The Rot: Evelyn Araluen in conversation

The Rot is the searing new collection from Goorie and Koori poet Evelyn Araluen, a powerful follow-up to her Stella Prize-winning Dropbear. In this urgent and lyrical work, Araluen confronts colonial decay, ecological grief, and cultural survival with unflinching clarity. Moderated by artist and broadcaster Leah Manaema Avene, this event promises an evening of fierce poetry, political reckoning, and uncompromising truth from one of Australia’s most vital literary voices.

You can purchase copies of The Rot on the night, supplied by Amplify Bookstore.

Place a hold on The Rot via the Yarra Libraries catalogue.

About Evelyn Araluen:

Evelyn Araluen is a Goorie and Koori poet, editor and researcher. Born and raised on Dharug Country and in the broader Western Sydney Black community, she now lives on Wurundjeri Country where she works as a lecturer at the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, as a co-editor of Overland Literary Journal and Chairperson for the Board of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies. Her debut poetry collection, Dropbear, won the 2022 Stella Prize and the Australian Book Industry Award’s 2022 Small Publisher’s Adult Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the premier’s awards of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. Her work has also received the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers, the Judith Wright Poetry Prize and a Melbourne Prize Career Development Award.

About Leah Manaema Avene:

Leah Manaema Avene (she/them) is a mother, musician, therapist, broadcaster, facilitator, researcher and educator. Leah’s bloodlines have been shaped by the Pacific Ocean and the islands of Tuvalu through her father’s line and the landscapes of Ireland through her mother’s. Leah was raised on unceded Kulin Nations lands along the coastline of Waddawurrung / Wathaurong Country (South coast of Victoria). Leah’s work focuses on nurturing the strengths of culture, ancestry, land, body, community and deeply shared values to transform harmful power dynamics in bodies, relationships and systems. Leah holds a Masters in Relational Gestalt Psychotherapy and currently holds a research position as Indigenous Pedagogy Lead at the Wilin Center for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, where their academic research focuses on Indigenous knowledge, language and art as holistic, integrative healing processes. Leah broadcasts on 3RRR (Mixed Medicine / The Score), writes and performs music and poetry, and practices community cultural arts as a weaver and maker.

The Thomas, Samuel and George Ewing Trust is a fund that fosters literacy, libraries, and a lifelong love of learning in the historic Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy. Fitzroy Library is fortunate to have the continued support of the Ewing Trust endowment that allows for the development and presentation of a range of events and projects for the benefit of Fitzroy residents and visitors.

If you have accessibility questions or requirements, please contact us at [email protected] or on 1300 695 427.

Where

Cost

Free