A national LGBTQI+ storytelling project curated by Maeve Marsden
featuring a book, event series and an award-winning podcast

A national LGBTQI+ storytelling project curated by Maeve Marsden
featuring a book, event series and award-winning podcast

About Queerstories

Queerstories celebrates the culture and creativity of the LGBTQI+ community, one true story at a time. Vulnerable and fierce, hilarious and heartbreaking, Queerstories features both professional storytellers and emerging talent sharing the story they want to tell, but are never asked to; unexpected tales of pride, prejudice, resilience and resistance.

This podcast is part of a national LGBTQI+ storytelling project directed by Sydney-based writer and theatremaker Maeve Marsden.

The wildly popular Queerstories events have featured at Sydney Writers Festival, Adelaide Writers Week, Mudgee Readers Festival, Newcastle Writers Festival, and Ubud Readers and Writers Festival in Bali, as well as at independent venues around the country.

A collection of the stories edited by Maeve and published by Hachette Australia was launched at the Sydney Opera House in 2018.

Schedule

Queerstories is released weekly on Tuesdays at 3pm.

Credits

Queerstories is produced by writer and theatremaker Maeve Marsden, recorded at events around the country and edited by Nikki Stevens.

Queerstories 2020 Press Release

Special series of award-winning podcast offers LGBTQI+ reflections on the year that’s been

In the midst of the madness of 2020, curator Maeve Marsden invited 24 LGBTQI+ storytellers to share a tale inspired by these #UnprecedentedTimes. Each episode of this special season of the award-winning Queerstories podcast is recorded at home and thematically linked to the events of this year: engaging, surprising and challenging stories offering a unique queer perspective.

Globally, venue restrictions have limited the ability of marginalised communities to come together. Lockdowns have adversely affected those who don’t live in traditional nuclear families, as well as young LGBTQI+ people who may experience discrimination within their own homes. Isolation, loneliness and shared trauma, which many are now experiencing, are not new to the LGBTQI+ community. For many, the pandemic brought up memories of the AIDS crisis, recalling the community’s resilience and ability to rally for mutual aid.

With events cancelled at indie venues and festivals throughout the year, Marsden decided that rather than pivoting platform, she would focus on the essential heart of the Queerstories project: queer writers and writing. Supported by a Creative Fellowship Fund by the City of Sydney, Queerstories 2020 began with a national call out for storytellers.

“I really wanted the stories to be creative responses to the events we were experiencing rather than diary entries of the year or chronicles of being stuck at home. The selected work includes a real mixed bag of humour, memory, introspection, reflection and warmth,” says Marsden.

“As a curator I’m looking for something unexpected, a divergence from the stereotypical LGBTQI+ narratives, a writer considering their place in the world from a queer perspective.”

The stories commissioned touch on illness, including a beautiful reflection on surviving the AIDS epidemic by Newcastle writer Kerry Bashford, and a harrowing tale of being the 16th person to contract COVID-19 in Australia by Holly Zwalf, who lives in regional Queensland.

Other contributions explore the Black Lives Matter movement, conspiracy theories and cults, the experiences of children, teachers and childcare workers during lockdown, the impact of the pandemic on artists, grief, loss and loneliness.

Featured writers include Victoria Zerbst, Patrick Lenton, Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, Nayuka and Witt Gorrie, Enoch Mailangi, Farz Edraki, Valerie Berry, Nevo Zisin and more.

The Queerstories podcast is part of a national LGBTQI+ storytelling project directed by Sydney-based writer and theatremaker Maeve Marsden. The wildly popular Queerstories events have featured at Sydney Writers Festival, Adelaide Writers Week, Mudgee Readers Festival, Newcastle Writers Festival, and Ubud Readers and Writers Festival in Bali, as well as at independent venues around the country. A collection of the stories edited by Maeve and published by Hachette Australia was launched at the Sydney Opera House in 2018.

Queerstories celebrates the culture and creativity of the LGBTQI+ community, one true story at a time. Vulnerable and fierce, hilarious and heartbreaking, Queerstories explores the breadth of the queer experience, delving deeper into community and identity, reflecting on our histories, and contending with the potential of our futures.

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