Memory to manuscript: Publishing family stories

Memory to manuscript: Publishing family stories. Photo: National Library of Australia.

Join authors Tess Scholfield-Peters, André Dao and Sam Vincent, in conversation with broadcast journalist Virginia Hassegger, as they discuss their experiences of writing books that focus on telling the story of a family member.

Entry is free to this event but bookings are essential. A book signing in the Foyer will follow this event.

The event will be available to view live online via the Library’s Facebook and YouTube pages. You do not need to book a ticket to watch the event online.

About the speakers

Tess Scholfield-Peters
Tess Scholfield-Peters is a Eora/Sydney based writer and academic. Currently she teaches creative writing at the University of Technology Sydney. Previously she worked as senior journalist for the independent community newspaper Urban Village, based out of Sydney’s Surry Hills. Her writing spans the academic and literary fields with a focus on life writing and narrative non-fiction, hybrid literature and memory studies, and her work is featured in significant Australian and international publications. Dear Mutzi is her first book, drawn from her recently completed Doctorate.

André Dao
André Dao is an author and researcher from Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. His debut novel, Anam, won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for New Writing, and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 2024, he was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist.

He is the co-founder of Behind the Wire, the award-winning oral history project documenting the stories of the adults and children who have been detained by the Australian government after seeking asylum in Australia. His work for Behind the Wire includes a Quill award winning article for The Saturday Paper, and the Walkley Award-winning podcast, The Messenger. He co-edited Behind the Wire’s collection of literary oral histories, They Cannot Take the Sky.

Sam Vincent
Sam Vincent’s writing has appeared in The Monthly, The Saturday Paper, Griffith Review and The Best Australian Essays. His first book, Blood and Guts, was longlisted for the Walkley Book Award and in 2019 he won the Walkley Award for longform feature writing. He runs a cattle and fig farm in the Yass Valley, and his memoir My Father and Other Animals: How I Took on the Family Farm won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Nonfiction in 2023.

Virginia Haussegger
Virginia Haussegger AM is an award-winning broadcast journalist and gender equity advocate whose extensive media career spans 3 decades, reporting from around the globe for Channel 9, the Seven Network and the ABC. She has anchored primetime national news and current affairs programs, including 15 years presenting ABC TV News in Canberra.

Virginia’s social commentary is widely published across Australian media. She is Deputy Chair of the media think-tank PIJI, the Public Interest Journalism Initiative, and a judge in the 2024 Walkley Awards. She is also a proud Ambassador of the Stella Prize in support of women and non-binary writers.

In 2017 Virginia established a gender equity research initiative at the University of Canberra, where she is an Adjunct Professor, and founded the media platform BroadAgenda, serving as Chief Editor to 2021. Virginia has served on several government and not-for-profit boards including UN Women Australia; the ACT Cultural Facilities Corporation; the Rhodes Scholarship Australia Selection Committee; and the Snowy-Hydro Trust. A Member of the Order of Australia for services to the media and gender equity, in 2019 Virginia was named ACT Australian of The Year.

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The Details

What: Memory to manuscript: Publishing family stories
When: 4 September, 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Where: National Library of Australia
Cost: Free