Organized by Zarinah Agnew

Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean: A conversation about India, Australia and talking to each other across the universe.

Australia is a largely English-speaking postcolonial nation of 24 million people. India is a post-colonial republic of1.34 billion people that speak 1,652 different languages. Their differences may look bigger than their similarities but some truths are universal. In September, 2012 a horrific rape case drew Australians onto the streets in candle lit vigils of protest. In December, 2012 thousands of people marched the streets of Delhi by candlelight, expressing their grief and outrage at the brutal rape of a 23-year-old student. Out of that darkness, grew the stories that became a cutting-edge young adult anthology of cross-cultural collaboration - Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean. Australian author and editor, Kirsty Murray, talks about how twenty Indian and Australian writers and illustrators collaborated in cyberspace to talk about rape, misogyny and how stories can shed light on imagining alternative futures for all of us.

Bio:

Kirsty Murray is an Australian author of fiction for teenagers and children and a 2017 nominee for the Swedish prize, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world's most prestigious award for children's and young adult literature. Kirsty is a regular guest at literary festivals around the world, particularly in Asia. She has travelled widely across India and has been a writer in residence at the University of Madras in South India and the University of Himachal Pradesh in the foothills of the Himalayas. In 1979, Kirsty spent six months kicking around California which might explain why many of her stories focus on the impossible strangeness of both history and synchronicity.

Doors at 8pm, talk starts at 8.30pm on the dot!