AustLit

'I had a book come out last month about shame. It’s about my own shame—the shame I have carried ever since I was sexually abused as a child and told no one, the shame I carried after I was raped on a night out as a teenager and told no one—and it’s about other peoples’ shame. It is made up of interviews with people of marginalised genders all around the world; it is, I hope, a polyphonic memoir about what a life can look like when it is defined or derailed by shame, and how we can and do recover.' (Introduction)

'Returning to Vietnam for the first time since childhood, I am confronting how the homeland of my imagination has been filtered through a lens of Western tropes and second-hand memories, and questioning what ‘home’ really means for diaspora.' (Introduction)

'After years spent living with an intense stutter, I am learning that the key to managing the condition lies in finding community and accepting my stutter as a vital—and beautiful—part of who I am.' (Introduction)