non/fiction Lab
Walking Writing, 2021
About
Presented as part of Walking in the configuration of infinity at Bus Projects, members of RMIT’s research group, the non/fictionLab led a series of participatory events on writing walking. Participants recieved two writing prompts per workshop and some optional reading material ahead of the online ‘walkshop’. Collectively they asked, how does one come to writing walking, or, to walking writing? And what are the various creative, critical and political considerations in walking and writing as they intersect.
Sessions were led by Brigid Magner, Francesca Rendle-Short, Melody Ellis, Peta Murray, Sholto Buck & Oliver Shaw.
Bios
Sholto Buck is a PhD student in Creative Writing at RMIT. He works in poetry, memoir, and visual art. Recent work includes Surfaces Without Shadows, MayFair Art Fair, 2020, and Elbow Room in the Universe, Enjoy Gallery Wellington, 2020. He lives and works in Naarm Melbourne.
Melody Ellis is a writer and academic living on Boon Wurrung country in Melbourne. Her work is preoccupied with an interest in subjectivity, the body, power, and place. For this project, she is particularly interested in the various - and intersecting - environmental, political and personal circumstances that might make walking not possible or difficult, and the various ways we take walking for granted.
Brigid Magner is a senior lecturer in literary studies, specialising in literary geographies. She lives and walks on Wurundjeri-willam country daily with her dog.
Peta Murray is a writing-performing academic and devout perambulator. Plays include Wallflowering and Salt. Crossover acts include Missa Pro Venerabilibus: A Mass for The Ageing, vigil/wake and an essayesque project for ACCA. Favourite walks include The Way of St Francisco, the Nakasendo Trail, and round the block with a small brown dog.
Francesca Rendle-Short is an award-winning novelist, memoirist and essayist. Her work has appeared in books and anthologies, literary journals, academic journals, online and in exhibitions. She is Professor of Creative Writing at RMIT, Associate Dean Writing and Publishing in the School of Media and Communication. Like Charles Darwin, Francesca loves to take a thinking walk.
Oliver Shaw is a writer, performance-maker and painter living in Melbourne, from Central Queensland. He holds an MFA (Writing for Performance) from The National Institute of Dramatic Art and has received First-Class Honours from RMIT University where he is a current PhD Candidate. His work is shown widely.
