“I was like ‘Well, did this really happen? Did this place really look this way?’ and I sort of gave myself permission to not care because everyone writing about the same place is going to come up with fifty different descriptions…”

Hannah lives in Zimbabwe during the reign of Robert Mugabe: it’s a country of petrol queues and power cuts, food shortages and government corruption. Yet Hannah is lucky. She can afford to go to school, has never had to skip a meal, and lives in a big house with her mum and their Shona housekeeper. Hannah is wealthy, she is healthy, and she is white. But money can’t always keep you safe.

Elizabeth Kuiper’s ‘Little Stones’ is a coming-of-age story built on the author's childhood in Zimbabwe. Elizabeth joined us in June for an in-conversation with Ellen Cregan, Kill Your Darlings First Book Club Coordinator, at Bargoonga Nganjin, North Fitzroy Library. Together they presented a Yarra Libraries edition of the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club, a series of discussions and events featuring debut authors and their books.

You can find or place a hold on Little Stones at your local branch of Yarra Libraries, and at several branches it’s a Red Hot Read.

This is an edited recording. Thanks to Elizabeth Kuiper, Ellen Cregan, Kill Your Darlings and Readings. Our theme song is ‘Add And’ by Broke for Free.

Yarra Libraries Recommends:

Little Stones – Elizabeth Kuiper

We Need New Names – NoViolet Bulawayo

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: an African childhood – Alexandra Fuller

Kill Your Darlings – https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/

“I would hope that the readers say ‘these are mighty people, these are great people in this book’ and maybe they’ll think of others outside the book that are equally mighty people” – Tony Birch

In 'The White Girl', Tony Birch tells the story of Odette Brown raising her granddaughter Sissy on the fringes of a small country town. When the menacing Sergeant Lowe arrives, any freedom that Odette and Sissy enjoy comes under grave threat.

In conversation with Laura La Rosa, Tony speaks of domesticity, love, trauma, grief, and some of the true stories of the Stolen Generation that informed 'The White Girl'.

This is an edited recording of a live event held at Richmond Library.

'The White Girl' is currently a Red Hot Read at Yarra Libraries. You can find a copy or place a reservation at your local branch. If you’d prefer to visit our website, you can use it to place a reservation or access the e-book or audiobook through our digital resources.

TONY BIRCH

Tony Birch is the author of Ghost River, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. He is also the author of Shadowboxing and three short story collections, Father’s Day, The Promise and Common People. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award. Tony is a frequent contributor to ABC local and national radio and a regular guest at writers’ festivals. He lives in Melbourne and is a Senior Research Fellow at Victoria University.

LAURA LA ROSA

Laura La Rosa is a proud Darug woman, originally from Western Sydney, now living on Wurundjeri land. She is the founder of creative collective, Woolf Communications, as well as a writer, producer, and graphic designer.

Passionate about grassroots collectivism and storytelling, Laura's work is focused on fostering disruptive discourse and the elevation of vital voices through various mediums. A dabbling columnist, Laura has appeared in The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Real, and Eureka Street.

YARRA LIBRARIES RECOMMENDS

The White Girl – Tony Birch

Ghost River – Tony Birch

Common People – Tony Birch

Blood – Tony Birch

Shadow Boxing – Tony Birch

Father’s Day – Tony Birch

The Promise – Tony Birch

The White Girl (electronic resource)

Common People (electronic resource)

Blood (electronic resource)

The Best Australian Stories 2017 - Maxine Beneba Clarke (editor)

From the Outer: Footy like you’ve never heard it – Alicia Sometimes and Nicole Hayes (editors)

School Holidays are here again, and chances are you’re spending more time than usual with the children in your life. There's no time to lose! Grab a silly book and read it. You could do worse than take the advice of Children’s Librarian Aandi. Not only is he definitely silly, but he has spent an awful lot of time entertaining children. Have a listen to him explaining what makes silly books so great for reading aloud, and which five he’d recommend.

Our theme music is Add And by Broke for Free.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Two Dumb Ducks – Maxwell Eaton III

The Book With No Pictures – B.J. Novak

Johnny Boo Does Something - James Kochalka

Can You Make a Scary Face – Jan Thomas

It Might Be an Apple - Shinsuke Yoshitake

“I wanted to describe this and tell this story. That there is connection between Manus and Canberra, between Manus and Australian society.” - Behrouz Boochani

Yarra Libraries presents, in partnership with the Ewing Trust and Fitzroy Legal Service, this second recording from the Fitzroy Writers Festival 2019.

Detained journalist Behrouz Boochani’s 'No Friend But The Mountains' is a vivid portrait of five years of incarceration and exile. The book details his perilous journey to Christmas Island and subsequent incarceration in an Australian government immigration detention facility on Manus Island. The book, written through hundred of What’sApp messages, was awarded the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature and the Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction.

For this booked-out discussion with Sophie L'estrange, Janet Galbraith and Arnold Zable, Behrouz was streamed into the Fitzroy Reading Room from Manus Island.

Our Theme Song is Add And by Broke for Free.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

No Friend But The Mountains - Behrouz Boochani

No Friend But The Mountains - Behrouz Boochani (e-resource, Cloud Library)

Refugees : why seeking asylum is legal and Australia's policies are not - Rachel McAdams

They cannot take the sky : stories from detention - Neville, Angelica, (editor)

They cannot take the sky : stories from detention - Neville, Angelica (editor) (e-resource, Cloud Library)

If you missed out on the first Fitzroy Writers Festival here’s your chance to listen to one of our sold-out sessions.

The Growing Up African in Australia anthology, compiled by award-winning author Maxine Beneba Clarke, brings together an array of stories from African-diaspora Australians. At the Fitzroy Writers Festival Maxine discussed the collection with contributors Faustina Agolley, Santilla Chingaipe, Nyadol Nyuon and Guido Melo.

You can find Growing Up African in Australia, published by Black Inc, at your local branch of Yarra Libraries. This panel was brought to you in partnership with the Ewing Trust and Yarra Youth Services. Theme song is Add And by Broke For Free.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Growing Up African in Australia – ed. Maxine Beneba Clarke

Growing Up African in Australia (audio) – ed. Maxine Beneba Clarke

Foreign Soil – Maxine Beneba Clarke

The Hate Race – Maxine Beneba Clarke

Carrying the World – Maxine Beneba Clarke

Growing Up Asian in Australia – ed. Alice Pung

Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia – ed. Anita Heiss

Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia (audio) – ed. Anita Heiss

Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia (ebook) – ed. Anita Heiss

“If a witch is a woman on the margins then we’re all witches – because in a patriarchy all women are marginalised in one way or another.”

– Sam George-Allen

Witches, nuns, beauty vloggers, farmers, ballet dancers and weightlifters all feature in Sam George-Allen’s celebratory debut title Witches – What Women Do Together.

Sam joined us in March for an in-conversation with Ellen Cregan, Kill Your Darlings First Book Club Coordinator, at Bargoonga Nganjin, North Fitzroy Library. Together they presented a Yarra Libraries edition of the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club, a series of discussions and events featuring debut authors and their books.

This is an edited recording, with swears removed.

Our theme song is Add And by Broke for Free.

Poets Michael Farrell, Lian Low and Harry Reid held Carlton Library captive this February in a reading event organized in partnership with Australian Poetry. Jacinta Le Plastier introduced the poets, who previously read as part of The Big Bent: a poetic exploration of gender and queerness at Melbourne Writers Festival 2018. Their work ranges from first dates to kick flips and everywhere in-between.

This is an edited recording. There are a few swears and some adult themes.

Michael Farrell is a poet whose books include A Lyrebird: Selected Poems (BlazeVOX [books]), I Love Poetry (Giramondo) and Writing Australian Unsettlement: Modes of Poetic Invention 1796–1945 (Palgrave Macmillan). You can find his poetry at Yarra Libraries (and anywhere else you source your reading material).

Harry Reid is poet from Melbourne. They co-host Sick Leave, a monthly reading series at the Gasometer Hotel. Their work can be found in Overland, Australian Poetry Journal, Cordite Poetry Review and elsewhere.

Lian Low is a writer and recipient of The Wheeler Centre's inaugural Next Chapter scheme. She is currently working on a young adult speculative fiction novel.

If you liked this reading you might enjoy the Australian Poetry Soundcloud page. Have a look for more recordings of Australian poetry read aloud.

Yarra Libraries recommends from our collection:

A Lyrebird : selected poems of Michael Farrell – Michael Farrell

Out of the box : contemporary Australian gay and lesbian poets – Michael Farrell

I Love Poetry – Michael Farrell

Cocky’s Joy – Michael Farrell

“this is the great moment, the thing that women all over the world are united in, was this fight for the vote... because with the vote they’ll be able to change all these other things. Without the vote they are powerless.” – Clare Wright

As the first country to secure women the right to vote and stand for parliament, Australia led the way on one of the greatest moral issue of the early 20th Century. Yet this aspect of our history has largely been forgotten.

Clare Wright, award-winning historian, writer and public commentator, has made a career of shining light onto these forgotten aspects of Australian history. With You Daughters of Freedom she continues this work, bringing to life the women’s suffrage movement in Australia.

Late last year we had the privilege of hosting her at Bargoonga Nganjin, North Fitzroy Library, where she discussed the book with Natasha Cica, director of Kapacity.org.

This is an edited recording, with audience questions revoiced by Yarra Libraries in some sections for clarity.

Natasha Cica is the director of Kapacity.org, former CEO of Heide Museum of Modern Art and founding director of the Ingliss Clarke Centre.

Clare Wright is an award-winning historian, writer and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia and the media. Her bestselling Beyond the Ladies Lounge: Australia’s Female Publicans, was published in 2003 and was followed in 2013 with The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka. Based on a decade of archival research into women’s roles in the Eureka stockage, it won the Stella prize in 2014, and was adapted into the successful young adult titles We Are the Rebels. You Daughters of Freedom is the second title in her Democracy series.

During our Classic Dystopias Film Series at Bargoonga Nganjin, North Fitzroy Library, we pondered why we’re drawn to dystopias and what we might be able to learn from them. In our panel discussion on the topic our unpleasant future experts (Metro editor Adolfo Aranjuez, Orphancorp author Marlee Jane Ward and Peter Allen from the Victorian College of the Arts) attempted to answer these questions and others following screenings of Metropolis, Bladerunner and Alphaville.

Yarra Libraries Recommends... these dystopian films and books

Metropolis

Bladerunner

Alphaville

Children of Men

Gattaca

Blade Runner 2049

Utopia - Thomas More

From utopia to apocalypse : science fiction and the politics of catastrophe - Peter Yoonsuk Paik

The Slynx – Tatiana Tolstaya

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

The Orphancorp Series – Marlee Jane Ward

Tell us which dystopian books and films you love @yarralibraries

Laura’s Elizabeth Woollett’s novel, Beautiful Revolutionary, draws heavily on the story of the Jonestown Massacre and the People’s Temple. Through the eyes of a young couple and others, Laura examines what attracted people to Jim Jones and how a search for meaning can become something more sinister. In this recording Veronica Sullivan and Laura discuss Beautiful Revolutionary (Scribe Publications) and the appeal of this particular story. This was a Carlton After Hours event. You can find or place a hold on Beautiful Revolutionary at your local branch of Yarra Libraries.

Yarra Libraries Recommends these items from our collection

Beautiful Revolutionary – Laura Elizabeth Woollett

The Love Of A Bad Man – Laura Elizabeth Woollett

The Love of A Bad Man (e-resource) – Laura Elizabeth Woollett

The Family – Chris Johnston

The Girls – Emma Cline

The Girls – Emma Cline (e-audiobook)

The Girls – Emma Cline (e-book)