Book launch benefits Holocaust education
Award-winning author Alice Nelson will donate all author proceeds generated by her new book After This: Survivors of the Holocaust speak to the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia.
Nelson worked with Western Australian Holocaust survivors and their families to comprehensively record their experiences. The book, which will be launched by Minister for Education Peter Collier on 9 August, includes fourteen narratives.
‘The Holocaust Institute of Western Australia played a fundamental role in working with these survivors and helping them to record and share their wartime experiences, and in promoting Holocaust education and awareness in general. These stories belong not to me but to the survivors, so it is only fitting that the institute, which they have been so dedicated to, should benefit from the book,’ said Nelson.
The institute, which is now in its 25th year, is dedicated to the education of Western Australians about the Holocaust. President Ben Korman praised Nelson for her commitment to collecting the individual stories for publication.
‘As our survivors pass on, this first-hand link with the events of the past is gradually disappearing. It is therefore an event of the utmost importance when a collection of our survivors’ stories is published,’ said Korman.
The launch of After This: Survivors of the Holocaust speak will take place at 3 pm on Sunday 9 August at Carmel School. Entry is free but bookings are essential at admin@fremantlepress.com.au or (08) 9430 6331. The event is sponsored by Carmel School, the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia, The Lane Bookshop and Fremantle Press.
More Alice Nelson events
Presented by the Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA) at Mattie Furphy House, corner of Clare Copse and Kirkwood Street, Swanbourne.
In conversation: Sunday 2 August, 3 pm to 5 pm.
Alice Nelson in conversation with Australian author Brenda Walker at Mattie Furphy House. The two writers, whose books have limned the topics of loss, exile and devastation and whose work has ranged across topics including the Great War, the Holocaust, the Rwandan Genocide and the solace of reading in face of catastrophe, will discuss the art of writing about painful experience, of giving voice to that which is not easily spoken.
Writing workshop: Telling the Untellable, Sunday 9 August, 10 am to 12 noon.
‘At the beginning of writing there is loss,’ said Michel de Certeau. Our experiences of loss, suffering and pain are sometimes the most profound and intense moments in our life, but they can be the hardest to convey in words. This workshop will explore ways in which we can find language and literary techniques to represent experiences of pain and loss in our lives. There will be discussion, creative exercises and time for writing and reflection.
To book these events contact: fellowshipaustralianwriterswa@gmail.com or (08) 9384 4771. More information is available from the Fellowship of Australian Writers WA website.