May 1, 2018

UOW students take part in prestigious literary festival

PhD, undergraduate students to showcase talents in poetry, prose during Sydney Writers' Festival

With the launch of the Sydney Writers' Festival on Monday (April 30), three of the University of Wollongong’s students look set to make their mark in the world of literature.

Emily Crocker, Chloe Higgins, and Michelle Cahill will be among a roster of the world’s top creative talents taking part in the week-long conversation about books and ideas.

There are more than 400 events happening throughout the nation as part of the annual event.

Chloe, who is the founder and director of Wollongong Writers' Festival, completed her undergraduate studies in Creative Writing at UOW, and is now completing her PhD in the same area.

She will perform in Talking Bodies, an evening of storytelling, in which three writers will explore their experiences with sex, grief, gender, and taking back their lives.

Chloe is an established writer whose work has appeared in Suburban Review, Prowlings, Tertangala, ZPlatt, and Kindling, and in May 2017, she won the inaugural Feminartsy Memoir Prize.

Her PhD focuses on the establishment of the narrative voice in the work of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.

Emily, who is studying a Bachelor of Arts/Law at UOW, will take part in The Rumble on Saturday (May 5), which brings poetry, rap, and monologues to the stage.

An established poet, Emily last year released her first book, Girls and Buoyant.

Current PhD student Michelle Cahill appeared in Rising From The West on Saturday (April 28), an event that focused on the rising stars of Western Sydney’s writing scene.

Michelle has a long list of works and accolades to her name. In 2017, her short story collection, Letters to Pessoa, was the winner of the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for New Writing, and was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Queensland Literary Awards.

Michelle’s work has appeared in The Weekend Australian, Sydney Review of Books, and Kill Your Darlings. Her PhD research focuses on Subaltern Shadows in Mrs Dalloway.

Sydney Writers' Festival runs until Friday (May 6).