Writing with the Archives with Grace Yee

In this workshop you will explore different ways of integrating archival materials into fiction and poetry under the guidance of award-winning poet Grace Yee. You will experiment with text extracts with the aim of drafting contemporary prose and/or poems enlivened by historical events.
The past is never past—it reverberates insistently in the present! This workshop will be of most value if you are open to hybrid texts and have in mind a history that you would like to explore.
You will learn:

• Strategies for finding and using archival extracts in your writing.
• How to integrate historical narratives into contemporary contexts.
• How to experiment with voice and point of view.
• How to read and respond to the work of other writers and poets .
• How to revise your drafts.


Grace Yee is the author of Chinese Fish (Giramondo Publishing), winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry in 2024. She has taught in the creative writing programs at Deakin University and the University of Melbourne. Her second collection, Joss: A History is forthcoming in June 2025. She lives in Melbourne, on Wurundjeri land.