Now that writing can be quickly and cheaply composed by generative artificial intelligence, why should anyone care about literature? What are some of the possibilities and challenges for writers in such an environment? Is the pursuit of pleasure and delight, both in the reading and in the writing of literature, a worthy one in our times?
Join Zhou Jianing (China), Omar Sakr and Shaun Prescott as they address these urgent questions, in conversation with Roanna Gonsalves.
Zhou Jianing is one of the most influential young writers in China. Since 2000, she has released five novels and three short story collections. Her latest release from 2022 is a collection called A View of Waves. Jianing is also a translator from English to Chinese, most recently Summertime by J M Coetzee. Her previous translation works include major English-language writers such as F Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O’Connor, Alice Munro and Joyce Carol Oates.
Omar Sakr is the son of Arab and Turkish Muslim migrants. He is the author of three poetry collections, including The Lost Arabs (UQP), which won the 2020 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry, and a novel, Son of Sin (Affirm Press), published in 2022. His latest book is Non-Essential Work. He is a widely published essayist with work appearing in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings and many more publications.
Shaun Prescott is a writer based in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. Shaun’s novels include The Town (2017), and Bon and Lesley (2022), both published by Giramondo, and he has self-released several small books of fiction, including Erica from Sales, and The End of Trolleys, and has been the editor of Crawlspace Magazine.
Roanna Gonsalves is the author of The Permanent Resident (UWAP) published in India and South Asia as Sunita De Souza Goes To Sydney (Speaking Tiger Books). The book won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award Multicultural Prize 2018 and was longlisted for the Dobbie Literary Award 2018. Roanna was born and brought up in Mumbai, India, and attended St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. She came to Australia as an international student in 1998.
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