. With honesty and unsentimental clarity she confronts the swamp of anxiety and despair that traditionally surrounds death and opens the door to the bright clear-eyed vision it ultimately grants us. Learning to face death is, in the end, learning to live fully.'

Source: Melbourne Theatre Company.

'1857, the charismatic headman of the Chinese mining camp struggles to maintain the fragile harmony between Chinese and European diggers when a murdered European woman is discovered to have links to the Chinese community.' (Production summary)

'From Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP), creators of the Sydney Festival 2014 smash hit The Serpent’s Table, comes a second helping of spicy and sumptuous storytelling.

'In a stimulating experience for the senses, stellar storyteller-cooks Benjamin Law, Elizabeth Chong, Valerie Berry, Raghav Handa and Heather Jeong reveal their stories and the secrets of their dishes.

'Listen as they tell intimate, affecting tales while slicing, stirring and serving personally and culturally significant cuisine.' (Production summary)

'Teresa’s mum finds it impossible to let anything go – from grudges to household objects. She thinks of her home as a museum full of irreplaceable treasures. But she’s not really a curator – she’s a hoarder – and her house is enough to give Marie Kondo heart palpitations. When her kids return home to celebrate her 60th birthday, she’s over the moon to have the family back together. But this isn’t a reunion. It’s an intervention.'

Source: Melbourne Theatre Company.

(Introduction)

'I marked the day in my adolescent diary with a single blank page.
The mantle of “queer migrant” compelled me to keep going – to go further.
I never “came out” to my parents. I felt I owed them no explanation.
All I heard from the pulpit were grim hints.
I became acutely aware of the parts of myself that were unpalatable to queers who grew up in the city.
I was thirty-eight and figured it was time to come out to her.
That’s when I know it’s not going anywhere – the gay.
I felt like I had been dunked into an episode of The L Word and I wasn’t given the script.
No amount of YouTube videos and queer think pieces prepared me for this moment.
My queerness was born in a hot dry land that was never ceded.
I finally admitted what my feelings for Dirty Dancing–era Patrick Swayze had clearly been indicating for some time.
Even now, I sometimes think that I don’t know my own desire.

'Compiled by celebrated author and journalist Benjamin Law, Growing Up Queer in Australia assembles voices from across the spectrum of LGBTIQA+ identity. Spanning diverse places, eras, genders, ethnicities and experiences, these are the stories of growing up queer in Australia.

'For better or worse, sooner or later, life conspires to reveal you to yourself, and this is growing up.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.