SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER | INSTORE EVENT
10am - 1pm | WORKSHOP
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
Does writing about trauma always has to be so hard? Can writing help us dealing with traumatic events and give meaning to a traumatic experiences? Writing can help us process trauma — whatever that means for you — as well as help others through our words.
In this workshop Olivera Simić shares some of the things she has learned about writing trauma and explains why stories can save us. Weaving together her journey as a writer and researcher, Olivera reveals her personal story of trauma from war and forced displacement, and explains how her life has informed her acclaimed non-fiction writing.
If you want to learn how to write about personal and other's trauma with care and courage, sign up to this workshop.
ABOUT THE TUTOR
Olivera Simić is an Associate Professor wit h the Griffith Law School, a feminist and a human rights activist. Dr Simić was born in the former Yugoslavia and lived through the Yugoslav Wars (1991-1999). She was nineteen years old, studying the first year of a law degree in Bosnia andHerzegovina when the Bosnian War broke out in 1992. Initially as a refugee and later as a migrant, Dr Simić lived and studied in Europe, the USA and South America, before coming to Australia in 2006.
She has published four monographs and eight co-edited collections, numerous book chapters, journal articles and personal narratives. Her writing has appeared in online media such as The Conversation, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and Lawyers Weekly. Her non-fiction work draws on hundreds of interviews with victims, perpetrators and bystanders of the wars. The stories of people who struggle with post-war trauma and seek some form of justice for crimes they survived, particularly women, are at the heart of Dr Simić’s work. Her latest book Lola's War: Rape Without Punishment was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2023.
Dr Simić was a nominee for the Penny Pether Prize for Scholarship in Law, Literature and the Humanities, and won the Peace Women Award from Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF, Australian branch).
