Episode 3: Melissa Lucashenko

Episode 3: Alexis Wright in conversation with Melissa Lucashenko

When developing the concept for her 2019 novel Too Much Lip, Melissa Lucashenko decided to “write a funny book that took trauma seriously.” The resulting novel went on to win the Miles Franklin Award, secure release in the US and UK, and is soon to be translated into Mandarin Chinese.

In the third episode of Signposts: stories for our fragile times, Lucashenko speaks with Alexis Wright about success, her writing process, and the enormous shifts she has observed in the Australian literary readership during her career. Lucashenko shares her experiences as an Aboriginal author, and offers advice to young writers living through this challenging moment: “Be brave – the truth has a quality in it that will protect you”.

Melissa Lucashenko is an acclaimed Aboriginal writer of Goorie and European heritage. Since 1997, Melissa has been widely published as an award-winning novelist, essayist and short story writer. Her recent work has appeared in The Moth: Fifty True Stories, Meanjin, Griffith Review, and The Saturday Paper. Melissa’s Griffith Review essay, “Sinking Below Sight: Down and Out in Brisbane and Logan” won the 2013 Walkley Award for Long Form Journalism. Her most recent novel, Too Much Lip, was awarded the 2019 Miles Franklin Award, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the Victorian Premier’s Award for Indigenous Writing, the NSW Premier’s Multicultural Award and the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Literature.

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