Save the date!
PLV is proud to present an exciting online professional development session for library staff to mark National Science Week 2021. You can register here.
Can Stories Save Us? Using fiction and creative non-fiction to start conversations about climate change
Tuesday 17 August, 9.30am – 11:30am, online event. $10 per person
This event aims to raise awareness of Australian fiction and creative non‐fiction that engages with the big scientific issues of the day—including climate change, environment, mass extinctions and pandemics. We’ve brought together an enviable line-up of authors (and one poet!) who will discuss their works, and works of other writers in the field. They’ll also discuss strategies for introducing these works to readers in order to stimulate conversations in our communities.
You’ll hear these wonderful writers in a panel discussion, have a chance to ask questions in a Q&A and break off into smaller groups to discuss strategies to bring these works to attention of readers in your communities. At the end you will receive carefully curated, subject specific reading lists, book club questions and other resources to take away.
The session will take place as a Zoom meeting, so you can tune in from wherever you are. We encourage participation in the Q&A and brainstorming sections to get the most out of this event. The session will be recorded and provided to everyone who has registered for the event.
The stellar line-up includes:
Amanda Anastasi
Amanda Anastasi is an award-winning Melbourne poet who writes primarily about the effects and impacts of climate change in relatable and accessible ways. Amanda is the author of 2012 and other poems and the co-author of The Silences. She holds a BA in both Professional Writing & Editing and Literature from Deakin University and is a member of Monash University’s Climate Change Communication Research Hub. Amanda will read some of her poetry to close the event.
Amanda Niehaus
Amanda Niehaus brings skills as a biologist and award-winning writer to the panel. Based in Brisbane, Amanda (along with author Jessica White) coordinates Science Write Now, a network of people and resources that support creative writing about science. She is author of The Breeding Season, a novel about love, loss, and resilience based on the reproductive biology of northern quolls.
James Bradley
James Bradley brings experience as both a novelist and critic to the panel. His novels, which have been published internationally, explore both past and future. His novel Clade uses the story of three generations of a family to explore the possible effects of climate change over the 21st century, while Ghost Species, is set against the backdrop of hastening climate catastrophe and explores connection and loss in an age of planetary trauma.
Jane McCredie
Jane McCredie brings her great networks to the panel as CEO of Writing NSW and director of Quantum Words, a one-day festival that maps moments where science and writing converge. Jane is also a writer on science and medicine for mainstream and specialist medical publications.
Leah Kaminsky
Leah Kaminsky is a physician and award-winning writer, whose work explores illness, medicine, science and the end of life. She is the author of ten books and holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. With Meg Keneally, Leah edited Animals Make Us Human, which celebrates Australia’s unique wildlife and highlights its vulnerability. Leah also brings experience teaching Using Science as Your Muse for writers and co-moderating of the Facebook group, Writing for the Environment, to the panel.
This event is part of the Inspiring Victoria ACCLIMATISE program for National Science Week.
