About this episode
What does it mean to write in a language that isn’t your first — and to transform it completely?Antigone Kefala arrived in Australia from war-torn Europe and went on to reshape Australian literature with prose that was spare, luminous and unflinching. In this episode of Fully Lit Live, recorded at Gleebooks, writers, scholars and close friends reflect on her life, her exile and her modernism — and on the fierce clarity of a voice that refused to belong neatly anywhere.For some of the speakers, Kefala was a literary influence. For others, she was a close friend — someone whose wit, irony and indomitable spirit they continue to miss deeply. Together, they consider her historical present, her multilingual musicality, and her lasting impact on Australian letters.Antigone was a literary original.VoicesHosted by publisher and friend of Antigone, Ivor Indyk, the event brought together:Mireille Juchau — award-winning novelist, essayist and critic, and Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney. Her novels include Machines for Feeling, Burning In, and The World Without Us, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction. She wrote the introduction to Antigone Kefala: Collected Fiction.Anna Kerdijk Nicholson — writer, visual artist and co-director of The Shop Gallery in Glebe. A long-time friend of Kefala, she has written and spoken extensively about her life and work.Brigid Rooney — Professor of English at the University of New South Wales and co-editor (with Elizabeth McMahon) of Antigone Kefala: New Australian Modernities. Her biography of Shirley Hazzard was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Award for Non-Fiction.Lauren Aimee Curtis — novelist and short story writer, author of Dolores and Strangers at the Port, longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and selected for Granta’s Best of Young Australian Novelists.Nikos Papastergiadis - is the
