WRITING ABOUT WOMEN, WRITING ABOUT WAR - SYDNEY WRITERS FESTIVAL 2026

Writing about women, writing about war: Barbara Demick, Sofi Oksanen, Maria Reva and Maria Tumarkin, SWF 2026

Maria Tumarkin opened this electrifying session on women, war and writing by honouring the late Ukrainian poet, novelist and human rights activist Victoria Amelina and her posthumously published book Looking at Women, Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary (2025). Dedicating the session to her memory, Tumarkin took time to reflect on the significance of Amelina’s work and the tragedy of her untimely death: she died in hospital on 1 July 2023 after being severely injured in a Russian missile strike on the pizzeria where she’d been dining.

Before she died Amelina had been working on a manuscript she’d begun after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Given she’d completed some 60 per cent of it, her husband Alex Amelin and three friends decided to finish it so they could fulfil Amelina’s desire to bring stories about Ukrainian women documenting war crimes to the world, in order ‘to uncover the truth, ensure the survival of memory, and give justice and lasting peace a chance’. Justice and legal accountability were critical for Amelina. As she told a friend in June 2022:

‘I want to write, and I’m thinking whether I can, a book of reportage on those who are documenting the war … I am especially interested in those who document war crimes with the goal of holding the perpetrators accountable.’

Paying Attention: Fiona Murphy talks with El Gibbs, Fiona Wright, Hannah Diviney and Michelle Law

Paying Attention: Fiona Murphy, El Gibbs, Fiona Wright, Hannah Diviney and Michelle Law, SWF 2022

On the last day of the Sydney Writers’ Festival 2022 I went to an afternoon session called ‘Paying Attention’. It was curated by Deaf poet and essayist Fiona Murphy, author of the acclaimed 2021 memoir The Shape of Sound.

I was there because I’m interested in the idea and practice of paying attention – and I love the writing of two of the panellists, Fiona Murphy and Fiona Wright. Beyond that I had no idea what to expect. It turned out to be a riveting, illuminating, funny and very moving conclusion to my SWF 2022.

Murphy had invited four writers with disability and chronic illness – El Gibbs (live via video), Fiona Wright, Hannah Diviney and Michelle Law – to flip the script and speak of their conditions as superpowers, as expertise they should be charging money for.

She opened by noting that we’re living in an attention economy, but it’s unevenly distributed: people with disability and chronic illness are exposed to things they have to attend even if they don’t want to.

Maxine Beneba Clarke and Omar Musa on poetry, Sydney Writers' Festival 2022

Maxine Beneba Clarke and Omar Musa on poetry, SWF 2022

This was a thrilling session between three poets: Maxine Beneba Clarke and Omar Musa in conversation with Evelyn Araluen, who asked searching questions about their beautiful new poetry collections, Beneba Clarke’s How Decent Folk Behave and Musa’s Killernova. It was a stellar panel! Araluen’s first book of poems, Dropbear, had just won the 2022 Stella Award.

Araluen opened by asking when these books were written? Where were they at when they wrote them?

Beneba Clarke said she wrote her book in 2019 and 2020. Because most of the poems were for her weekly poetry gig at The Saturday Paper, it’s the most time-specific work she’s ever written.

Araluen said it reads like an annotation of this period – and in a sense we’re still in that moment, but also not.

Hanya Yanagihara on To Paradise, Sydney Writers' Festival 2022

Hanya Yanagihara on To Paradise, SWF 2022

On Friday 20 May 2022, the City Recital Hall at Sydney’s Angel Place was buzzing. When acclaimed, much loved New York novelist Hanya Yanagihara finally appeared, the crowd exploded.

Yanagihara and SBS journalist Anton Enus have been in conversation together before, so their talk was easy, cheeky, brilliant. First they complimented each other’s clothes: her black dress and sparkly silver slippers, his gold and red shirt. Enus reminded us that Yanagihara is not just the author of bestselling sensation A Little Life (2015) – and now To Paradise (2022) – but also has a big day job, as editor of T, the New York Times Style Magazine.

When Enus opened by asking Yanagihara about her choice to write such challenging novels, she calmly replied, Readers should be made to work. It’s a great act of vulnerability to open the book and go where the writer tells you.

Ashley Hay, Sophie Cunningham, Jazz Money + Tony Birch, SWF 2022

Ashley Hay, Sophie Cunningham, Jazz Money + Tony Birch on eucalypts. SWF 2022

This SWF conversation took place at the Powerhouse Museum as part of its fascinating exhibition Eucalyptusdom, which traces the museum’s origins in Sydney’s ‘Garden Palace’. It runs until 28 August - and features Ashley Hay’s writing and Jazz Money’s art among many other things.

Here are some brief notes I took from this wide ranging conversation about gum trees, their knowledge and wisdom, and our ever-changing relationship with trees over thousands of years. Below that I’ve added an overview of Eucalyptusdom, including images of Jazz Money’s video projection Garrandarang and Damien Wright’s art piece that Tony Birch refers to.

Ashley opened by asking Jazz Money what inspired her kinetic light poem Garrandarang.

Jazz said the first book she read to prepare for her installation was Ashley’s Gum … and here she was in conversation with Ashley, meeting her for the first time.

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