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Presented in partnership with Varuna, the National Writers’ House and the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival
Join critic and journalist Nicole Abadee for a fascinating conversation about travel, writing and the experiences of women navigating the world. Joined by acclaimed authors Kathryn Heyman, Hazel Phillips and San San, the conversation will explore observing the world as an outsider, writing through fear and freedom, and transforming unfamiliar experiences into stories worth telling.
About the Speakers:
Dr Kathryn Heyman is an award-winning Australian author of seven novels, as well as a memoir, poetry collection and several dramas for stage and BBC radio. Her work has received numerous awards in Australia and the UK, including the Arts Council of England Writers Award, the Wingate Prize, the Hallam Poetry Prize and the Southern Arts Awards. She has also been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Kibble Prize and the West Australian Premier’s Book Awards, among others. Her memoir Fury, which won the Copyright Agency’s Author Fellowship, was shortlisted for the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature and nominated for the Folio International Prize. It is now in development as a feature film. In 2011, Kathryn founded the Australian Writers Mentoring Program.
Hazel Phillips is a New Zealand writer, journalist and history enthusiast and the author of five books, including Great Hearts: First Ladies of Aoraki Mount Cook, Fire & Ice: Secrets, histories, treasures and mysteries of Tongariro National Park and Solo: Backcountry adventuring in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her immersive research into the history of women’s mountaineering earned her a Whiria Te Mahara New Zealand History Grant and the 2026 Friends of the Hocken Collections Award. Her essays and journalism have been published throughout Australasia, including in the collection Otherhood. Hazel holds a Master of Creative Writing with first-class honours and an MA in Media Studies. She was the inaugural Luna Foundation Writers Residency recipient in 2025.
San San is a Chinese writer and member of the Shanghai Writers’ Association. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Renmin University and a BA in Intellectual Property Law from East China University of Political Science and Law. Her stories have appeared in major literary journals including Harvest, People’s Literature, Flower City and October. She has received numerous literary awards, including the Shanghai Culture and Arts Outstanding Newcomer Award, the 2025 Young Female Writer Award, the Zhongshan Star Award, the Yu Dafu Short Story Award and the Red Cotton Fiction Award. She has published five short story collections, including The Long River, Late Spring and Russian Dolls, with her work translated into English, Russian and Japanese.
Nicole Abadee is a freelance journalist, writer and event moderator who writes for the Sydney Morning Herald and Harper’s Bazaar. She regularly moderates at leading writers’ festivals, including Sydney Writers’ Festival, Adelaide Writers’ Week, Canberra Writers’ Festival and the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival. In 2025, she moderated at the Edinburgh International Writers’ Festival and will return in 2026. Nicole has also worked as a literary judge and podcaster, and has appeared on ABC Radio to discuss books. In 2025, she was the curator of the inaugural Woollahra Writers’ Festival. She is a board member of the Eleanor Dark Foundation, which runs Varuna, the National Writers’ House, and sits on the Advisory Council of the Sydney Women’s Fund.
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