Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 17 November
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Location
wheelercentre.com
The State of the (Writing) Nation is an annual address from a prominent Australian writer. It's a chance to reflect on what's happening, and where we're heading, in Australian literature and publishing.
This year, Maria Tumarkin will give the address. Tumarkin is the author of four books, including the multi-award-winning creative non-fiction work, Axiomatic, and is a recipient of the prestigious 2020 Windham Campbell Prize.
In her address, Tumarkin will propose ditching two widely used arguments for literature as a public good deserving of support: literature’s necessary for the health of the nation (1); and literature heightens empathy (2a) and makes us better people (2b). Why ditch these arguments? Because, Tumarkin will argue, they are dead ends. She will outline less anodyne, more urgent ways of speaking up for writers and readers in 2020.
Jean Bachoura, who was mentored by Tumarkin through the 2018 Next Chapter scheme, will also deliver a short reading. Writers Victoria patron Christos Tsiolkas will host the event.
Presented in partnership with Writers Victoria, with all proceeds from this event supporting the Disadvantaged Writers Fund.
Our bookseller for this event will be Sun Bookshop.
Click for PDF transcripts of Jean Bachoura's segment and Maria Tumarkin's speech.
Featuring
Maria Tumarkin
Maria Tumarkin writes books, essays, reviews, and pieces for performance and radio; she collaborates with sound and visual artists and has had her work carved into dockside tiles. She is the author of four books of ideas. Her fourth ...
Christos Tsiolkas
Christos Tsiolkas is the author of eight novels – Loaded, The Jesus Man, Dead Europe, The Slap, Barracuda, Damascus, 7 ½, The In-Between - and the short story collection, Merciless Gods. Many of his works have been ...
Jean Bachoura
Jean Bachoura is an inaugural recipient of the Wheeler Centre’s scheme for writers, The Next Chapter. His work is reflective of a life lived between cultures: born in Damascus, raised in Syria, Lebanon and Australia. In 2016 he was awarded the Deborah Cass Prize for his piece 'Night Falls'. In 2017 he wrote 'No Man’s Land', an account of his journey crossing the border into Syria. In 2019, his multi-platform project TRETINOIN was awarded The Lifted Brow & RMIT non/fictionLab Prize for Experimental Non-fiction.