Author talk by novelist Julie Janson - Batemans Bay

Tuesday 4 March 2025

2pm - 3:30pm

Where: Batemans Bay Library, Hanging Rock Place, Batemans Bay

Cost: free

Join award-winning local novelist, playwright, and poet Julie Janson, a Burruberongal woman of Darug Aboriginal nation, for an author talk and afternoon tea to mark International Women’s Day.

Following success with the critically acclaimed novels Benevolence (2021), The Light Horse Ghost (2018) and The Crocodile Hotel (2015), Compassion (2024) continues Julie Janson’s emotional and intense literary exploration of the complex and dangerous lives of Aboriginal women during the 1800s in colonial New South Wales, which she began in Benevolence as a counter narrative to colonial history in Australian literature.

Compassion is the dramatised life story of one of Julie’s ancestors who went on trial for stealing livestock in New South Wales. It is an exciting and violent story of anti-colonial revenge and roaming adventure. A gripping fictive account of Aboriginal life in the 1800s, Compassion follows the life of Duringah, aka Nell James, the outlaw daughter of the Darug hero of Benevolence, Muraging.

Julie will share the background behind her latest novel, the insights on writing from an Indigenous point of view, and stories of Newcastle in the 1850s.

Books will be available to purchase, signed by the author.

Bookings are required

Places are limited for this event. To avoid disappointment, please book early online or contact your local library for assistance.

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