Student and SWEATSHOP author to address Stella Schools event for young female writers
Emerging writer and Western Sydney University student Winnie Dunn has been chosen to deliver the keynote address at a special Stella Schools series of workshops across Australia aimed at empowering young female writers.
Taking place across the east coast of Australia, Girls Write Up is a series of special events for teenage writers, featuring panels and practical workshops to help participants discover their own creative voice.
Participants have the chance to work with authors and other artists to learn how to use their writing to define their identities and shape the world around them.
A Tongan writer from Mount Druitt, Winnie is currently the manager of SWEATSHOP, and has recently graduated from a Bachelor of Arts at Western Sydney University. She is currently enrolled in a Master of Research, and her work has been published in The Vocal, The Big Black Thing, Voiceworks and The Lifted Brow.
She says the Stella Schools Program is an inspiration for Australian women, and she's proud to be a part of an event championing diversity in writing.
"Diversity in literature is crucial, as people from diverse backgrounds need to be able to tell their own stories, in their own voice," Winnie says.
"In my keynote address, I talk to the young writers about growing up in Mount Druitt, and how I would read stories and consume media without people like me, and it would make me hate mystelf."
"In addition to boosting the representation of multicultural artists in Australia, it's important we move past false representations, such as Chris Lilley's Jonah from Tonga, to reclaim how our cultures are portrayed."
Joining Winnie at Girls Write Up are fellow members of SWEATSHOP: Western Sydney Literacy Movement, including Western Sydney writer Tamar Chnorhokian, emerging Assyrian-Australian writer Monikka Eliah and Vietnamese-Australian writer Shirley Le.
Sweatshop is a literacy movement based at the Writing and Society Research Centre, and is dedicated to achieving equality for western Sydney communities through literacy and critical thinking.
For more information about Girls Write Up please visit the Stella website.
Ends
22 June 2017
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