Content Warning: this session contains the use of coarse language and discusses experiences of racism. If this content has raised any issues for you please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Expressions like ‘Asian invasion’ and ‘yellow peril’ are all too familiar to anyone living in Australia, especially in the wake of COVID-19. We come together to talk about the experience of living in Australia today with founding director of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and Arab Australian author Michael Mohammed Ahmad; Chinese American Australian fiction writer, researcher and teacher Paige Clark; and Thai Australian theatre artist Anchuli Felicia King.

Anchuli Felicia King is a playwright, screenwriter and multi-disciplinary artist of Thai-Australian descent. The Royal Court Theatre’s mainstage production of Felicia’s play White Pearl marked her professional debut in May 2019. White Pearl was subsequently produced by Sydney Theatre Company / National Theatre of Parramatta in Sydney and the Studio Theatre in Washington, DC in the United States.

Paige Clark is a Chinese/American/Australian fiction writer, researcher and teacher. Her first book of fiction, She Is Haunted, was published in July 2021 by Allen & Unwin.
Image credit: Marcelle Bradbeer

Michael Mohammed Ahmad is the founding director of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the award-winning author of The Tribe (2014), The Lebs (2018) and The Other Half of You (2021).
Image credit: Anna Kucera

Benjamin Law is a writer and broadcaster. He’s the author of The Family Law (2010), Gaysia (2012), the Quarterly Essay Moral Panic 101 (2017) and editor of Growing Up Queer in Australia (2019). Benjamin created and co-wrote three seasons of the award-winning SBS TV series The Family Law, based on his memoir, and his sold-out debut play Torch the Place (Melbourne Theatre Company) ran February– March 2020.