The Big Black Thing
Chapter 1
A series of prose and poetry by emerging and established writers from Indigenous, migrant & refugee backgrounds that has been praised by award-winning author Jamie Marina Lau as 'stories that need to be told louder'.
The Big Black Thing: Chapter. 1 is the first issue in a series of prose and poetry by emerging and established writers from Indigenous, migrant and refugee backgrounds. Featuring Peter Polites, Winnie Dunn, Stephen Pham, Shirley Le, Jason Gray, Maryam Azam, Louisa Badayala, Jessicca Mensah, Nitin Vengurlekar, Monikka Eliah, Socorro Cifuentes, lina Kastoumis, Ricky Tran, Alex Aditia, Masen Guerreiro, Teddy William Owuor, Hisham Mallah, Eteroma Hunt, Mohamed Lababidi, Nancy Huynh, Kyaw Kyaw Phyo, Kelvin Yu, Ali Haydar, Jessica Tran, Kane Harrington, Kiarna Evans, Mark Streeter, Courtney Miller, Hamani Tanginoa, Adina Aslett-Robertson, Shanae Hajsinger, Taylah Hansen, Mary Al-Nashy, Omar El-Ali, Dani Mejbel, Samer Mejbel, Gilbert Tran, Breeze Makiri, Hanane Elnajjar, Matati Hunt, Maryian Nagib and Idarosareen Sooalo.
Michael Mohammed Ahmad is the founding director of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and editor of After Australia (Affirm Press, 2020). His debut novel, The Tribe (Giramondo, 2014), won the 2015 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelists of the Year Award. His second novel, The Lebs (Hachette, 2018) received the 2019 NSW Premier’s Multicultural Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Mohammed received his Doctorate of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University in 2017. His latest novel is The Other Half of You (Hachette, 2021).
Winnie Dunn is the General Manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the editor of several critically acclaimed anthologies, including Another Australia (Affirm Press, 2022). She is a writer of Tongan descent from Mount Druitt and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Sydney University. She is currently completing her debut novel, Dirt Poor Islanders (Hachette, 2023), which has been assisted by the Australia Council for the Arts.
Ellen van Neerven (they/them) is an award-winning author, editor and educator of Mununjali (Yugambeh language group) and Dutch heritage. Their first novel, Heat and Light (UQP, 2014) was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. Their first poetry collection Comfort Food (UQP, 2016) won the Tina Kane Emergent Award. Their latest work, Throat (UQP, 2020), was the recipient of Book of the Year, the Kenneth Slessor Prize and the Multicultural Award at 2021 NSW Literary Awards.
