Ever wondered how writers organise their bookshelves, find inspiration, and choose their next reads? We asked some of the speakers at OzAsia Festival's Weekend of Words to share their secrets.
Yumna Kassab
What books are in your TBR (To Be Read) pile?
I have a vampire obsession, and I have just stumbled across Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary.
It promises vampires in Buenos Aires, and according to the blurb there will be history, illness and an exploration of female agency. I read the first few pages while I was in the local library. It opens in a place that reminds me of Recoleta Cemetery, which I have visited on consecutive trips to Argentina. I am so excited to read this book and I'm saving it for the holidays.
What’s your bookshelf aesthetic?
I wish there was an organisation principle. Mainly I keep adding bookcases for new books as required. I try to group writers as much as possible. I do have a big section dedicated to Latin American literature which has been a major interest these last few years. And I am a completionist. If I love a writer, I try to read all their books, buying them as I go along.
The photo below is one shelf of Latin American writers. I have a shrine happening for Roberto Bolaño. Luisa Valenzuela, Clarice Lispector, Ida Vitale and Mariana Enríquez live on an adjacent shelf.
What is notable about this photo is that the shelves are bending due to the weight of books and this has not turned out to be the sturdiest bookcase.
Where do you like to read or write?
Most of the time, I write in cafés in and around Parramatta, but I carry a notebook and pen with me everywhere so I will also write on trains and buses, in waiting rooms and in the park. If there is an idea, pen and paper are kept close so it can be captured.
Yumna Kassab
Dharug Country, Sydney, Australia
Yumna Kassab is a writer based in Sydney. She is the author of The House of Youssef, Australiana, and The Lovers. Her latest book is Politica. It is available through Ultimo Press. She is the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature.
Appearing in: Session 4
Siang Lu
What books are in your TBR (To Be Read) pile?
I've been looking forward to reading the brilliant translator Anton Hur's first novel Toward Eternity, a speculative fiction novel that turns the Ship of Theseus paradox towards the human body. In a world where cutting edge nanotherapy has 'solved death' by replacing dying bodies with healthy, artificial ones, what happens to the consciousness, and the self, within? Ask Anton yourself at OzAsia Festival's Weekend of Words!
What’s your bookshelf aesthetic?
I like to place books next to the book neighbours with whom they might get along. Clarissa Goenawan's Watersong next to Mirandi Riwoe's Sunbirds—both authors with strong connections to Indonesia—Kate Mildenhall's spec fic masterpiece The Hummingbird Effect next to the rollicking literary wonder and QLA-winning Fiction Book of the Year that is Sharlene Allsopp's The Great Undoing.
Where do you like to read or write?
Regardless of where I write I do my best work with my cavoodle, Sammie, by my feet.
Siang Lu
Turrbal Country, Brisbane, Australia
Siang Lu is the author of Ghost Cities and the multi-award-winning The Whitewash, which won Audiobook of the Year at the 2023 ABIAs and the Glendower Emerging Writer Award at the Queensland Literary Awards. He was named a Top 40 Under 40 Asian Australian in 2023.
Appearing in: Session 13, Opening Night Gala
Sarah Malik
What books are in your TBR (To Be Read) pile?
Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo, Hisham Matar’s My Friends and Samah Sabawi’s Cactus Pear for My Beloved.
What’s your bookshelf aesthetic?
It’s unfortunately terribly haphazard and not as aesthetically appealing as the colour coded gorgeous shelves on Instagram. My life’s ambition is to have one of those huge floor to ceiling custom shelves with sliding ladders. For now I have to content myself with my two ancient wood bookshelves that I’ve had since my uni days. One of them has a shelf that is always threatening to collapse and I have to secure it constantly with new pins.
I usually sort books by groups - top shelf is for things I’d like to read soon or need to read for work or judging. The other shelves hold mainly novels. I also have a memoir section, poetry, self help and non-fiction/journalism section.
Every two or three months I do a second hand book shop donation purge to clear for more. It’s chaotic enough to still find new gems and old favourites.
Because of my work as an editor and book podcast host I’m lucky to be on publicity lists so every second day, I get new books delivered like gifts in the mail and I still feel a thrill at what new arrival is going to make my week.
Where do you like to read or write?
Mainly in my bed. Sitting in my sweats with wild hair, a mug of chai and surrounded by books and my dog sitting close by shedding her black lab fur everywhere. It’s very peaceful but not the most attractive image I want on the internet so you’ll have to use your imagination.
Sarah Malik
Bediagal Land, Sydney, Australia
Sarah Malik is a Walkley-award winning Australian investigative journalist, author, and television presenter. She is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Desi Girl: On Feminism, Race, Faith and Belonging, and a travel anthology Safar: Muslim women’s stories of travel and transformation.
Appearing in: Session 1, Session 11, Closing Night Debate
Jason Chong
What books are in your TBR (To Be Read) pile?
I'm keen to read Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu and This Team Is Ruining My Life (But I Love Them): How I Became a Professional Hockey Fan by Steve “Dangle” Glynn.
What’s your bookshelf aesthetic?
At the moment my bookshelf aesthetic is “the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark”. I’m in the process of replacing our 2 wobbly bookshelves we got from a garage sale with a custom wall-to-wall book shelf complete with a sliding ladder.
It should be noted that I don’t have the necessary skills, tools, or experience for this job, so it’s taking ages, and all our books have been in boxes on the floor since Christmas.
Where do you like to read or write?
I look forward to reading here when it’s all done.
Jason Chong
Kaurna Country, Adelaide, Australia
Jason has been performing standup comedy for more than 20 years, appearing in festivals around the world, radio, and TV. You can hear Jason presenting the Evenings Program on ABC Local Radio (SA, NT and Broken Hill).
Appearing in: Session 6, Session 15, Closing Night Debate
Anton Hur
What books are in your TBR (To Be Read) pile?
This is the third time I am judging a book prize with a huge reading load, but this time around, I'm making sure the reading for it doesn't completely take over my reading life. Korea publishes a lot of non-fiction so I've been reading essay collections, psychology books, literary criticism, and whatever lightens the intensity of the Booker Prize reading.
What’s your bookshelf aesthetic?
I have run out of bookshelves so I pile them on the floor. I've donated many, many books to libraries so I can offload them but still revisit them if I need to. I don't need to own every single book I've ever read and liked.
Books choose you, many pass through you, you move on, and that's fine. These days, I buy most of my books at pop-ups at book festivals I am invited to, so the books are arranged by where I happened to have done a panel at. For example, if you see a stack of Irish books, I got those at the Dublin International Writers Festival. I have an enviable collection of Malaysian literature from the time I attended the George Town Literary Festival in Penang.
Where do you like to read or write?
I write a lot on the Seoul Metro.
Anton Hur
Seoul, South Korea
Anton Hur is the author of Toward Eternity and No One Told Me Not To. As a translator, he was double longlisted and shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize. Anton resides in Seoul.
Appearing in: Session 10, Session 16, Opening Night Gala
Keshe Chow
What books are in your TBR (To Be Read) pile?
I'm excited to read Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma and Prince of Fortune by Lisa Tirreno. Both of them are young adult fantasy novels by local authors!
What’s your bookshelf aesthetic?
I wish I had a more organised bookshelf; I shelve them by size and try to group authors/series together. Realistically, though, they all end up shoved in wherever they will fit! Pictured are two of my neater shelves, with sprayed edges facing out, of course :)
Where do you like to read or write?
Below is a photo of my desk (with the unruly stacks of excess books carefully cropped out). Cat-who-stole-my-chair included.
Keshe Chow
Naarm, Melbourne, Australia
Keshe is a multi-award winning author of fantasy, romance, and speculative fiction. Her debut novel, The Girl With No Reflection, was released this year with Penguin Australia. Currently, she lives in Naarm with her partner, kids, her cat, and far too many houseplants.
Appearing in: Session 3, Session 12
Benjamin Chee
What books are in your TBR (To Be Read) pile?
Exordia by Seth Dickinson—I liked the Baru Cormorant series, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he does in sci-fi. I also just bought The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera and the synopsis alone is so intriguing!
What’s your bookshelf aesthetic?
I lent out a small stack recently so this is slightly emptier than usual. I like to browse through my comics and art books from time to time so I have them partly shelved, partly on display—those beautiful cover art need to be seen!
Where do you like to read or write?
One of my reading spots as pictured; I also have an ebook reader on my phone, so I read just about anywhere: long bus rides to and fro work was when I once got the most reading time in.
Benjamin Chee
Sandhya Parappukkaran
What books are in your TBR (To Be Read) pile?
After reading Exit Through the Gift Shop by Maryam Master, which I loved, I was so excited to read Maryam’s next books. But both No Words and Laughter is the Best Ending have been lost in my ‘To Be Read’ list (on which there is close to 100 books) and I’m looking forward to fixing that immediately!
What’s your bookshelf aesthetic?
I mainly have picture books on my bookshelf. I like to sort them by colour because that looks pretty. It’s nice to leave some space to place a book or two face-out to see the beautiful covers. I also have a stack of books out from the library. I keep library books separate so they are easy to find when it’s time to return them – yes, learnt from experience that keeping library books in one spot is a good idea!
Where do you like to read or write?
I don’t have a special place to write. It’s helpful if the atmosphere is quiet and I’m fully awake, fresh and energised – mornings are better. The corner of the dining table, one side of the sofa, half under a quilt if it’s cold are all good places to write.
Sandhya Parappukkaran
Turrbal Country, Brisbane, Australia
Sandhya Parappukkaran writes stories which are inspired by her childhood experiences traversing different cultures and are steeped in the theme of ‘embracing your cultural identity’. Scrumptious food and glimpses of nature inspired by her Kerala Indian heritage feature heavily when she sits down to write.
Melanie La’Brooy
What books are in your TBR (To Be Read) pile?
Out of all the books that I've read this year, two have utterly floored me with their brilliance and heartbreaking storytelling. So I now want to read earlier works by both of these authors.
I just finished reading Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko. It was utterly extraordinary and has made me want to read her previous novel, Too Much Lip.
I read The Bee Sting by Paul Murray at the start of this year and it instantly rocketed into my list of all-time favourite books. A copy of his previous book, Skippy Dies is now at the top of my wish list!
What’s your bookshelf aesthetic?
Ha! I wish I had a bookshelf aesthetic. That sounds very grown-up. We have a ridiculous amount of books and it's a total free-for-all. Kids' books sit next to art books, serious classics are interspersed with rom-coms and Terry Pratchett's shelf buddies include my old university philosophy texts. Which, when I think about it, is actually perfect.
Where do you like to read or write?
I moved house not long ago, so currently what will be my study is an enormous pile of boxes waiting for me to find the time to sort through them. I also need to buy a new desk as my very old desk broke right before we moved. (I like to think that it collapsed under the weight of my important ideas, as opposed to the truth, which is that it finally disintegrated under the appalling amount of clutter that had taken up permanent residence on its surface.) The most important thing in my new study will be the dog bed - I'm honestly not sure if I could write without the background noise of my labrador's snores.
Melanie La’Brooy
Bunurong & Naarm, Melbourne, Australia
Melanie La’Brooy writes funny, fantasy adventure novels for middle-grade readers. Her debut children’s novel, The Wintrish Girl, won the Aurealis Award for Best Children’s Fiction and the DANZ Children’s Book Award. Her new novel, The Lost History, is the sequel to The Wintrish Girl.
Appearing in: Session 9
Wayne Rée
What books are in your TBR (To Be Read) pile?
I've been a fan of Ta-Nehisi Coates since We Were Eight Years in Power, and cannot wait to jump into his latest, The Message. I'm also about to crack open Houses of the Unholy, the most recent collaboration from one of my favourite teams in comics, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.
What’s your bookshelf aesthetic?
Broadly speaking, my books are arranged by size, from shortest to tallest, which yes, makes it aesthetically pleasing, but just a tad bit chaotic. It's a chaos that I enjoy though! Every time I look for a book on my shelves, it takes me on a little journey and reminds me what else I have in my library. (Although sometimes, it also reminds me what else I want to add to my library, which makes my wallet cry a little.)
Where do you like to read or write?
My wife and I just moved into our flat, so our home office isn't quite set up yet. There's enough there for me to work on my novel though (when our cat's not demanding my attention, that is): a table for my laptop and secondary monitor, a simple mouse and, of course, my keyboard that goes clackityclackityclackity very, very loudly. I like reading in the home office too, but I'll like it even more when we finally get some beanbags.
Wayne Rée
Singapore
Wayne Rée is the co-creator of the award-winning prose/comics hybrid, Work-Life Balance: Malevolent Managers and Folkloric Freelancers. In 2023, Wayne was a resident at the National Centre for Writing in Norwich, where he started work on his first novel.
Appearing in: Session 6, Session 13
And there you have it! Do you have any of the books these speakers mentioned on your TBR? You can find these speakers at OzAsia Festival's Weekend of Words on 8 - 10 November at Adelaide Festival Centre.
View the full free program
A weekend of thought-provoking panels and inspiring conversations at Australia’s largest gathering of Asian and Asian Australian writers and thinkers.
