Sunday Salon: Work-In-Progress Readings (October)

Welcome to the Sunday Salon: Work-In-Progress Readings. A cosy evening of new work, with readings by a new lineup every month.

In October our readers are:

Tracy Crisp's latest book Pearls: Memoir Strands was recently launched by publisher Pink Shorts Press. Pearls is based on the stories of her six solo monologues which she has been writing, performing and producing since 2018. Tracy has previously published two novels, Black Dust Dancing and Surrogate with Wakefield Press. She is working on her third novel manuscript and in 2026 will be reading work-in-progress extracts from this new manuscript.

David Brooks is a public historian, researcher and writer whose work explores the hidden stories that shape people and places. He is not as posh as that or his middle initials make him sound.His creative work spans essays, performance pieces and narrative non-fiction, including the ongoing Secret Race Round Ups series — comedic micro‑essays about everyday life, identity and the strange rituals we invent to survive. He is currently developing his debut novel, a work that blends humour, history and the quiet tensions of ordinary lives.David’s writing is driven by curiosity, character and a love of the small things.

Ruth Estelle Ruth writes plays, novels, feature films, web series, animation, and TV series. She has had multiple screen projects optioned, and funded development through state and national agencies. Ruth script edited MY EYES and SUKA and was an intimacy coordinator on WITH OR WITHOUT YOU. Ruthco-writes with fellow Word Ninja, Pete Monaghan. Their animation WISHES (Karu-Karu) won the 2025 SPA Award and the SASA 2025 Best Short Film Award. As well as developing projects with Pete, Ruth runs workshops, script clubs, and consultations for writers. She assists Culturally And Linguistically Diverse women screenwriters with project development, writers’ room skills, and pitch materials. Ruth also edits children’s books and writes weekly pieces as 100% HUMAN on Substack. Ruth’s Screen Australia funded TV dramedy with original songs about a group of women experiencing homelessness – SHAREHOUSE – is based on Ruth’s lived experience.

Pete Monaghan, with Ruth Estelle, is one half of writing partnership, Word Ninjas. Their feature film Run to Paradise is in pre-production with Brouhaha Entertainment. Word Ninjas are pitching family feature The Secret Ingredient to market. Pete’s co-written television series Kinmont Brown, a supernatural twisted history, The Balmain Bookclub, a cosy mystery, and Honey Gum Creek, a live-action kids show, are all optioned and for sale. Musical television dramedy, Sharehouse, is in late development funded by Screen Australia and the SAFC. Pete has an unpublished comedy crime novel, The Joke’s on You, and children’s manuscript, Betty and Veronica’s Adventure of a Lifetime. Pete is a credited Script Editor/Story Consultant who works with clients to improve their writing work. Pete also works as a mentor for writers with intellectual challenges.

Molly Murn is a South Australian poet and author and is also the manager of Matilda Bookshop. She lives/works/creates on Peramangk country in the Adelaide Hills. Her debut novel Heart of the Grass Tree was published (by Vintage) in 2019, and her poetry has appeared in various places, such as Overland, Transnational Literature, and Social Alternatives. Molly received the Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship as part of the South Australian Literary Awards in 2025 for an early version of her second novel Radiance—the finished novel is due to be published in early 2027. Radiance draws on the biography of the Australian artist Hilda Rix Nicholas, and explores deserts, artmaking, bird and human migration, and the role art plays in navigating lines of human connection. The novel also interrogates parenting, desire, grief, and the effects of those states of being on women’s agency and creativity. For the Sunday Salon, Molly will be reading excerpts from the unpublished novel, including poems and fragments, as well as a ‘write the day’ prompt.