What does it take to remake yourself? Come join La Trobe’s award-winning writer and teacher, Ilka Tampke, as we celebrate the launch of her latest novel, How to Love the World. Ilke will be in conversation with Stella Prize winning author and Lecturer in Creative Writing at La Trobe, Dr Carrie Tiffany, to discuss motherhood and mythology, forests and family life, nature, healing and the dark heart of memory. There will be audience Q&A, book sales, author signings and complimentary refreshments.

The Launches @ the Library series is hosted by Prof Clare Wright, Professor of Public Engagement, and is sponsored by DVC-R and the La Trobe Library. Catch up on past events on the Literary La Trobe podcast.

Ilka Tampke is an award-winning author of three novels, an academic and a teacher. Her first novel, Skin, was published in eight countries and nominated for the Voss Literary Prize and the Aurealis Awards in 2015. Songwoman was published in five countries and won the Small Press Network Book of the Year Award in 2019.

Ilka is an associate lecturer in Creative Writing at La Trobe University, where she is currently completing a PhD in forest poetics. She was a Glenfern Fellow in 2012 and the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre Writer in Residence in 2019. She has taught workshops and presented at many festivals and organisations around Australia.

Her latest novel is How to Love the World, published in May 2026 by Summit, an imprint of Simon and Schuster.

“How To Love The World is a remarkable book. It conveys a tender love for Country and family, while recognising the destructive potential of both. This is also a story of courage and nail-biting drama. Ilka Tampke is a writer who deeply values language and storytelling. This is a book that will not leave you.” — Tony Birch

“What does it take to remake yourself? How to Love the World doesn’t shy away from the intensity and challenges such as reckoning demands. The result is a book that is as life affirming and beautiful as it is shattering.” — Sophie Cunningham

Contact the host of Launches at the Library: How To Love the World