Free Workshops, In-Conversations and an Evening Showcase in
the City of Casey

2:15pm - 3:15pm

Writing From The Hyphen

with Xiaole Zhan

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As a Chinese-New Zealander, I spend a lot of time thinking about the little line joining both parts of my identity. What does it mean to have a hyphenated identity? Is the hyphen a connector or a point of fracture? And how might we write hyphens through poetry? This workshop is for everyone who identifies with 'hyphenated' identity—whatever that may mean to you!

Xiaole Zhan (they/them) is a Chinese-New Zealand writer and composer based in Naarm. They are the recipient of the 2024 Kat Muscat Fellowship. They were also the winner of the 2023 Kill Your Darlings Non-Fiction Prize for their autobiographical essay Think An Empty Room, Moonly With Phoneglow exploring experiences of racism growing up in a mixed Pākehā-Chinese family, as well as the winner of the 2023 Charles Brasch Young Writers Essay Competition for their essay Muscle Memory exploring music, depression, queerness, and gender discrimination over time. Their work can be found in Island, The Suburban Review, Landfall, Cordite, Going Down Swinging, Kill Your Darlings, Starling, and Sweet Mammalian. Their name in Chinese is 小乐 and means ‘Little Happy’ but can also be read as ‘Little Music’.

3:15pm - 4pm

In-Conversation "Queer Histories of Naarm"

with Sally Goldner, Yves Rees and Julie Peters

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Queer stories have often existed just beyond the boundaries of mainstream historiography, but that is changing, fast. Join historians, academics and authors Sally Goldner, Yves Rees and Julie Peters for a fascinating glimpse into Melbourne’s rich LGBTQIA+ history.

Sally Goldner AM’s massive involvement in Victoria’s queer communities spans nearly 30 years. Her diverse contributions include being a founding member of Transgender Victoria, presenting 3 CR’s “Out of the Pan,” Transfamily Treasurer, Just. Equal Australia Treasurer and Bisexual Alliance Victoria Treasurer. She is the focus of an autobio-doco “Sally’s Story”, a life member of 4 queer-focussed organisations and has made broad-ranging contributions to many other groups. She was inducted into the Victorian Women’s Honour Roll in 2016 (the first trans and first known bi woman to receive the honour), awarded LGBTI Victorian of the Year in 2015 and noted in The Age’s Top 100 most creative and influential people in Melbourne in 2011. She was awarded the Order of Australia in 2019. She is a pro wrestling ring announcer (commentator, referee and wrestler in training), MC, speaker, educator, life coach and occasional performer (all in contrast to her original accountancy training)…will there be more…hell yeah!

Dr Yves Rees (they/them) is a writer and historian from Naarm. They are a Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University, co-host of Archive Fever podcast, co-editor of Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia (A&U, 2022) and author of All About Yves: Notes from a Transition (A&U, 2021). Their next book Travelling to Tomorrow will be piblished by NewSouth in 2024. Rees' writing has featured in Meanjin, Sydney Review of Books, Griffith Review, Australian Book Review, Overland, The Guardian and The Age. Rees won the 2020 Calibre Essay Prize.

Julie Peters has been a doctoral researcher, teacher, performer, writer, parliamentary candidate, environmentalist, media professional, A strong focus of her work has been to demythologise and promote social justice and equity for trans and gender diverse individuals with health professionals and the public.