Today, Wednesday 8 March, is International Women’s Day and UN Women’s theme for 2023 is ‘Cracking the Code: Innovation for a gender equal future’. Innovation is a driver of change and by embracing new technologies and championing the unique skills and knowledge of women, we can accelerate our progress towards a gender equal future.
The Brisbane Writer’s Festival team (of nearly all women!) want to celebrate this day by highlighting literary women and their powerful and innovative works.
Bernadine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
A spectacular novel in which the reader finds themselves traversing the minds and lives of several female characters as they move through the decades, each telling their story in a unique voice. Emotionally engaging and captivating; Evaristo magnificently intertwines the women’s lives and captures the reader’s heart along the way. A must read.
– Melissa Bates, CEO
Grace Chan, Every Version of You
It’s not often that I find one of those books that makes me sit in awed contemplation after reading the last line, but this was one of them. Every Version of You was like a gorgeous, heart-wrenching Black Mirror episode that had me staying up way too late to finish it, hanging onto the unravelling threads of the relationships in the book just like the main character Tao-Yi was, and questioning how evolving alongside technology can change what it means to be human. I read it last November, and I’m still thinking about it.
– Emily Bowman, Program Manager (Youth & Online)
Kyung-Sook Shin, Violets
The protagonist San navigates her way through the world with the weight of a rejected childhood love that was suddenly broken apart by her instigation of intimacy. The painful memories of Namae stay hidden, but slowly unfurl in her mind as she navigates her adult life in Seoul. I wasn't sure how to navigate San's passivity, but as I continue through this book, I am beginning to understand Kyung-Sook Shin's intentions; she has built this detached world that San resides in so intricately and it has drawn me in deeply and unexpectedly.
– Cieon Hilton, Artist Services
Donna Tartt, The Secret History
Compelling, chilling, and perfectly crafted, Tartt’s The Secret History is a cult classic. When a group of intellectual and eccentric college outcasts fall under the spell of an alluring classics professor they embark on a journey that ultimately—and the reader knows it from the outset—culminates in murder. Don’t even try to put it down!
– Leigh Holdaway, Acting Operations & Special Events Manager
Jackie Huggins, Sister Girl
I was lucky enough to see Jackie Huggins in conversation with Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson last year, speaking about their seminal books Sister Girl (Huggins), and Talkin’ Up To The White Woman (Moreton-Robinson). Sister Girl has been reissued after 24 years, gathering essays from as far back as Huggins’ earliest works, which remain vitally relevant. I had first read this book in university and it was instrumental in expanding my perspectives on identity, feminism and the ramifications of the Australian political landscape at a micro and macro level. Reading this reissue reinvigorated me to stay active in reconciliation, and I cannot recommend this book more highly.
– Nadia Jade, Marketing Manager