Perth Storyfest is happening at UWA this April and features a number of Fremantle Press authors
On Sunday 6 April, join Fremantle Press writers Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, Seth Malacari, Nandi Chinna and Andrew Sutherland for a one-day festival that highlights the voices of the inclusive writing community here in Boorloo (Perth).
Organised by The Writers’ Collective, this special festival event aims to take the first steps towards greater equity in the arts scene in WA. Throughout the day, workshops, panels, readings and book launches will feature debut, emerging and established authors.
Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes is a writer, researcher and poet from Lalibela, Ethiopia. His manuscript, የተስፋ ፈተና | Trials of Hope, won the 2024 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award. Written in English and Amharic poetry and prose, this fascinating autobiographic work shares Yirga’s journey from boy shepherd in Ethiopia to human rights academic at Curtin University. He currently lives in Perth, WA where he is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University. His academic and creative work revolves around African traditions, Ethiopian philosophy, epistemic justice, issues of looted manuscript repatriation, and the politics of language and belonging. His Amharic poetry was compiled and published in a solo collection titled የተራሮች ጩኸት (Yeteraroch Chuhet, The Cry of Mountains), and has been performed widely on stage and radio in Ethiopia. His English creative work has appeared in Westerly, Stories of Perth and Ways of Being Here.
Seth Malacari (he/they) is an award-winning writer and member of the LGBTQIA+ community. Their work has appeared in Underdog: LoveOzYA Short Stories (2019), and he is the founder of Get YA Words Out. They have a Master of Arts (Writing and Literature) from Deakin University specialising in Queer YA and was the former chair of LoveOzYA. Most recently, Seth was the commissioning editor for the speculative YA anthology An Unexpected Party, which brings together the stories of emerging authors from the LGBTQIA+ community.
Nandi Chinna works as a Research Consultant, Community Arts Facilitator and poet. She was born on Kaurna country in Adelaide and currently lives and works on Bunuba lands in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and on Noongar Country in the southwest of WA. Nandi uses mindfulness and meditation, slow walking and immersion in nature to facilitate creative writing. For the last seven years, Nandi has worked with First Nations people on poetry projects about rivers, wetlands and homelands. Most recently, Nandi collaborated with Nyikina Elder and professor Anne Poelina – a Guardian of Martuwarra Fitzroy River – on the poetry project Tossed Up By the Beak of a Cormorant.
Andrew Sutherland (he/they) is a Queer poz (PLHIV) writer and performance-maker creating work between Boorloo, Western Australia and Singapore. Their work draws upon intercultural and Queer critical theories, and the viral instabilities of identity, pop culture and the autobiographical self. As a performance-maker, he has twice been awarded WA’s Blaz Award for New Writing and makes up one-half of the independent theatre outfit Squid Vicious (@squidvicioustheatre ). His recent poetry works include Paradise (point of transmission) and Act Cute, which will be released in July 2025.
Award-winning writer Sara Saleh will be the keynote speaker, alongside several other amazing WA-based writers.
The Writers’ Collective fosters diversity, inclusion, and equity in literary arts, we amplify underrepresented voices and create a supportive community for writers of all backgrounds.
For more information, including how to register, visit The Writers’ Collective Humanitix linked here: [website]
