More dates

Awards Table

This event has passed Get Tickets

Event description

Winners and short-listers of some of the most recognisable awards in the literary space, Amani Haydar (2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Nonfiction), Sara Saleh (Peter Porter Poetry prize), Jumaana Abdu (Wheeler’s Centre Next Chapter) and Sarah Malik (Walkley Award) discuss what it means to be the first Muslim to win Australia’s most prestigious awards and what recognition brings to the table.

ABOUT THE PANELLISTS

Jumaana Abdu

Jumaana Abdu is a final year medical student, currently working on her debut novel as the recipient of a Wheeler Centre Next Chapter fellowship, for which she has also undertaken a Varuna Writers’ House residency. Her work has been published in Kill Your Darlings, Overland Journal, and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Amani Haydar

Amani Haydar is an award-winning author, visual artist, lawyer and advocate for women’s health and safety based in Western Sydney. Amani’s debut memoir The Mother Wound (Pan Macmillan) has received several accolades including the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction, the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, and the Micheal Crouch Award for Debut Work. Amani was also awarded the 2021 UTS Law Alumni Award in recognition of her writing and advocacy against gender-based violence. Amani has recently illustrated The Very Best Doughnut by Randa Abdel-Fattah and is currently working on a novel. 

Sarah Malik

Sarah Malik is a Walkley Award-winning Australian journalist and writer. She has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Saturday Paper and The Sydney Morning Herald ; and she has presented and produced programs for ABC Radio National. She currently works as a senior writer at SBS.

Sara Saleh

Sara M. Saleh is a daughter of migrants from Egypt, Lebanon, and Palestine living and learning on Gadigal land. A long-time human rights activist, community organiser, educator, and campaigner for refugee rights and racial justice, she has spent over a decade in grassroots and non-governmental organisations in Australia and the Middle East. Within the Palestinian diaspora, Sara has worked to help elevate youth and build communities grounded in the interconnectedness of Indigenous struggles for self-determination.

A poet and writer, her pieces have been published in English and Arabic in various national and international outlets and anthologies. She is co-editor of the 2019 anthology Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity. Sara is the first poet to win both the Australian Book Review’s 2021 Peter Porter Poetry Prize and the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2020. Her debut novel, Songs for The Dead and The Living, and full length poetry collection, The Flirtation of Girls, are both out in 2023 inshaAllah.




Powered by

Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix donates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity




Refund policy

Refunds are available up to 1 day prior to the event