Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Monday 23 September
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Our thumping hearts can’t be – won’t be – stilled at the Heartbeat Edition of Next Big Thing, when we hear from some great new writers whose work is concerned with racing pulses, high stakes, young love and coming of age.
Nina Kenwood’s YA novel It Sounded Better in My Head is a tender exploration of first love, friendship and all the horrifying awkwardness of navigating young adulthood. R.W.R. McDonald’s The Nancys is a darkly funny novel about an unlikely uncle-niece detective team. Yamiko Marama’s essay, ‘The Equality of Love’ (published in Growing Up Queer in Australia) reflects on a blossoming relationship and the impact of the same-sex marriage survey. And Tiia Kelly’s essay comes from the upcoming edition of Voiceworks (#116 Pluto).
Readings will be our bookseller for this event.
Featuring
Nina Kenwood
Nina Kenwood is a writer, who lives in Melbourne. She won the 2018 Text Prize for her debut young adult novel, It Sounded Better in My Head.
R.W.R. McDonald
R.W.R. (Rob) McDonald is a Kiwi living in Melbourne with his two daughters and an extended rainbow family including HarryCat and Stevie Nicks the chicken. He attended Faber Academy's Writing a Novel Stage 1 and Stage 2 and an excerpt of The Nancys was published in the Faber Writing Academy 'Writing a Novel' Anthology, Allen & Unwin (2016). Rob realised while studying journalism that writing fiction, rather than reporting facts, was his true bent. The Nancys was Highly Commended for an Unpublished Manuscript in the 2017 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards.
Yamiko Marama
Yamiko Marama is a writer, therapist and food truck owner from Melbourne. An inaugural recipient of The Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter Fellowship, she is currently working on a debut memoir that explores family relationships, alongside growing up as an Australian woman of African heritage. Yamiko is also a contributor to the anthology Growing Up Queer in Australia.
Tiia Kelly
Tiia Kelly is a writer and editor living in Naarm. She’s interested in everyday performance, online ephemera, and the influence of pop culture in how we construct our identities. Her work can be found in The Guardian, Overland, The Big Issue, Kill Your Darlings, Junkee, and elsewhere. In 2021, she participated in the MIFF Critics Campus and was shortlisted for the Deakin University Nonfiction Prize. She currently edits nonfiction for Voiceworks.
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