In 2022, the Discipline of English is hosting the inaugural John Rowe Writers-in-Residence from 5–9 September. Reading and writing contemporary Australian literature is fundamental to understanding and engaging with the major themes and issues shaping Australian lived experience. It is a key activity of English, particularly in Australian Literary Studies and Creative Writing.

This lecture focuses on Quinn Eades’s autobiography, all the beginnings: a queer autobiography of the body, which charts the author’s writerly, m(otherly), bodily, transformative/trans experience in its ‘examination of a life marked by trauma and joy’ (back cover). A hybrid text that places the body at the centre of theory and of writing, all the beginnings has been described as ‘incredibly generous’ and ‘mind-bending, gender-bending, genre-bending’ (Cordite Poetry Review). Quinn Eades will be joined by Francesca Rendle-Short as discussant in this lecture.

This is a hybrid event. Please register as places are limited. Register for either Zoom or in-person here.