FNAWN, Australia Council to showcase Indigenous authors at US book festival

The First Nations Australia Writers’ Network (FNAWN) will next week take a delegation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers to showcase their work at the National Book Festival in Washington DC.

Writers Bruce Pascoe, Tony Birch, Ellen van Neerven, Jeanine Leane, Jared Thomas and Dub Leffler will join FNAWN executive director Cathy Craigie on the trip, which is funded by an Australia Council grant. Following the festival the writers will travel to New York City to meet with literary organisations, including the Authors’ Guild and Poets House.

In a statement, Craigie said the invitation to the US was ‘important international recognition of the talent and diversity of First Nations Australian writing’. ‘There has been an incredible response from our peers and colleagues in the US,’ said Craigie. ‘We will be meeting with First Nations United States writers and organisations as well as critical players in the US book market.’

Craigie previously travelled to the National Book Festival in 2014 to plan for this year’s visit and increase the exposure of FNAWN’s writers. Craigie wrote about her trip on the FNAWN site here.

FNAWN, an advocacy and resource service for Indigenous writers and storytellers, was incorporated in September 2013 and officially launched at the 2014 Adelaide Writers’ Week. For more information about FNAWN, click here.

Category: Local news