Lowly Creatures: Literature, Land and the Life Beneath Our Feet
About the event
Explore where literature meets agriculture, philosophy meets practice, and conversations about worms open up bigger questions about how we live in and care for the world.
This unique day is inspired by Lowly Creatures, Gaspard Koenig's thought-provoking work of French literature and philosophy. Through conversation and lunch at Babbington Park, the celebrated regenerative farm created by chef and farmer Annie Smithers, we consider some of the most overlooked yet essential participants in human life: the creatures beneath our feet.
Hosted by Professor Jacqueline Dutton, we ask how literature can help us understand the contemporary challenges facing small-scale agriculture, environmental sustainability, and our relationship with the natural world. Through conversations with Annie Smithers, translator Stephanie Smee, and composting and soil expert Richard Thomas, attendees will be invited to think across disciplines and engage with big questions about land, food, ecology, and culture.
What to expect:
A copy of Lowly Creatures translated by Stephanie Smee.
Lively discussion, a shared lunch, and a visit to Babbington Park's compost system to explore the vital role of worms in soil health and regenerative farming.
Tickets
$120 per person. Please note this event is part of the 2026 Being Human Festival program and has been subsidised by the Melbourne Public Humanities Initiative in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne.
Being Human 2026
This project was produced in collaboration with the 2026 Being Human Festival. Founded in the UK as the only national festival of the humanities, Being Human is now a global celebration dedicated to demonstrating the breadth, diversity and vitality of the humanities.
Lineup
Professor Jacqueline Dutton
Jacqueline (Jackie) Dutton is Professor of French Studies at the University of Melbourne where she focuses on literature, cinema, food, wine, travel and utopia as intercultural products of global, national, and regional geopolitics. She has published widely in all of these areas and her co-edited book The Routledge Handbook of Wine and Culture won the Organisation Internationale du Vin prize in 2023. She is Founding Director of The Pinot Noir Project (www.thepinotnoirproject.org) and Co-Chair of the Global Humanities Alliance - Sustainability and Climate Change Working Group (https://globalhumanitiesalliance.org/).
Stephanie Smee
Stephanie is an award-winning literary translator who works primarily from French into English, with additional expertise in German, Italian and Swedish. After practising law in Sydney and London, she returned to her passion for languages, transitioning from legal translation to literary works. Her acclaimed translations include Claire Berest’s FRIDA, Antoine Wauters’ The Museum of Contradictions, Pascal Janovjak’s The Rome Zoo, Hélène Gaudy’s A World with No Shore, and Joseph Ponthus’s On the Line. Stephanie has also translated works by Hannelore Cayre and Françoise Frenkel, bringing internationally celebrated and thought-provoking stories to English-speaking readers worldwide.
Annie Smithers
Annie Smithers is one of Australia’s most respected chefs and a pioneer of the paddock-to-plate approach. For more than 30 years, she has championed seasonal, locally sourced food, spending the past 25 years in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges and Hepburn region. At her acclaimed restaurant, du Fermier in Trentham, Annie creates a daily menu featuring produce from her own garden and orchard, alongside ethically sourced local meats. Known for her warm, no-fuss teaching style, her cooking masterclasses regularly sell out. Annie is also an accomplished author, columnist and broadcaster, with her 2024 book Kitchen Sentimental reflecting on food, life and career.
Richard Thomas
Richard founded Wormlovers in 2002 to supply worm farming products for agricultural use and to the public. In 2013 he launched the current iteration of the business which expanded operations to provide worm farming services to councils, schools, businesses and community organisations. Richard is an artist, event producer, environmentalist and a total soil nerd.
Further information
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