First Australians, new Australians and everyone between: in this powerful showcase, five women from the critically-acclaimed anthology, Another Australia, share stories about all that is and all that could be in our versions of Australia. Featuring readings from a line-up of award-winning authors: Amani Haydar (The Mother Wound), Shirley Le (Funny Ethnics), Sara M. Saleh (Songs for the Dead and the Living), Nardi Simpson (Song of the Crocodile) and Anne-Marie Te Whiu (Whisper Songs). Hosted by anthology editor and Sweatshop General Manager, Winnie Dunn.
Presented with Sweatshop: Western Sydney Literacy Movement.
Shirley Le (Australian)
Shirley Le is a Vietnamese-Australian writer from Yagoona and Creative Producer at Sweatshop Literacy Movement. Her writing has been published in Overland, The Guardian, SBS Voices, Meanjin and several Sweatshop anthologies. She also co-wrote the play Sex, Drugs and Pork Rolls, presented by UTP in partnership with Sweatshop. Funny Ethnics (Affirm Press, 2023) is her first novel.
Anne-Marie Te Whiu (Australian)
Anne-Marie Te Whiu is an Australian-born Māori whose whakapapa belongs to the Te Rarawa iwi in the Hokianga, Aotearoa. She is a 2021 Next Chapter Fellowship recipient, and her writing has been published widely in journals and magazines across Australia and New Zealand. Her weavings have been exhibited at Outer Space and Black Dot Gallery. She is an editor, most recently having edited Tony Birch's Whisper Songs as well as Solid Air: Australian and New Zealand Spoken Word. Her debut poetry collection titled Mettle is due for publication this year. She has been a recipient of the Unyoked Writers Residency and Running Dog Writers Residency. Between 2015–2017 she co-directed the Queensland Poetry Festival. She is a Senior Producer at Red Room Poetry and is co-producer of the Literature Program for the Aotearoa NZ International Festival 2024. She has just commenced a Carriageworks Clothing Store Studio Residency.
Amani Haydar (Australian)
Amani Haydar is an esteemed author, visual artist and advocate for women based in Western Sydney. Amani’s debut memoir The Mother Wound was awarded the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year. She was also the recipient of a NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year Award (local) and is a former Archibald Prize finalist. Amani’s work is featured in Another Australia (Affirm Press), Arab Australian Other (Picador) and Admissions: Voices Within Mental Health (Upswell).
Sara Saleh (Australian)
Sara M. Saleh is an award-winning writer and lawyer with Palestinian, Egyptian and Lebanese heritage. Her poems and short stories have been published widely and she is co-editor of the ground-breaking 2019 anthology Arab, Australian, Other. Sara is the first and only poet to win both the 2021 Peter Porter Poetry Prize and the 2020 Judith Wright Poetry Prize. Her first novel is Songs for the Dead and the Living (Affirm Press, 2023). Her first poetry collection is The Flirtation of Girls (UQP, 2023).
Nardi Simpson (Australian)
Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay storyteller from the NSW north west freshwater plains. A musician, composer and playwright, Nardi is the author of Song of the Crocodile published by Hachette Australia in October 2020. Song of the Crocodile was the 2018 winner of the black&write Fellowship shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writing category. Nardi is currently undertaking a PhD in composition at ANU researching the traditions of song and story in her beloved Yuwaalaraay homelands.
Winnie Dunn (Australian)
Winnie Dunn is the General Manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the editor of several critically acclaimed anthologies, including Another Australia (Affirm Press, 2022). She is a writer of Tongan descent from Mount Druitt and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Sydney University. Her work has been published in The Guardian, HuffPost Australia, Griffith Review, Meanjin and SBS Voices. In 2022, she was a finalist for Western Sydney University's Breakthrough Alumni Award. Winnie is currently completing her debut novel, Dirt Poor Islanders (Hachette, 2024), which has been assisted by the Australia Council for the Arts.
