Good mothers are expected to be selfless. Artists are seen as selfish. So what does this mean for a mother with artistic ambitions?

Taking a cue from Edwina Preston’s recent novel, Bad Art Mother (2022) – shortlisted for the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction and 2023 Stella Prize – this panel will dive deep into the boundaries of art and motherhood and explore how to reconcile these seemingly conflicting roles.

A conversation with author and poet Magdalena Ball, author and musician Edwina Preston and poet Gillian Swain.

Have you ever been alienated by poetry? Have you ever been confused by it? Or thought ‘it’s just not for me’.

Come along to Poetry for Beginners where poets Rico Craig (Bone Ink, Our Tongues are Songs, Nekhau) and Tina Huang will explain the origins of poetry, basic poetic techniques such as enjambment and cesura, as well as the way imagery and sonics work in poems. You will also learn about the difference between the line and the sentence. This event includes poetry readings to demonstrate these techniques and to give you a chance to apply what you have learnt. If you have ever found poetry alienating, this is for you.

Jackie Bailey, author of The Eulogy (2022) and independent funeral director, will talk to author and journalist Jackie Dent about The Great Dead Body Teachers (2023), her book which documents her quest to find out what happened to her grandparents bodies after they were donated to a university, and what she discovered about the secret world and history of anatomy and dissection along the way. The two Jackies will examine the mysteries of the dead and how to bring them to life on the page.

No Fixed Address (NFA) are recognised as the definitive Aboriginal rock band, paving the way for successors like Warumpi Band and Yothu Yindi.

When The Clash toured Australia in the early 1980s they asked for NFA to be their support. The band were also involved in the innovative docudrama Wrong Side of the Road, and toured the UK and Eastern Europe. Their song ‘We Have Survived’ became the unofficial anthem of the land rights movement. They are rightly regarded as legends, their wider reputation constrained only by their political spirit and radical heart due to racism and industry intransigence.

Songwriters Bart Willoughby and Ricky Harrison talk about the new biography of their trailblazing Aboriginal rock ‘n’ reggae band NFA with author Donald Robertson. A brief acoustic performance will conclude the conversation.

In an exclusive solo performance, hear the homespun, eclectic vocals of Mahesh Radhakrishnan, and provocative lyrics on themes of social justice and the sublime. Mahesh is known for leading Tapestries of Sound (est. 2001), an exciting crucible for cross-cultural musical exploration and performance weaving together Indian ragas, Gaelic and Appalachian melodies on a bed of exquisite rhythms, grooves and epic symphony. 

Photo by Stephanie Morris, National Library of Australia

Nowadays there is growing awareness about the importance of more inclusive and ‘diverse’ voices and perspectives across all modes of storytelling. This is a welcome change, but at times it seems forces of ‘elite capture’ are also at play, oversimplifying expectations about how such stories ought to be told and consumed, celebrating ‘difference’ in a facile, fetishised way. How does inclusive and ‘diverse’ storytelling enhance literary richness and nuance? How does it recalibrate power and transform our understanding of the world?

In this discussion, novelist Suneeta Peres da Costa speaks with Addi Road Writers’ Festival artistic co-director Sheila Ngoc Pham about how we can progress Australian writing to be more truly culturally representative.

Guo Jian was born in Guizhou province, China, home to many ethnic groups where cultures met and mixed. He grew up during the ultra- violent Cultural Revolution (1966-76). When war broke out on China’s border with Vietnam in 1979, he joined the People’s Liberation Army as a propaganda artist. His experience in the army and his participation in the student protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989 and subsequent massacre – in which he nearly lost his life – have influenced his art ever since. Since migrating to Australia, his work on these themes has attracted the attention of the Australian and International art world.

He will discuss his life and art with literary translator, novelist and essayist Linda Jaivin, whose latest non-fiction book is The Shortest History of China. A slideshow of Guo Jian’s work accompanies the conversation.

Nangamay Mana Djurali – Dream Gather Grow is a groundbreaking collection of the diverse voices of First Nations Australia LGBTIQA+ poets, writers and storytellers initially released to commemorate Sydney WorldPride. The collection is edited by Alison Whittaker, Gomeroi poet and academic, and Steven Lindsay Ross, Wamba Wamba writer, curator and producer. Published by BLACKBOOKS, the anthology reflects and affirms the diversity of First Nations Australia and, through this publication, invites all Australians to listen deeply to the voices of our First Nations LGBTIQA+ communities. This will be a special event with readings from selected poets and an introduction from the publisher and editors.

Founded in 2017, Paper Chained is a journal of writing and artistic expressions from individuals affected by incarceration. Damien Linnane became its editor in 2021. The magazine appears online and in print and features the writing and artwork of inmates, ex-prisoners, their family members or work connected with the corrections system. The hardcopy magazines are posted for free to prisoners inside. Damien will talk about his own experiences in prison, how Paper Chained is put together and why it matters so much.

“What I hear the most is how much difference it makes to know there is a publication that specifically gives them a voice, understands what they’re going through and is catered to them directly,” he told the Sydney Criminal Lawyers website last year. “Paper Chained is what I needed when I was in prison. I had so much I wanted to express, but there was no way for me to share anything I had created with the world.”

A great silence exists beneath the middle class veneer of Australian literature and its festivals-and-awards circuit. Is enough focus being given to writers who explore underclass and working class life? Is there such a thing as class-conscious literature in Australia today? If so, how do novelists and poets give voice to the dignity of labour, to issues like unsteady housing, addiction, unemployment, and the daily realities of life at the lower ends of the socio-economic spectrum – without surrendering to the didactic and the cliched? Can a literature of oppression and struggle remain capable of existential and aesthetic complexity, as well as joy and heroic presences? Or are nihilistic characterisations their own form of protest, an admission of cathartic truths that can shake readers out of their comfort zones as well as empower those seeking convincing portraits of an ignored Australia?

Join poet DG Lloyd (Alive in Dubbo) and novelist Alan Fyfe (T) in a conversation about writing and class – and the literary arts of oppression and transcendence – with poet Magdalena Ball (Bobish).

Join Murray Cook (Warumpi Band, Mixed Relations, Midnight Oil, Mental As Anything) and Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil), Amanda Brown (The Go Betweens; REM) and Reg Mombassa (Mental As Anything; Dog Trumpet) in a conversation about originality, influence and theft inside the tower of song.

“Good composers borrow, great ones steal.” Supposedly a quote by Igor Stravinsky, this saying has also been attributed to Picasso and TS Eliot. But it is in music that attitudes to originality are most fluid: partly due to the collaborative nature of the process, along with the communal roots of folk, blues and country. Certain artists can be blatant in their appropriation of an earlier song; others unconsciously channel a classic, as George Harrison did writing ‘My Sweet Lord’.

A new song can be built on something old: ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ was based on Bach; sampling in hip hop ran with this from its earliest days in New York, as Kraftwerk fan Afrika Bambaata acknowledges. And what about opposing notions of writing for corporate/individual profit (Beyonce with her hit song-writing teams) or love (Bart Willoughby, Tom Verlaine etc) and the murky territory between?

Zaheda Ghani’s debut novel Pomegranate & Fig (2022) examines tradition, family, war and displacement. Tracing the lives of three young people, Henna, her brother Hamid, and a man who will become her husband, Rahim, this lyrical and evocative story reveals the political entanglements and family dynamics that are heightened and shattered by conflict. Taking us from the streets of Herat in the 1970s, invaded by Soviet forces, to India in the 1980s and then to the suburbs of Sydney, Pomegranate & Fig vividly illuminates the disruption, displacement and tragedy that war unleashes. Zaheda will be in conversation with writer and researcher, Zarlasht Sawari.

Antony Loewenstein’s new book The Palestine Laboratory (2023) shows in depth and for the first time how Israel has become a leader in developing spying technology and defence hardware that fuels some of the world’s most brutal conflicts – from the Pegasus software that hacked Jeff Bezos’s and Jamal Khashoggi’s phones, and the weapons sold to the Myanmar army that has murdered thousands of Rohingyas, to the drones being used by the European Union to monitor refugees in the Mediterranean who are left to drown. He will be in conversation with award-winning investigative journalist Peter Cronau to discuss his global investigation which uncovered secret documents, based on revealing interviews and on-the-ground reporting.

Albert Camus’ 1947 novel The Plague re-merged as a global best-seller thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. Camus wrote it as a metaphoric critique of Nazism; during lockdown it was received literally as the story of a doctor and a town under siege from a disease; the book continues to resonate, post-lockdowns, as an enquiry into a society divided by class, locale, ethnicity, and security of life. Camus himself has always been the archetypal public intellectual, the French existentialist in a trench-coat smoking a cigarette. The author of The Outsider – which inspired an early song by The Cure – and The Fall – which gave the British post-punk band their name – his influence radiated out from his novels and philosophical tracts like The Rebel.

Born in French Algeria, the hero of the French Resistance during World War Two was later derided by both sides for his stance on the Algerian War of Independence. Camus’ only comparable figure in the English-speaking world is fellow author George Orwell; both men were Left-wing thinkers who opposed Left orthodoxies, like unquestioning support of Stalin. But by the time Camus won a Nobel Prize for Literature, he had retreated into silence, a problematic if not impossible figure. He remains a heroic, if flawed representative of artistic engagement. What can we learn from his writings, bravery and mistakes today?

Michelle Hamadache and Mark Mordue in conversation with Caroline Baum.

Though QR codes located around the festival site at Addi Road, ‘passage [re]visitation’ presents recordings of poets, voices, birdsong, sound artworks and soundtracks. Angela Stretch’s “social sculpture” uses audio sourced from 20 years of documenting poets and poetry for radio.

Some content contains the voices of deceased persons.

We have all been isolated. We have all been lonely. Come and listen to three writers tell you their stories of loneliness. Come and lie down next to a friend. Feel the energy, the warmth of bodies together in a space again. Listen, as we all try, to find the words to soothe our collective ache. This is a care and storytelling event featuring Tina Huang, Edwina Preston and Zarlasht Sawari.

This is special ticketed $25 event is in addition to the main program. A new yoga mat is included in the ticket price for you to lie down on for the duration of the performance. The session will commence and conclude with a meditation exercise to help all participants settle.

Mahesh (they/them) is a singer, musician and scholar of music, language and culture. Their music draws from over 25 years of training in South Indian classical Carnatic singing as well as forays into Irish traditional singing and a range of other folk styles and contemporary genres in unexpected combinations. They are the founder and leader of the band Tapestries of Sound. In addition to being the 2022 National Folk Fellow (Australia) Mahesh was a recipient of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Top 5 (Arts) Media Residency for 2022 and is co-producer of the podcast Music!Dance!Culture!

Photo by Stephanie Morris, National Library of Australia

Suneeta Peres da Costa writes fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry. Her latest novel, Saudade, about colonial legacies and the Goan diaspora in Portuguese Angola, was shortlisted for the 2019 Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, the 2020 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and a finalist in Field Notes’ 2020 Tournament of Books (USA).

Guo Jian was born in Guizhou province, China, home to many ethnic groups where cultures met and mixed. He group up during the ultra- violent Cultural Revolution (1966-76). When war broke out on China’s border with Vietnam in 1979, he joined the People’s Liberation Army as a propaganda artist. His experience in the army and his participation in the student protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989 and subsequent massacre – in which he nearly lost his life – have influenced his art ever since. Since immigrating to Australia, his work on these themes has attracted the attention of the Australian and International art world.

Keith Quayle is a Malyangapa and Barkindji gay man from the corner countries of western New South Wales, living on Dharug country. His lived experience of the carceral system informs the work he carries out on behalf of people in contact with the criminal justice system and advocates for transformative change that will bring justice to those affected.

Luke Patterson is a Gamilaroi poet, folklorist and musician living on Gadigal lands. His research and creative pursuits are grounded in extensive work with First Nations and other community-based organisations across Australia.

Associate Professor Sandra Phillips teaches Indigenous Australian Studies, is Associate Dean Indigenous Education (School of Humanities and Communication Arts) at Western Sydney University and produces researched insight on Indigenous writing and publishing. An Aboriginal woman from Queensland, Sandra is Wakka Wakka and Gooreng Gooreng through her Mother and was raised on-Country. Her late Father who was also Aboriginal, was raised in the Cherbourg dormitory.

An industry-trained book editor, Sandra worked at Magabala Books, UQP, and Aboriginal Studies Press before earning a PhD in Literary Studies. Sandra is a Chief Investigator on Community Publishing in Regional Australia, an ARC Linkage Project LP210300666. Sandra is also Honorary Associate Professor at The University of Queensland in the School of Communication and Arts.

Frustrated with the lack of programs and therapy in prison, Damien Linnane spent the first half of a 10-month prison sentence writing the crime novel Scarred, and the second half teaching himself to draw. Since his release from prison, he has illustrated the 2021 book This is Ear Hustle, and has held six solo art exhibitions ranging from Sydney to San Francisco. Damien now works as the editor of the prison magazine Paper Chained, and is also completing a PhD in law which focuses on making Medicare and mental health services available in prisons.

D.G. Lloyd was born on 3 July 1979. He attended the University of Wollongong and received his MCA in 2003. After spending some time in Sydney he returned to his hometown Dubbo, where much of his writing is set. Over the years he has been shortlisted for several literary awards, including: The Julie Lewis Literary Prize, The PressPress Chapbook Award and The Banjo Patterson Poetry Prize. His first book of poetry Alive in Dubbo was the joint winner of the inaugural Flying Islands Poetry Manuscript Prize in 2022.

Magdalena Ball is a novelist, poet, reviewer, interviewer, VP of Flying Island Books, and managing editor of Compulsive Reader. Her stories, editorials, poetry, reviews and interviews have appeared in a wide number of journals and anthologies, and have won local and international awards. She is the author of several novels and poetry books, most recently, Bobish, a verse-memoir published by Puncher & Wattmann in 2023. 

Reg Mombassa (AKA Chris O’Doherty) is a Kiwi born ex-demolition worker, barman, artist and guitarist who rose to fame with Mental as Anything in the late 70s. A consumate guitarist and songwriter, he wrote many great Mentals songs, including ‘Apocalypso’, Spirit Got Lost’, ‘Egypt’ and ‘Nigel’. He has continued in the same glorious vein with Dog Trumpet, with his brother and ex-Mentals bassist Peter O’Doherty and still writes and tours today. His artwork for Mambo has made him a household name in Australia. His exhibitions, including beautifully wrought oil paintings, usually sell out in minutes. Well known for his dry laconic wit, encyclopaedic knowledge of many esoteric subjects and rebellious mind, Reg is an icomic yet reclusive figure. His appearance at the Addi Road Writers’ Festival 2023 is a rare public speaking performance. Don’t miss it.

James Moginie is an Australian musician. He is best known for his work with Midnight Oil, of which he is a founding member, guitarist, keyboardist and leading songwriter. He is also a noted producer, working from his Oceanic Studios in Brookvale with many premier acts. In addition to Midnight Oil, Moginie has worked and performed with many notable musicians from Australia and New Zealand, including Silverchair, Sarah Blasko, End of Fashion, Backsliders, The Necks, Neil Murray, Kasey Chambers and Neil Finn. He produced Songbirds 2, a collection of songs written and recorded in NSW prisons and has worked on a similar project in WA. Moginie formed The Family Dog band, comprising different members at times, including Trent Williamson, Kent Steedman, Paul Larsen and Tim Kevin. He sporadically tours with the Break; a surf/rock instrumental outfit featuring members of Midnight Oil and Violent Femmes, and his Celtic outfit Shameless Seamus and the Tullamore Dews. He has also released five solo works, the most recent a collection of guitar solo pieces called Murmurations.

Zaheda Ghani and her family arrived in Australia from Afghanistan as refugees in the 1980s. At nine years old Zaheda, also known as Zoe, handwrote her first novel using a HB pencil, in a scented diary with a lock and key. The heart of what she wrote back then developed over many years to become Pomegranate & Fig, which was shortlisted for the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. Zaheda was also a recipient of the Western Sydney Emerging Writers Fellowship. Zaheda served on the board of Australia for UNHCR, the private sector partner of the UN Refugee Agency from 2017 to 2021. She is now an Ambassador for Australia for UNHCR and has an active interest in UNHCR’s humanitarian work. Zaheda lives in Sydney with her husband.

Antony Loewenstein is an independent journalist, best-selling author, filmmaker and co-founder of Declassified Australia. He’s written for The Guardian, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books and many others. His books include Pills, Powder and Smoke, Disaster Capitalism and My Israel Question. His documentary films include Disaster Capitalism and the Al Jazeera English films West Africa’s Opioid Crisis and Under the Cover of Covid. He was based in East Jerusalem 2016-2020. His latest book is The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World. According to his publishers Verso, “This book shows in-depth, for the first time, how Palestine has become the perfect laboratory for the Israeli military-techno complex: surveillance, home demolitions, indefinite incarceration and brutality to the hi-tech tools that drive the ‘Start-up Nation’.”

Michelle Hamadache writes short stories, essays and the occasional poem. She teaches at Macquarie University. She’s also spent a lot of time in Algeria over the years, particularly Tipaza, a favourite spot of Camus’s.

Mark Mordue is a long-time Camus fan, having first read (and not understood) The Plague at age 15. “Camus is one of those figures who has kept re-entering my life, making me think about how I live and act, and what it means to be a writer.”

Stuart Spence is a Sydney-based photographer, with a career spanning over 37 years. His work has covered multiple genres, from portraiture to reportage and fine art, and more recently, film direction. His fine art photography is exhibited nationally, with works now held in the permanent collections of both The National Portrait Gallery, and The National Library of Australia.

Angela Stretch is a Sydney based artist, curator, writer and organiser from Christchurch, New Zealand. Her work uses language and poetry through a variation of mediums and has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally. Angela’s practice involves fictional narratives in which circulate documentary material, challenging our sense of place, constructs of time and systems of thought. She is the curator of the Poetry Sydney Program.

Tina Huang is a Chinese Australian writer based in Sydney on Wangal land. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Meanjin, The Lifted Brow, Going Down Swinging, Cordite Poetry Review, Overland, and Peril. Tina is also a spoken word poet and I has performed at events for the Boundless Festival and for Diversity Arts Australia. Tina was a 2021 NSW State Finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam. For Addi Road Writers’ Festival, she is a guest curator, working in collaboration with ARWF on ‘Poetry for Beginners’ and ‘Empty City, Lonely Girl’.

Edwina Preston is a Melbourne writer and musician. She is the author of the novels Bad Art Mother and The Inheritance of Ivorie Hammer, and of biography of artist Howard Arkley, Not Just A Suburban Boy. Her work has been published in the Griffith Review, The Age, and the Conversation. Bad Art Mother has been shortlisted for 2023 Stella Prize and Christina Stead Prize for Fiction.