I'm participating in a panel about translation at the Footscray Community Arts Centre's West Writers Forum: Our Stories this Saturday, July 30 from 1 - 2 pm. The panel is called 'Lost or Found in Translation?' and we'll be talking, among other things, about whether translation can create the kind of fluid cultural exchange and understanding that the progressive side of society seeks, or whether any such ease is necessarily illusory. 

My awesome co-panelists, all writers and translators who live across languages, are Sanaz Fotouhi,  Lily Yulianti Farid, and Josiane Behmoiras. Mridula Nath Chakraborty, the Deputy Director of the Monash Asia Institute at Monash University, will be hosting. 

There are plenty of fantastic panels as well. I'm particularly looking forward to the one immediately before mine, '#DangerAsians' hosted by Hoa Pham(whose book, The Other Shore is brilliant), and 'What is Australian Writing III?', hosted by Khalid Warsame, but there's lots else, from dance to art installations to spoken word events and workshops about aspects of art production. It's going to be intense!