Launch: YWCA x Stella Feminist Book Week

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Launch announcement

A feminist call to arms has been issued to all young women and non-binary persons by YWCA Australia and The Stella Prize, who have today launched the first Australian Feminist Book Week (17 – 23 October).

Feminist Book Week is an important opportunity to raise awareness of the sexism, unconscious bias and gender inequity that is still rampant in publishing and media, while celebrating female writers and diverse storytelling.

Activities planned for the YWCA x Stella Feminist Book Week include:

  • An online in-conversation webinar between Jess Hill, winner of the 2020 Stella Prize, and Zoya Patel, author and founder of Feminartsy – free for all YWCA members (join as a member for free today!)
  • A #FeministBookWeek open competition with the Stella Longlist as the winning prize
  • A social media campaign profiling diverse female authors from around Australia

YWCA’s Young Women’s Engagement Manager Sarah Hill said that Feminist Book Week was an opportunity for all young intersectional feminists to engage with literary Australia.

“Too often, we see the same voices promoted – pale, male and stale voices. This doesn’t accurately represent the Australia we live in today. Young women and non-binary people in all their diversity need to see themselves represented and have their stories told.”

Ms. Hill said that Feminist Book Week was a good reminder for people to engage with the issues that matter. It’s an opportunity for people to critically look at their reading habits and challenge themselves to read more young, female and diverse authors.  

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In-conversation webinar with Jess Hill and Zoya Patel

Content warning: abuse, sexual violence. If this event brings up any issues for you, help is available: 

  • 1800 Respect (1800 737 732)
  • Lifeline (13 11 14)

Feminist Book Week 2020 Presents:

Zoya Patel in-conversation with Jess Hill 

When: Thursday 22 October 7 – 8pm

YWCA and The Stella Prize are thrilled to host Zoya Patel in-conversation with Jess Hill, discussing Jess’ award winning book See What You Made Me Do.

See What You Made Me Do examines domestic abuse as a national emergency in Australia: 1 in 4 women in Australia will experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime. Jess puts perpetrators – and the systems that enable them – in the spotlight as she takes a deep dive into the experiences of violence faced by so many women and their children.

In this not-to-be-missed session we’ll be discussing topics including gender relations, feminism, sex, power and experiences of violence.

REGISTRATIONS CLOSED – Webinar is now viewable on our Resources page

Biographies

Jess Hill

Jess Hill is an investigative journalist who has been writing about domestic violence since 2014. Prior to this, she was a producer for ABC Radio, a Middle East correspondent for The Global Mail, and an investigative journalist for Background Briefing.

She was listed in Foreign Policy’s top 100 women to follow on Twitter, and her reporting on domestic violence has won two Walkley awards, an Amnesty International award and three Our Watch awards.

Since winning the 2020 Stella Prize in April, See What You Made Me Do has been published in the UK and US, with Jess undertaking further research and reporting to contextualise the work for international readers and policymakers. The book is now being adapted into a 3-part series by Northern Pictures for SBS, and due to air next year.

Jess is also working on an audio documentary series on intimate partner violence with the Victoria Women’s Trust.

Zoya Patel

Zoya Patel is the award-winning author of No Country Woman, a memoir of race, religion and feminism. She is also the founder of feminist literary organisation, Feminartsy and co-host of the Margin Notes podcast alongside Yen Eriksen.

Zoya has won numerous awards for her writing and editing, and has been published widely, including in The GuardianThe Australian Financial Review, ABC, SBS, JunkeeOverlandMeanjinThe Sydney Morning Herald and more.

She was a 2020 judge for the Stella Prize, and is the inaugural ACT Stella Schools Ambassador.


#FeministBookWeek Competition

WIN – 2020 The Stella Prize Longlist Pack!

The Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing and diverse storytelling. Each year the Stella Prize recognises the best books by women in Australia, raises the profile of women writers and celebrates their achievements.

YWCA and Stella have partnered to celebrate Feminist Book Week 2020 and raise awareness of the gender bias rife in publishing and promote storytelling that represents the diversity in Australian society.

The 2020 longlist is an exciting collection of 12 bold, unapologetic and female-led texts and it’s yours to win!

Enter the competition

COMPETITION CLOSED

Terms and Conditions

Terms and Conditions: YWCA x Stella #FeministBookWeek 2020 Competition

  1. The “YWCA x Stella #FeministBookWeek 2020 Competition”, administered by YWCA Australia, is open to anyone who lives in Australia. The Competition is not open to paid employees of YWCA Australia.
  2. The Competition is free to enter, and entry into, and participation in, the promotion itself will not incur any costs whatsoever upon any participant at any time.
  3. The Competition will run from 8:00 am (AEST) on Monday 12 October 2020 until 5:30pm (AEST) Friday 23 October 2020 (“The Competition Period”). Entries submitted after the competition period will not be valid.
  4. Entries must be submitted via the YWCA x Stella #FeministBookWeek 2020 Competition online form. Entries in any other format will not be valid.
  5. Entries must address all mandatory questions in the YWCA x Stella #FeministBookWeek 2020 Competition online form. 
  6. Participants may only submit one entry.
  7. Valid entries will be included in a prize draw where a winner will be selected by a panel of three YWCA Australia staff members.
  8. The winning entries will be announced on Monday 26 October 2020. The winner will be personally notified via an email, and publicly announced via our Facebook page.
  9. YWCA Australia will liaise with the winner to coordinate delivery of the prize via mail.
  10. The prize is non-transferable, non-refundable and no cash alternatives will be offered.
  11. The approximate value of the prize is $400 (four hundred) AUD.
  12. The Competition, and any contest or promotion featured on this page, in its entirety, is a product of YWCA Australia.
  13. By entering and participating, the entrant agrees to hold harmless, defend and indemnify YWCA Australia from and against any and all claims, demands, liability, damages or causes of action (however named or described), losses, costs or expenses, with respect to or arising out of or related to (i) the entrant’s participation in the Competition, or (ii) the entrant’s participation in any Prize related activities, acceptance of a Prize and/or use or misuse of a Prize (including, without limitation, any property loss, damage, personal injury or death caused to any person(s).
  14. By entering yourself into any contest or promotion on this page you undertake to abide by the terms and conditions.
  15. By entering into the Competition, you acknowledge that any information submitted on the competition question is collected and stored by YWCA Australia and may be used deidentified in the future for marketing or advertising purposes.

YWCA Australia wishes to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we work, live and play and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We recognise First Nations people as the custodians of the lands, seas and skies, with more than 60,000 years of wisdom, connection and relationship in caring for Country.

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