Free Workshops, In-Conversations and an Evening Showcase in Sale
4th May 2024
10am - 4pm at Sale Library
6pm - 10pm at Shirley's Bar and Cafe
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Day Events at Sale Library
10am - Welcome to Country
10:30am - Workshop "Space Fruit: Fruit in SPAAAAAACE!"
10:30am - In-Conversation with Veronica Gorrie
11:45am - In-Conversation "Truth-telling, Testimonies and the Ethics of Trauma Narratives"
1:30pm - Workshop "Unleash the Creative Beast"
2:45pm - Workshop "Fictional World: Creating Intriguing Characters and Plot via Weather"
10:30am - 11:30am
Space Fruit: Fruit in SPAAAAAACE!
with Bri Hassett
This workshop will focus on exploring sensory description (showing not telling) through the medium of fruit. Participants will develop a short piece of descriptive writing based on observations of a chosen piece of fruit (fruit provided... yes, you can eat it at the end!). This workshop is aimed at writers of all ages to help develop our awareness of how inspiration can strike from the most everyday of places.
Brionadh is an Irish-Australian fiction writer and dog-walking enthusiast operating out of Gunaikurnai Country. Her interests include anything written from the perspective of an animal, mineral or vegetable, and writing things she's never seen before. Her literary influences include Ursula Le Guin, Oscar Wilde and the literary war stories of Snoopy the Beagle.
10:30am - 11:30am
In-Conversation with Veronica Gorrie
Chaired by Laura McConnell Conti
Veronica Gorrie is a Gunai/Kurnai woman who lives and writes in Victoria. Her first book, Black and Blue (2021), won the 2022 Victorian Premier's Prize for Literature and the 2022 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing, as well as being shortlisted for the 2022 Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction and the 2022 ABIA Small Publishers’ Book of the Year. Her next book is an anthology ‘When cops are Criminals’ published by Scribe publications in August 2024.
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11:45am - 12:45pm
Unleash the Creative Beast
with Louise Purcell
This workshop is a series of fun and inspiring activities to take the edge off any creative blocks, fears, stagnation and procrastinating that is in between you and your full artistic expression. An non serious approach to serious change in the way you approach your creative process.
Louise studied Creative Writing at Victoria University and began her career writing content for social media and digital agencies. Her passion for surrealism and free form creativity led to running workshops on creative expression and unblocking barriers between ourselves and the work which wants to come through. In past years Louise has written a screen play which was performed at Adelaide and Melbourne Fringe Festival and most recently co-created "Galah" an abstract cabaret which is currently nominated for four Green Room Awards.
1:45pm - 2:30pm
Truth-Telling, Testimonies and the Ethics of Trauma Narratives
with Amy Espeseth and Laura McConnell Conti
Join award-winning novelist Amy Espeseth and writer-activist Laura McConnell Conti for a conversation about resilience, survival and flourishing beyond trauma. Find out what it takes to write about, and speak about, difficult topics, and how to use words to bring about social change and transformation.
Originally from Barron, Wisconsin, Amy Espeseth immigrated to Australia in the late 1990s. A writer and academic, she is widely-published and is the recipient of many scholarships, prizes and awards. Her first novel, Sufficient Grace (Scribe 2012), received critical and popular acclaim. She currently lives on a small island in Gippsland.
Laura, a feminist activist and writer, supports women escaping fundamentalist groups. Co-founder of #GoKindly, and director at Wellsprings for Women and Juno, she draws on her own cult excommunication. Featured on SBS Insight and ABC's God Forbid, she also writes on cult survival and enjoys long-distance swimming and motorbiking.
2:45pm - 3:45pm
Forecasting a Fictional World: Creating Intriguing Characters and Plot via Weather
with Amy Espeseth
“A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.” - Marcel Proust. Weather affects the lives of your characters far beyond setting. A drought can irreparably alter a family as much as the landscape, and a lightening-strike may be the catalyst for both catastrophic wildfire and personal change. Learn to use climate to craft believable characters, simmering plots and immersive settings.
Originally from Barron, Wisconsin, Amy Espeseth immigrated to Australia in the late 1990s. A writer and academic, she is widely-published and is the recipient of many scholarships, prizes and awards. Her first novel, Sufficient Grace (Scribe 2012), received critical and popular acclaim. She currently lives on a small island in Gippsland.
Evening Showcase at Shirley's Cafe & Bar
6pm - 10pm
Dane Nichols
Gaby Kruithof
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Bri Hassett
Madison Whitmond
Alushka Rakaram