Homecoming
Moderator: Genevieve Jacobs • Kirsty Jagger and Zoya Patel
A young woman is drawn back into her estranged family when she learns her mother is dying. A reporter on assignment returns to the public housing estate where she grew up, only to find it demolished.
Two debut novels ebb between the past and the present – twin tales of family, memory and fraught returns. Join their authors as they grapple with that eternally knotty question: what does it mean to come home?
Artist
KIRSTY JAGGER is a journalist by trade. In 2019, she won the inaugural Heyman Mentorship Award, established by acclaimed Australian author Kathryn Heyman for a writer from a background of social or economic disadvantage. Roseghetto takes some inspiration from growing up in the housing commission estates of Sydney’s western suburbs. This is her first novel.
Artist
ZOYA PATEL is the author of No Country Woman, a memoir of race, religion and feminism, and Once A Stranger, a novel about family, tradition and loss. She is co-host of The Guardian's Book It In podcast, and the Margin Notes podcast alongside Yen Eriksen. Zoya is a columnist for the RiotACT, and regular books critic and writer for The Guardian, Canberra Times, SBS Voices, Refinery29 and more. Zoya has won numerous awards for her writing and editing, and she was a 2020 judge for the Stella Prize and Chair of the 2021 Stella Prize judging panel.
Moderator
GENEVIEVE JACOBS AM has been a journalist for 30 years, working in print and radio. She sits on the Cultural Facilities Corporation board and chairs the Canberra International Music Festival. Genevieve was the inaugural chair of the arts minister's Creative Council, and inaugural co-chair of the Reconciliation Council. Genevieve has an enduring interest in building community, and creating discussions that include us all. And she still loves nothing better than a good yarn.