West Writers Forum this Saturday

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!

Update: Hot Desking at the Wheeler Centre

I am a fiction!

This year I wrote a novel. I shouldn't really put that in the past tense because what I have at the moment is a first draft that I spent about five months putting together in between tutoring, lecturing, teaching and generally functioning as an adult. I wrote it at home, at friends' houses, on trams, at work, in the tutors' room, in cafes - pretty much anywhere I had my computer and at least 15 minutes to spare. I'm glad I can work like that and I did get it all done, but I knew I needed to work on Draft 2 in a less scattered way.

Fortunately, I won one of the Wheeler Centre's Hot Desk Fellowships which means I get a dedicated workspace, wifi, and an environment humming with industry. I'm just getting settled in and I can't tell you how great it is to have a desk, specially one that is a decent size and clutter-free (for now). It's as exciting as opening a fresh notebook - the possibilities are endless.

Today I'm just getting set up, but from tomorrow onwards, Draft the Second can begin.

And who knows, I might even come up with a title!