In the era of #MeToo and the same sex marriage plebiscite, this panel will discuss how the writing of gender, sex and sexual orientation has changed since the beginning of the twenty-first century. How do sexism and racism interact, and what are their effects on emerging and established writers from different communities? What can contemporary writers do to address questions of gender, sexual orientation and prejudice in their work? In a stimulating conversation with Dr. Ika Willis, writers Ellen van Neerven, Erin Gough, and J.R. Latham will discuss writing gender. Join us afterwards for drinks in the foyer.

Ellen van Neerven is a Yugambeh writer from South East Queensland who lives in Melbourne. She is the author of the poetry volume Comfort Food (UQP, 2016) and the fiction collection, Heat and Light (UQP, 2014) which won numerous awards, including the 2013 David Unaipon Award, the 2015 Dobbie Award and the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers’ Prize.

Erin Gough is a Sydney writer whose award-winning stories have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Black Inc.'s Best Australian Stories, Overland, Southerly and Going Down Swinging. Her novel for young adults, The Flywheel, won the Ampersand Prize and was short-listed for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards (Older Readers) and the Gold Inky. Her second novel, Amelia Westlake, was published in April this year.

J.R. Latham is a writer from Melbourne, Australia. He has a PhD in public health and gender studies, through which he explored questions of narrative in transgender medicine. Latham is currently writing a ficto-critical account of trans academic life and has previously worked as a journalist, including for Brighton UK's LGBT community magazine, GScene. His work combines science and technology studies, medical anthropology and feminist theory to consider how we might intervene in order to broaden the field of trans possibilities in medicine and beyond. Latham is also Honorary Fellow in Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne. His research examines how trans and intersex people experience sex, gender, embodiment and sexuality on their own terms, and the manifest tensions between self-determination and clinical practices of medicine. Visit jrlatham.com

Dr Ika Willis is Senior Lecturer in English Literatures at the University of Wollongong. Her research focuses on reception, broadly conceived; she has published on texts from Virgil's Aeneid to Harry Potter fan fiction.

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This event is free and open to the general public | Presented by ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

Contact Julieanne Lamond