Join us as we celebrate Marcella Polain’s new book, Driving into the Sun, a novel exploring life in 1960s Perth for 11-year-old Orla, her mother and little sister after her father’s tragic death. It’s a beautifully written tale of girlhood and grief, burgeoning adolescence, family and the perils of growing up in a man’s world without a father’s guidance.

Marcella will share the inspiration behind the novel, followed by short readings from Jan Teagle Kapetas, Morgan Yasbincek and Shevaun Cooley.

Marcella Polain was born in Singapore and immigrated to Australia at the age of two with her Irish father and Armenian mother. She writes poetry, narrative fiction and lyric essays; her work has been published nationally and internationally, and in translation. Her first novel, The Edge of the World  (2007, Fremantle Press) was shortlisted for a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. She has published three collections of poetry: Dumbstruck won the Anne Elder Poetry Prize, Each Clear Night was shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Prize for Poetry and Therapy Like Fish: New and Selected Poems was shortlisted for the Judith Wright Prize. She is Senior Lecturer in the Writing program at Edith Cowan University, Perth.

Jan Teagle Kapetas has worked as a writer, tutor, playwright, poet and project facilitator in community arts for more than twenty years. She has taught creative writing and conducted performance workshops across Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Morgan Yasbincek is an award-winning West Australian poet and novelist. She has published three collections of poetry, the most recent is White Camel by John Leonard Press. Her first collection, Night Reversing, won both the Anne Elder and Mary Gilmore Poetry Awards.

Shevaun Cooley is a Western Australian poet, essayist, and climber. Her poetry has been published in Cordite, Island, Poetry Wales, Meanjin, Southerly, The Best Australian Poems (2009, 2017), and she has been shortlisted for both the Newcastle Poetry Prize, and the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize.

This event is free but registration is essential! Please fill out the form below to confirm your attendance.