Four forces of nature, two languages, one story: Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes on Trials of Hope (የተስፋ ፈተና)
Winner of the 2024 Hungerford Award, Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, joins the Fremantle Press podcast to talk about his award-winning manuscript, Trials of Hope (የተስፋ ፈተና). A unique blend of memoir and poetry, written in both English and Amharic, Trials of Hope tells the story of how Yirga grew up in Ethiopia before moving to Western Australia.
Yirga reads poems from the book in both Amharic and English, and takes us deeper into the structure of the novel as mirrored by the four forces of nature, and he reflects on our relationship with place and the value of stories.
Show notes
About Yirga
Yirga is a writer, researcher and poet from Lalibela, Ethiopia. He currently lives in Perth, Western Australia, where he is the Director of the Centre for Human Rights Education at 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. He was the winner of the 2024 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award.
Yirga on socials: X @YirgaGelaw
Books by Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes
About the host
Georgian Richter has an MA (Creative Writing) from the University of Western Australia. She has taught creative writing, professional writing and editing at the universities of Melbourne and Western Australia, as well as at Curtin University. Georgia joined Fremantle Press in 2008 as the fiction, narrative non-fiction and poetry publisher.
Books by Georgia Richter, Fremantle Press publisher
How to be an Author: The Business of Being a Writer in Australia
Music: ‘Letter to a Daughter of St George’, from the Meat Lunch EP: Songs from Floaters. Written by Alan Fyfe. Performed by Trevor Bentley (guitar and vocals – @trevormb) and Chris Parkinson (harmonica). Produced by Blake Carnaby of Nuglife studios with impresario work by Benjamin P. Newton.
Producer: Claire Miller
Mastered and edited by: Aidan d’Adhemar
