Steph Bal

Half Scottish, half Indian writer and editor successfully hiding chai in coffee cups to pass as a Melbournian.

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'Hiring a sensitivity reader doesn't excuse you from not doing your own research.' @qianjinghua #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'Ideally our role will be redundant and the work will be done by the right people.' @bridgetblou

'I'm worried that instead of having more diverse editors, we'll hire more sensitivity readers.' @mwikramanayake

#OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'How much is it my job to save someone from their own opinions?'
@qianjinghua #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'Are you using someone else's culture as an object in the plot? Please don't do that,' says @mwikramanayake
They ask the writer to go and talk to the communities before they are able to edit the work. #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'We're still being asked a little too much,' says @bridgetblou after being asked to check a reconciliation action plan over text.

'As a person of colour in the arts, you're automatically an unpaid cultural advisor,' says @qianjinghua

#OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'For those who thought they were in for a Jane Austen fan club, you're in for something far more interesting,' says MC @RubyHillsmith
Our Sense and Sensitivity panel is about to begin. Are we giving voice to the voiceless or taking it away? #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'Audiobooks teach pace and rhythm. I've learned a lot from listening to people tell stories,' says @danielle_binks #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

What's the worst trope? Love triangles.
'I've never read a good one,' says Astrid Scholte. #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

Vampires, dystopian and cli-fi is what our Reads Like Teen Spirit panel want to see more of. #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'Teens are bombarded enough but they're also leading the charge,' says @ninakenwood. Should YA novels address the political or should they be an escape? #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'I kinda know how it begins and how it ends and it's the middle that's the biggest question for me,' says Laura Elizabeth Woollett #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

Rajith Savanadasa says he started writing to try to change the way we think about each other. 'I'm increasingly reminded of the limits of its power,' he says. #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'With a memoir, you become frozen in time. It's been eight years since those events and five years since the book was published and people still come up and give me a hug,' says @sianprior
'There's no ending when you're writing about your life.' #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'It’s like a breakup. Like having a vital organ removed. Like losing a religion. Like giving birth, then handing my baby over for adoption.'
Laura Elizabeth Woollett on grieving finishing a long-term writing project. #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

A moral at the end of the story can be boring, says @sianprior. 'What we look for is some kind of closure, wisdom gained or, at the very least, some movement in identity.' #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'I don't think I ever write anything without knowing the ending.'
– Laura Elizabeth Woollett

'I certainly don't start anything knowing the end. I wish.'
– Sian Prior

#OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

@sianprior Rajith Savanadasa and Laura Elizabeth Woollett are sharing one of their endings and discussing what it takes to confront the end. It's beautiful to hear their writing with their own voices. #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

Laura Elizabeth Woollett approaches a new book by reading the last page first. #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

Does a questionable ending spoil an otherwise powerful story? 🤔@ilkatampke asks our Raze: Confronting the End panel. #OdysseyLitFest

[Steph Bal @stephbalie]

'I hate a neatly tied up ending.'
@sianprior