Literature Day Out - Authors and poets in conversation and reading from their works - PRIDEFEST 2026 - Pride WA

10.30am DOORS OPEN

11.00am – 1.00pm | Session 1
Scott-Patrick Mitchell in conversation with Kaya Ortiz (they/them) and Fi Wilkes

Two poets and a novelist walk into a session about memory, belonging and the stories we carry. Kaya Ortiz, whose award-winning debut Time. Memory. Mirror. Past & Parallel Lives is a poetic return to self after migration, religion and coming out, joins Fi Wilkes, whose novel I Remember Everything follows a found family of queer friends through the AIDS epidemic, and Scott-Patrick Mitchell, whose debut collection Clean tackled methamphetamine addiction head on. Expect fearless honesty, big feelings and a bit of joy.

1.30pm – 3.30pm | Session 2
Terri-ann White in conversation with Sam Elkin and Scott-Patrick Mitchell

Terri-ann White has published around 450 books, founded the beloved Arcane Bookshop and championed writing that stretches how stories are told. Here she sits down with two writers who do exactly that. Sam Elkin's Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga turns a lawyer's eye and a comedian's timing on queer life, and Scott-Patrick Mitchell brings fresh poems fizzing with prize-winning energy. What makes a book worth making, and how do bold voices find their readers?

4.00pm – 5.20pm | Session 3
Author Readings

Close the day out loud. Every author from today's sessions takes the stage to read from their work, so you can hear the words in the voices that wrote them.

Terri-ann White (she / her) was Director and Publisher at UWA Publishing from 2006 until June 2020 and in that time published around 450 books: fiction, poetry, narrative non-fiction, scholarly, and art and natural science monographs. Prior to this, she founded and directed a cross-disciplinary research centre at UWA, taught literature and writing in universities, was a bookseller for 16 years (the creator of the beloved Arcane Bookshop), and organised 'ideas' festivals.

Terri-ann is also a writer of fiction and non-fiction, and a serious enthusiast of dance and music and visual arts as well as literature that extends boundaries of how stories are told and language is worked.

Sam Elkin (he / him) is a writer, lawyer and co-editor of Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia (Allen & Unwin, 2022). Born in England and raised on Noongar land, Sam now lives on unceded Wurundjeri land. Sam’s essays have been published in the Griffith Review, Australian Book Review, Sydney Review of Books and Kill Your Darlings. He hosts the 3RRR radio show Queer View Mirror and is a Tilde Melbourne Trans & Gender Diverse Film Festival board member.

Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga is his first book. It was shortlisted in the National Biography Award in 2025, shortlisted in the 2025 Victorian Premier’s Literary Prize for Humour, and shortlisted in The North American Foreword Indie Awards for LGBTQ+ non-fiction.

Scott-Patrick Mitchell (they / them) is a queer non-binary poet living on Whadjuk Noongar Country. They were the recipient of the 2022 Red Room Poetry Fellowship, Westerly’s 2022 Mid-Career Fellowship and the 2023 winner of The XYZ Prize for Innovation in Spoken Word. Their debut poetry collection Clean (Upswell Publishing, 2022) explored their lived experience of methamphetamine addiction. Clean was shortlisted for The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, The WA Premier’s Book Awards and The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. In 2025, Mitchell completed a National Library of Australia Creative Writing Fellowship. Poems in this new collection have been shortlisted or placed in such competitions as The Plaza Poetry Prize, The Newcastle Poetry Prize, The ACU Poetry Prize and The Blake Poetry Prize. 

Incantations to a Drowned Canyon (2027)

In this new collection, Scott-Patrick Mitchell writes about Perth Canyon, a geomorphic structure carved into the continental shelf, just off the West Australian coast, a place almost no-one can visit and few know exists. These poems chart unseen landscapes, what it means to travel toward (or away from) disaster, and how we carry trauma over such distances. This is a book about light and desire, about splintering into pieces and parts while enduring the hydrostatic crush of life. Walk with SPM from Two Rocks to Fremantle, and back again, and you too will hear Perth Canyon, reaching up from the deep. 

Fiona Wilkes (she / her) is a writer, researcher and educator, specialising in English and Literary Studies. Her work has been published locally, nationally and internationally, and has garnered attention from several literary awards. Born in the United Kingdom, Fiona now lives and works in Perth, Western Australia, on unceded Whadjuk Noongar land. Her debut novel, I Remember Everything, was shortlisted for the 2024 Hungerford Award.

I Remember Everything is a fictional story told in the manner of a memoir. It follows Billie from 1979 to 1990, moving from university life in Bristol to crowded share houses in London. She and her childhood friend Laura build a "found family" of gay, queer and trans friends, until the AIDS epidemic arrives and Billie cares for her friends through illness and death. Thirty years on, Billie writes to celebrate the lives of those friends, in a story of queer joy, tragedy and the strength to love deeply.

Kaya Ortiz (they / them) is a queer Filipino poet of in/articulate identities and record-keeper of ancient histories.

Kaya hails from the southern islands of Mindanao and lutruwita/Tasmania and is obsessed with the fluidity of borders, memory and time.

Winner of the 2024 Dorothy Hewett Award

Winner of the Dr Charmaine Papertalk Green Smith Prize for Poetry (WA Premier's Book Awards 2026)

Commended for the Five Islands Prize for a first book of poetry 2025 

Shortlisted for the 2026 NSW Literary Award 

Time. Memory. Mirror. Past & Parallel Lives is a rippling reflection on being alien, queer, and other. These poems yearn for home and belonging after migration, religion, and coming out. Kaya Ortiz’s award-winning debut shines with authenticity – this is a courageous departure from a past life, towards a queer future and a poetic return to self.