One of two discussion panels specifically focusing on women writers at the Bellingen Readers & Writers Festival, ‘Speaking as a Woman … Stories From Around The World’, will consider how much have things changed.

What stories are being told and what stories are yet to be included? It may come as no surprise that even in our contemporary world, books with female authors are less likely to be given space in literature reviews. 

To discuss these topics and more, the BRWF is delighted to present a diverse panel of women, hosted by Debbie Spillane on Saturday June 9 at noon in the Bellingen Memorial Hall.   

Well known as a sports broadcaster for the ABC and Triple J, Debbie is also the author of Where Do You Think You’re Goin’ Lady?: Adventures Of Sports-Mad Redhead.

Joining her on the panel will be Amal Awad, Marieke Hardy, Jenevieve Chang and Sulari Gentill.

Writer and SBS producer Amal Awad is author of two novels Courting Samira  – a tale of Muslim courtship and coming of age in the modern era – and This Is How You Get Better. Her latest non-fiction book is 2017’s Beyond Veiled Clichés – The Real Lives of Arab Women. Amal also contributed to the anthology Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia. She is currently working on her next book on ageing and illness in Australia.

Well known to ABC-TV audiences as a regular literary panellist on The Book Club in 2017, Marieke Hardy has been appointed as the new Artistic Director of the Melbourne Writers Festival. An established broadcaster, screenwriter, blogger, experimental theatre producer and self-confessed ‘word nerd’, a collection of Marieke’s essays You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead was published in 2011.

Jenevieve Chang is an actor, dancer and author who after training in London lived in Shanghai, and became part of China’s first vaudeville, variety and burlesque club. Returning to Australia Jenevieve worked as a Course Manager at NIDA, before publishing her highly praised 2017 memoir The Good Girl of Chinatown.

Sulari Gentill has written numerous novels, and her award-winning Rowland Sinclair Mysteries is a series of historical crime fiction stories set in the 1930s, featuring  Rowland Sinclair, a gentleman artist-cum-amateur-detective. The most recent titles in the series are 2017’s A Dangerous Language and 2018’s Paving The New Road. Sulari also writes a fantasy adventure series called The Hero Trilogy, which includes Chasing Odysseus, Trying War and The Blood of Wolves, and in 2017 she’ published the post-modern novel Crossing The Lines.

It should be a lively and fascinating discussion!