In conversation with Zenobia Frost

What Will Be Worn

Fri 7 Sep 2018

Melissa Fagan

Cinema A, GoMA

Culture/Social Equity / History/War Stories / Home/Family/Childhood / Relationships

224

#Performances

#About the event

Duration: 60 minutes

Melissa Fagan discusses her latest book What Will Be Worn; a tender and searching story of mothers and daughters and the legacy of the once-grand department store that binds them.

Sometimes it seems the most invaluable stories can be found in the unlikeliest of corners.

For all who know Brisbane, McWhirters, a once celebrated department store in Fortitude Valley, is an icon. For Melissa Fagan it is also the starting point for this remarkable exploration of her mother and grandmother’s lives, and a poignant reminder of the ways in which retail stores and fashion have connected women’s lives across decades.

Behind the dusty shop counters of an Art Deco treasure, Fagan discovers both what has been lost and continues to shine. Ultimately this tender exploration of self and family, so exquisitely written, speaks of the ways in which life so often surprises us and of how the legacies of others can truly enrich our own relationships and lives.

Presented by The University of Queensland.

#Artist

Melissa Fagan

Melissa Fagan is the author of a memoir, What Will Be Worn: A McWhirters Story, and a freelance writer and editor, currently based in Coolangatta, in Yugambeh–Bundjalung country, on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. Her fiction and nonfiction has been published in Overland, Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin, QWeekend and others. She also teaches and lectures in creative writing courses at a number of universities. At various times throughout her life (but mostly pre-21st century) she has worked as a receptionist, data entry clerk, call centre operator, market research interviewer and editorial assistant. She has also taught swimming and horse-riding, and led tours through South East Asia. In 2018 she started a practice-led PhD in travel writing with Curtin University and the University of Aberdeen.

#Moderator

Zenobia Frost

Zenobia Frost is a poet based in Brisbane. She won the 2018 Val Vallis Award for her poem “Reality On-Demand”. Her new collection, After the Demolition, is forthcoming with Cordite Books.