Sam Leung

“Being part of the program has also given me a lot more confidence. I think before it I never would’ve considered myself a writer.”

Heartlines explores what it means to write – from the heart and soul – and where that writing takes us. Every writer’s journey is different, so we invite you to take a moment to read, pause and reflect on what it means to shape stories for the page.

Sam Leung is a writer, editor and storyteller with a background in events and marketing in the arts and education. She’s worked with organisations across the country, including the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

Centre for Stories: What are you currently reading and why?

Sam Leung: Right now, I’m reading Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang. It was a birthday gift from one of my closest friends and (fellow writer) Edie Mitsuda. So far, it’s beautiful. The titular story is about a young Chinese woman and her violinist husband living in New York as their dreams slowly slip away. I’m also midway through The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu and Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez.

CFS: What inspired you to pursue writing and why?

SL: I actually wanted to be an editor and had planned to study publishing overseas, but COVID-19 happened, and there went that plan. So, I thought, ‘Well, lots of writers become editors, I’ll just become a writer!’ It was my own Legally Blonde moment. I wrote my first story for a call out for the Growing Up in Country Australia anthology and somehow managed to get published.

CFS: Is there a particular book that changed your life?

SL: Susannah Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Ken Liu’s short story collection, The Paper Menagerie. I read a story from the latter whenever I’m stuck. He’s so inventive, and I love how he plays with form – his stories run like documentaries, ethnographies, and folktales. Jonathan Strange is the most incredible alternative history of magic, returning to England during the Napoleonic Wars. It’s an amazing feat in world-building, and it’s filled with footnotes that cover other ‘historical’ facts and tell fables that form the world.

CFS: What do you prefer doing in your free time?

SL: I read a lot and am a big film and television person. I also play water polo and love the beach. And I really like chess. My current goal is to become good at chess.

CFS: What inspired you to join the program?

SL: I struggle to write and am terrible at being disciplined and writing regularly. I thought the accountability of a mentor would really help. I also wanted to try fiction but was apprehensive about getting started.

CFS: How has having your mentor shaped your writing so far?

SL: My mentor, Melanie Hobbs, has been great. I think just having regular catch-ups, getting feedback and setting deadlines has made a huge difference. Mel’s also been really good at suggesting strategies. So far, I’ve cut up my story, physically pieced it back together, and done a complete blank-page rewrite. Being part of the program has also given me a lot more confidence. I think before it I never would’ve considered myself a writer.

CFS: Briefly describe a piece you were working on during your mentorship that you are excited about.

SL: I’ve been working on a speculative fiction piece set in a world where memories can be captured to lengthen lives. Beginning as a collective or community tradition, the process of memory impartation has been commercialised and is now largely available only to the wealthy. In the story, we follow a young woman fascinated with the remembrèn – those who are capable of extracting memory – as she meets a traditional practitioner and comes to learn the origins of the craft.

Writing Change, Writing Inclusion is Centre for Stories’ signature writing program for 2021 to 2024. Generously funded by The Ian Potter Foundation, Australia Council for the Arts, My Place, and Centre for Stories Founders Circle, this writing program features mentoring, hot desk, and publication opportunities for emerging writers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and/or Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

These stories have been licensed to the Centre for Stories by the Storyteller. For reproduction and distribution of these stories, please contact the Centre for Stories.

This interview was published on 17 June 2024.