Launch of Westerly 65.2

Westerly is proud to announce the imminent release of issue 65.2, a general issue featuring the work of writers from across Australia and overseas.

Contributors to Westerly 65.2 include Jeanine Leane, Robert Alexander, Annabel Smith, Nathanael OReilly, Matthew Chrulew, Patrick Deeley, Caitlin Maling, Ambelin Kwaymullina and Karen Wyld with Elfie Shiosaki, Grace Yee, William Virgil Davis, Rae White, Zhong Huang and Wenche Ommundsen, Rachael Mead, Atul Joshi, Rachel Watts, Lal Perera, Carolyn Abbs, Andrew Roff, Katrina Kell, Anders Villani, Amy Lin, Brigid Magner and Emily Potter, John Saul, Debbie Lim, Alison J Barton, Ella Jeffery, and Peter Ramm, amongst many others.

As well as our usual exciting range of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and scholarly essays, featuring talented emerging authors alongside established and respected literary figures, we are delighted to include an interview with Ambelin Kwaymullina (Living on Stolen Land, Magabala Books) and Karen Wyld (Where the Fruit Falls, UWA Publishing winner of the 2020 Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript), and our Editor for Indigenous writing, Elfie Shiosaki.

We are also proud to offer a feature based on the solo exhibition of artist and academic Drew Pettifer, curated by Ted Snell AM, which runs until 5 December at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery. In interweaving images from the exhibition with an ekphrastic response to the work from Amy Lin, image and poetry speak to each other in powerful, inspiring and sometimes provocative ways.

Westerly 65.2 will be launched by the University of Western Australias new Chair for Australian Literature, Prof. Tony Hughes-dAeth, at 6pm on Wednesday the 25th of November. Join us in the Shakespeare Garden, behind the New Fortune Theatre, at The University of Western Australia, for a celebration of the issue and the end of a long year! The issue will be available for purchase, though copies can also be purchased via Westerlys website from 25 November.

Please note, due to COVID-19 restrictions, attendence will be capped, so places in person at the launch will be limited and strictly RSVP!

The launch will be live-streamed online for those unable to join us in person, with details forthcoming!

Cover image: From Suburban Dreaming, 2020, collage. © Marite Norris, 2020. Reproduced with permission of the artist. Photograph by Marite Norris.

Westerly 65.2 has been produced with the support of the Australia Council, the University of Western Australia, and Copyright Agencys Cultural Fund. We are, as always, extremely grateful for this support.