Inner Exploration

with Joy Harjo & Ali Cobby Eckermann / chaired by Michael Williams

USA/AUSTRALIA

When Joy Harjo became US Poet Laureate in June 2019, she became the first Native American to hold that position. Ali Cobby Eckermann was the first Aboriginal Australian to win Yale University’s prestigious Windham-Campbell prize, awarded annually for excellence in writing. These two trailblazing women are powerful voices in international literature, complex, activist, and authentic. They describe the challenges they have overcome to achieve their stunning literary success, and how they write them into their poems.

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This session has been modified following Tommy Orange’s decision to cancel his appearances to Adelaide Writers’ Week, Perth Festival and Melbourne – City of Literature due to family reasons. We apologise for the disappointment, and hope to welcome him at a later date.

Participants

Joy Harjo is the US Poet Laureate. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. Her seven books of poetry have garnered many awards, including the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas; and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. Her most recent publication is For a Girl Becoming, a young adult/coming of age book.

Ali Cobby Eckermann’s first poetry collection little bit long time was written in the desert. Its 2009 publication launched her literary career. Her verse novel Ruby Moonlight won the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry and Book Of The Year at the 2013 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and in 2014 she was the inaugural recipient of the Tungkunungka Pintyanthi Fellowship at Adelaide Festival Literary Awards. In 2017 Ali received a Windham-Campbell Award for Poetry from Yale University. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at RMIT Melbourne.

Michael Williams is the Director of the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne.

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WHEN

Mon 02 Mar, 3:45pm

WHERE

Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden
East Stage

DURATION

1 hr

NOTE

This session will be available for live streaming to libraries, schools and retirement villages: click here for more information.

ACCESS

Wheelchair accessible
Auslan interpreted
- on request

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