Don't Box Me In – The Literary Polymath with Thuy On and Claire G Coleman
Description
What happens when writers refuse to be pigeonholed?
Join Thuy On – poet, critic, reviewer and author of three acclaimed poetry collections including Essence (2025), and Claire G Coleman – Wirlomin Noongar author of genre-defying novels including Terra Nullius (shortlisted for the Stella Prize), The Old Lie, Enclave and the non-fiction work Lies, Damned Lies, for a wide-ranging conversation about writing across forms, genres and expectations.
Poet and novelist, critic and storyteller, journalist and speculative fiction author – nothing is off limits.
Moderated by local screenwriter, novelist and writing teacher, Philippa Burne.
All welcome.
Lineup
Meet Thuy
Thuy On is an arts journalist, critic, editor and poet. She has three collections of poetry published by UWAP: Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025). Her fourth collection, Insolence, will be published in March 2027. Thuy was the former Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and Books Editor of The Big Issue. She is one of three inaugural ambassadors of Poetry in Action.
Meet Claire
Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family have belonged to the south coast of Western Australia since long before history started being recorded. She writes fiction, essays, poetry and art criticism while either living in Naarm (Melbourne) or on the road. Born in Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar (Perth), away from her ancestral country she has lived most of her life in Victoria and most of that in and around Naarm (Melbourne). During an extended circuit of the continent she wrote a novel, influenced by certain experiences gained on the road. She has since won a Black & Write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship for that novel ,"Terra Nullius". Terra Nullius was published in Australia by Hachette Australia and in North America by Small Beer Press. Claire's second Novel, The Old Lie, was written in response to what she learned when traveling and was published in 2019 by Hachette Australia. Lies, Damned Lies, Claire's first non-fiction book, unpacking the effects of the history of Australia's colonisation, was released on the 1st of September 2021. Enclave is her third novel.
Books
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