Tony Birch: The Ethical Imagination

With a particular focus on First Nations texts, this interactive presentation by beloved Australian author, poet and activist Tony Birch (The White Girl, Ghost River) will explore how lived experience and cultural background shape textual meaning.

Fostering deeper engagement, this session will encourage students to develop a curious and critical approach to reading
and interpreting texts by authors whose perspectives differ from their own.

Reading and Writing Poetry with Maxine Beneba Clarke

Acclaimed poet, fiction writer and memoirist Maxine Beneba Clarke (The Hate Race, Foreign Soil, How Decent Folk Behave, Carrying the World) shares her approach to crafting poems, and offers tips for how students can interpret, analyse and engage with poetry on the curriculum, and cultivate a strong poetic voice of their own.

Reading and Writing Fiction and Non-Fiction with Alice Pung

In this presentation, award-winning memoirist and novelist Alice Pung (Unpolished Gem, Laurinda, One Hundred Days) will discuss her creative career writing prose stories – both fictional and drawn from her own life.

Pung will guide students on how to engage with fiction and non-fiction texts on the curriculum and share inspiration about how to generate ideas and get them onto the page.

Ask Me Anything with Maxine Beneba Clarke and Alice Pung

VCE Day concludes with a no-holds-barred Ask Me Anything session bringing together the afternoon’s keynote speakers, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Alice Pung. Students will have the rare opportunity to speak directly with both writers and ask them any burning questions about their books, respective processes and extraordinary creative careers.