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from the editor's desk

Westerly announces new Editor for Indigenous Writing!

Westerly is proud to announce an important change to our editorial lineup: the appointment of Timmah Ball as our new Editor for Indigenous Writing.

Timmah Ball is a nonfiction writer, researcher and creative practitioner of Ballardong Noongar heritage. In 2018, she co-created Wild Tongue Zine for Next Wave Festival with Azja Kulpinska, which interrogated labour inequality in the arts industry. Her writing has appeared in a range of anthologies and literary journals, including Meanjin, Right Now and Etchings Indigenous. Timmah was awarded Westerly’s Patricia Hackett Prize in 2016 for her powerful essay ‘In Australia’, published in Westerly 61.2.

Of her appointment as First Nations Editor, Timmah says, ‘It’s a great privilege to work with Westerly Magazine at a time when First Nation writing is making a powerful impact both nationally and internationally. I am excited about working with new and emerging Indigenous writers to bring their voices to the page and encourage and support them in all ways possible.’

Timmah takes over the position of Editor for Indigenous Writing from Dr Elfie Shiosaki, a Noongar and Yawuru writer and Lecturer in Indigenous Rights at the School of Indigenous Studies, here at the University of Western Australia. The first person to fill this editorial role at Westerly, Elfie has commissioned and supported new and exciting writing from Indigenous authors since 2016; she has also conducted published interviews with some of Australia’s most prominent Indigenous creatives. In 2019 she co-edited, with Professor Kim Scott, Westerly’s Online Special Issue 8, Ancestors’ Words, in a project that united letters held in the State Archives and written by Noongar people with the descendants of the letter-writers themselves. Elfie will continue to support Indigenous writing and scholarship as an Editorial Advisor for Westerly.

Westerly is immensely grateful for both Elfie Shiosaki’s contribution and her continued passionate advocacy for Indigenous writing and rights. We welcome Timmah Ball to her new and valued role within the Westerly team with happy anticipation. If you want to see the future work that comes out of Timmah’s Editorship with Westerly, subscribe here.

Many thanks to the Australia Council for funding our Editorship for Indigenous Writing, and thanks to all our readers for your continued support of Westerly!

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