Writing The Rainbow is a festival of LGBTIQ writers and readers hosted at Realm, Ringwood. The festival explores stories and ideas, focusing on text, performance and the experience of reading in the context of queer history, language and discourse.
As well as talks by acclaimed authors, there is a workshop for emerging writers, rainbow family storytimes for kids, quiet reading for reflection and relaxation, some cabaret and live music for fun, plus plenty of books to talk about.
Please join us and celebrate the rainbow!
Writing the Rainbow is proudly supported by the Victorian Government.
Tuesday 17 September,
6.30-8pm
6.30-8pm
Celebrate the launch of the
inaugural Writing the Rainbow
festival at Realm! After enjoying
some drinks, hear Mayor of
Maroondah, Councillor Rob
Steane, introduce author and
transgender activist Nevo Zisin,
who will open the festival and
speak about their life journey.
Nevo Zisin is an educator, public speaker, Jewish, transgender, queer and feminist activist, and youth leader. They are the author of Finding Nevo, an autobiography about gender and the always complex journey towards self-affirmation.
Wednesday 18 September,
6.30-7.30pm
6.30-7.30pm
Melbourne’s queer literature history and culture comes under the microscope
at this session. Three eminent scholars will share their thoughts on queer
experience in written posterity, answering questions around the process of
inviting and collecting stories, building bridges between communities, and
preserving lived queer experience for future generations.
Dr Michael Hurley is
an honorary Associate
Professor at La Trobe
University where he worked
primarily as an HIV social
researcher. In 1996 while
teaching Textual and
Cultural Studies at the
University of Technology,
Sydney, he published the
seminal reference work A
Guide to to Gay and Lesbian
Writing in Australia which
was the formative text on
the subject and continues
to provide a window into the
complex development
of Melbourne’s queer
literature history.
Dr Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli
has gained international
recognition as a writer,
researcher, lecturer and
consultant in the issues of
cultural diversity, gender
diversity, sexual diversity,
family diversity, HIV/AIDS,
and social diversity in health
and education, with a specific
focus on adolescence and
young people. Most recently
she edited Living and Loving
in Diversity: An anthology
of Australian multicultural
queer adventures.
Dr Dino Hodge is an Honorary
Senior Fellow at the University
of Melbourne’s Centre for
Indigenous Studies. His
1993 book Did you meet
any malagas?, documents
the multi-racial facets of
Darwin’s gay community. Dino
subsequently was invited
to collaborate on Colouring
the Rainbow, bringing a
national focus to the often
overlooked contributions of
queer and trans First Nations
Australians.
Thursday 19 September,
11-11.45am
11-11.45am
Join us for stories, poems, songs and craft
with Disability and Queer Rights Activist
and performance poet Jax Jacki Brown.
Friday 20 September,
6.30-7.30pm
6.30-7.30pm
Benjamin Law is a writer, broadcaster
and journalist whose latest book is
the anthology Growing Up Queer in
Australia. Benjamin will talk about
compiling the book using voices from
across the spectrum of LGBTIQA+
identity. He will also share his
experience of writing comedy with his
sister (Shit Asian Mother’s Say); sex
advice with his mother (Law School);
and how it felt to put his own childhood
on screen in The Family Law.
Saturday 21 September,
10.30-12.30pm
10.30-12.30pm
Join us for an intimate workshop on the craft of writing your story, whether you’re writing for publication, wellbeing or just to find a creative outlet.
Narrelle M Harris publishes in a number of genres and her books include:
– a vampire adventure in modern Melbourne
– Sherlock Holmes and John Watson falling in love across time
– a racy lesbian romance in the Middle East
– two flightless people discovering each other in a world of wings
– a rock band that fights monsters with magical music
– a queer paranormal thriller set in the heart of London
– a vampire adventure in modern Melbourne
– Sherlock Holmes and John Watson falling in love across time
– a racy lesbian romance in the Middle East
– two flightless people discovering each other in a world of wings
– a rock band that fights monsters with magical music
– a queer paranormal thriller set in the heart of London
Monday 23 September,
5:30 – 7:30pm
Young people in Maroondah, as part of the HEY Grant Project (Queer Voices), have been selected to share their unique stories and develop their public speaking and storytelling skills. Hear them speak from the heart and take control of their own narratives at this special event.
Tuesday 24 September,
6:30 – 7:30pm
Join us in Realm’s cosy reading area for an evening of
queer reads. This session is for anyone to visit, relax,
read and chat about queer-themed material in a
completely safe and supportive environment.
Speculative writing, fearless storytelling
Panel Discussion
Wednesday 25 September,
6.30-7.30pm
6.30-7.30pm
Taking one’s own lived queer experience and weaving it into your writing is a
welcome challenge to these writers. Hear from some of Melbourne’s best known
experimental queer authors about their approaches to writing speculative fiction,
and their thoughts about what makes writing ‘queer’
This discussion will be chaired by Justine Hyde: critic, author and essayist, the former Director of Experience at State Library Victoria, and an outspoken expert on Melbourne’s modern queer literature scene.
Quinn Eades, is a researcher,
writer and poet, and author
of All The Beginnings: A
Queer Autobiography of
the Body. He is also the
founding editor of Australia’s
only interdisciplinary, peer
reviewed, gender, sexuality
and diversity studies journal,
Writing from Below.
Marlee Jane Ward is a
Melbourne-based queer
author whose debut
novella, Welcome To
Orphancorp, won Seizure’s
Viva La Novella 3 and the
2016 Victorian Premiers
Literary Award for Young
Adult Fiction. Two sequels
have followed.
Angela Meyer is a Melbourne-based queer author of fiction and non-fiction. Her works have appeared in Best Australian Stories, Island, The Big Issue, The Australian, ,The Lifted Brow and Killings. Her debut novel, A Superior Spectre, has been shortlisted for several awards.
Thursday 26th September,
11-11.45am
11-11.45am
Join us for a very special storytime!
Dolly Diamond is one of Australia’s
finest comedy cabaret talents and a
jewel in the crown of Melbourne’s queer
entertainment scene. She will take
families on a journey through some
welcoming and wondrous picture books.
Dolly Diamond is one of
Australia’s finest comedy cabaret
talents and a Melbourne icon. She
was awarded Artist of the Year at
the inaugural GLOBE Community
Awards in 2014, and has worked
extensively with Victorian LGBTIQ
community organisations. She is
also a fierce lover of libraries and
we couldn’t be happier that she is
returning to Ringwood!
Thursday 26 September,
6.30-8pm
6.30-8pm
Round out the festival with a
naughty grown-ups storytime from
Dolly Diamond! Stories don’t stop being fun when we get big, they
just get a bit more exciting!