AustLit

'Randa Abdel-Fattah is a lawyer, human rights activist and a doctoral candidate in the Centre for Social Inclusion at Macquarie University, researching Islamophobia. She is regular guest commentator on radio and television. In 2010, she was invited by the US State Department as the Australian representative in a three-week program across the United States to investigate multiculturalism and policy. She is the third writer in Sydney PEN's 'Free Voices' series.' (6)

'This essay by author and lawyer Randa Abdel-Fattah, presented in Sydney at the special event to mark The Day of the Imprisoned Writer, is the third in Sydney PEN's 'Free Voices' lecture and essay program, running from 2012 to 2014 using funds granted by Copyright Agency Limited. The program is designed to build public awareness and concern about freedom of expression, and to galvanise a larger, broader demographic of supporters who will challenge human rights abuses and stand up for the freedom to write and read. It offers new and established writers the opportu - nity to raise or utilise their profile and express their commitment to freedom of expression in a contemporary context.' (8)

'Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technolgy, Sydney, and Sydney Story Factory marked Indigenous Literacy Day on September 5 with story telling workshops for primary and secondary school students at UTS Library. The workshops set out to show the students how much fun writing can be, encourage them to find their own voice and think about higher education as a possibility, report Melita Rowston and James Saunders.' (13)