Join six emerging trans and gender diverse authors as they share glimpses into their creative practice, and snippets of works-in-progress at Varuna.
Presented in partnership with Maeve Marsden’s Queerstories, this intimate event for the local LGBTQI+ community celebrates the work of six exciting writers selected for Varuna’s Trans and Gender Diverse Fellowship. Join Dani Leever, Hay Elliott-Ryan, Mohammad Taha, Sally Henderson, Robin M Eames and Siofra Thomas in Varuna’s new Reading Room for an evening of community connections and unexpected literary delights.
Vulnerable and fierce, hilarious and heartbreaking, Queerstories has celebrated the culture and creativity of the LGBTQI+ community for more than ten years, selling out events from Sydney to Adelaide, Mudgee to Murwillumbah, Brisbane to the Blue Mountains.
ABOUT THE WRITERS
Dani Leever is a transmasc non-binary writer, editor and Libra based in Naarm. They are currently the Publications Manager for Archer Magazine, and they've been published in various online publications and in Fremantle Press’ anthology on OCD, 'Try Not to Think of a Pink Elephant'. Outside of their words work, Dani’s dancefloor alter ego is DJ Gay Dad. They were the 2025 recipient of Transgender Victoria's Most Influential Award, and were nominated in 2024 for the MEDEA's DJ of the Year. Their trusty carabiner of USBs has graced the decks of queer parties and major festivals all around so-called Australia. Their work-in-progress manuscript is a body horror-inspired collection of essays on transness, disability, sex and inhabiting (or more accurately, haunting) their bag of bones/body.
Hay Elliott-Ryan is a writer and multidisciplinary artist from Naarm, with a PhD in creative writing from Deakin University. Their work centres writing as a way of making and sustaining queer community, often working with and against traditional forms. They are interested in interspecies cohabitation, refuse ecologies, and the limits of narrative.
Hay is a founding editor of Cinder and WORDLY, and performs as a tap dancer multi-instrumentalist with Leonardo’s Robot. Their work has appeared at Melbourne Fringe, Venice Biennale (2024) and in the Heima Queer Artist Residency Exhibition, and their manuscript, Garbage was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (2024). They are currently developing a multimodal project on trawling industries, climate emergency, and queerness at sea.
Dr Mohammad Taha is a poet and researcher whose work moves through loss, remembrance, and survival. They write to slow down and look closer, within and without. Nothing is as it seems, and when we are certain we know, we are very far from knowing. Their practice sits between a fundamental understanding of how our world is put together (in a nerdy way) and art, joining observation with reflection to find stillness, connection, and the beauty in resistance, grace, and the way we sometimes travel far to find a home within ourselves. We are always constructing who we are and deconstructing, over and over, through love and heartbreak, joy and grief, in the hope that one day we are who we are and who we aspire to be at the same time.
Robin M Eames is a queercrip poet and historian living on Dharug land. Their work has been published in Overland, Cordite, APJ, and Health & History, among others.
Sally Henderson is a comic writer, illustrator and animator from Boorloo (Perth). Their comics journey began in 2017, studying at Curtin University, where they were editor of the Curtin Illustration Club’s annual comic anthology MYTH and published their first comic, Geiger Woods. In 2022 they contributed to the comic anthology Fantastic Cadaver, which made the 2023 Comic Art Awards Shortlist. At the 2023 Perth Comic Arts Festival (PCAF), they debuted the first part of self-published autobiographical comic Breaking Into Animation, following up with a second part in 2024. In 2025 they were invited to be a contributor to the PCAF’s annual comics journal TALE TOWN by the Creative Director, Elizabeth Marruffo.
Siofra Thomas is a writer and translator living on yalukit willam country.
VENUE, PARKING and ACCESS
This is a seated event.
Parking onsite is limited to individuals with access needs. Please email varuna@varuna.com.auto request a suitable parking spot.
Drivers can drop-off their passengers onsite and then move to the recommended parking area.
Recommended parking is curb-side on Cascade St (not Sherman Avenue) and walking to Varuna's main entry.
Varuna's driveway, car park and gardens are uneven and care is recommended when accessing the property at all times.
If you require T-loop, closed captions, Auslan interpreters or accessible parking, please contact Varuna directly on varuna@varuna.com.au or call 02 02 4782 5674 to speak to Erin English.