This year, our streets have been unusually empty. We spent most of 2020 in some form or other of lockdown, only leaving the house when necessary. But even with pedestrian traffic dramatically reduced, street harassment hasn’t necessarily stopped or even slowed down. Rather, it has persisted, as harmful and as dehumanising as ever, and affected…
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‘It’s a surprise,’ I say to my mother, ‘just wait outside with your phone.’ She agrees and takes her phone outside with the camera ready to shoot as I walk into my studio to get ready. When I emerge a few minutes later she struggles to control her laughter while I navigate the garden path…
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We’re bouncing between baking sourdough bread and practising Yoga with Adrienne. We’ve fiercely committed to comfy pants and rejected jeans. We’re bemoaning our expanding waistlines and the media have responded: just google Covid/quarantine kilos. We’re months into the global Covid-19 pandemic and weight worries still manage to be a concern. We’re lucky that in Melbourne,…
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Do you remember the first time you felt free? The first time that you realised that while external factors, like your parents, teachers, money, the fact that you’re a 10-year-old child and don’t have a license to do, well, anything, doesn’t mean you have no control? I do. I remember distinctly and I relish the…
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When COVID-19 hit, some commentators hailed it as an opportunity to revolutionise gender roles in heterosexual couples. But as public life froze overnight and homes became schools, daycare centres and offices, mothers have been placed under more pressure, not less. Our new study on workers in the United States shows that in the first months…
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Emily White’s story, Swampy won the 2020 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Here’s a Q&A with Emily, plus their award-winning story! * Congratulations on winning this year’s RFP for Fiction, Emily! Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? I am Emily White, advocate for ecofeminism and a high fibre diet, and I am…
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Vicky Daddo’s story, Baby Season, placed second in the 2020 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Here’s a Q&A with Vicky, plus her award-winning story! * Congratulations on placing 2nd in this year’s RFP for Fiction, Vicky! Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? I’m a writer based in Gippsland, Victoria, originally from the…
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Maude Davey’s story, Touch Starve, placed third in the 2020 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Here’s a Q&A with Maude, plus her award-winning story! * Congratulations on placing 3rd in this year’s RFP for Fiction, Maude! Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? I am one of twins, born in the early sixties…
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We are thrilled to announce that the winner of the 2020 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction is Emily White for their story Swampy. Emily receives a $1000 cash prize, a 12-month membership to Writers Victoria, a 12-month digital membership to Kill Your Darlings, and a collection of books courtesy of our sponsors. The 2020 Rachel…
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In the middle of a pandemic, the US is opposing women’s basic human right to determine what happens to their bodies. The world appears to be marching backwards, not forwards, writes Amy Haddad. Unless you are a multilateral gender nerd like me you may not know that 2020 is the 20th anniversary of UN Security…
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The supportive best friend. The tragic sad girl. We’ve seen characters from marginalised communities delivered straight from the production line, neatly packaged within these stereotypes for moral convenience. But Annie Easton, heroine of Shrill, proves something different is possible: a character who is equally flawed and inspiring. Watching Annie grow at a rate of fits…
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The summer before my grandmother passed away, she visited me and my family in Australia. I sat with her one sunny afternoon as she told me about her life growing up in a Bangladeshi village and having an arranged marriage at the age of 12. I listened as she recounted how her father, my great-grandfather,…
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The Lip team is pleased to announce the shortlist of the 2020 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Plant Life – Tanya VavilovaArrow – Mia-Francesca McAuslanBaby Season – Vicky DaddoTouch Starve – Maude DaveySwampy – Emily WhiteEarth House – Hollen Singletonhere/after – Laura McCluskeyAnd All Our Yesterdays – Elizabeth FluxHazard Lights – Zoë BradleyWatching – Zowie…
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There are lively discussions going on about the gendered impacts of coronavirus and how so much policy tends to be male-centric. It might not be intentional, but the problem with unconscious bias is it doesn’t see what it doesn’t want to know. The current crisis has brought to the forefront the size and importance of…
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