Events
Transcript: Leah Jing McIntosh launches Cannon by Lee Lai (Stella prize shortlistee)
Following tours across Canada, the United States and Italy, acclaimed cartoonist Lee Lai flew to her home city of Melbourne as the first stop of her Australian coast tour of Cannon, her latest graphic novel. The Melbourne launch, on 11 March 2026 at the Crystal Palace & Courtyard, was co-presented with Liminal. Read a transcript of the event’s introduction by Liminal editor Leah Jing McIntosh here.
Hi, and welcome to the launch of Lee Lai’s Cannon. I’d like to begin by acknowledging that we meet tonight on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respect to elders past and present; this land was never ceded; it always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.
I’m Leah Jing McIntosh, the editor of Liminal. Tonight, we have the immense privilege of a conversation between Lee Lai and Rachel Ang, two of the most talented comic artists working today. Lee will also do a multimedia reading afterwards! You can pick up a book from our friends at Amplify, Australian’s only bookstore dedicated to books by writers of colour. There will time for books signings and questions after their conversation.
But just before this, I have been asked to launch this book, and it is such a wild pleasure to do so, because I have known Lee for a long time; ten years ago, she was our very first interview subject for Liminal. So much has changed since; in author’s note, she writes about Cannon as a kind of ‘second-coming-of-age’, and it very much feels like I – and so many of us – have grown and become, both artistically and politically, alongside her work.
—
Lee’s second book opens in the aftermath of violence; we meet the eponymous Cannon standing in the middle of a restaurant, surrounded by smashed plates and broken chairs. It seems that Lee has upended Chekhov’s maxim: the Cannon has exploded before she has even really appeared.
We cut to three months prior, spend the next few hundred panels or so making sense of what has led to such an upheaval. Cannon is a chef who is entering what she calls the ‘uncool side of her twenties’, working in a Montreal kitchen. The book is slow accumulation of daily pressures and unmet desires. Most of Cannon’s relationships seem like endless exercises in grace and restraint. She works hard in the restaurant’s understaffed kitchen; she cares for a dying family member; she avoids the attentions of her asinine boss; and hangs out with her best friend Trish, whose feelings always seem to eclipse Cannon’s own.
While reading, I was reminded often of what the poet Cathy Park Hong calls ‘Minor Feelings‘, which she describes as non-cathartic and enduring: feelings like shame, irritation, anxiety, melancholy. These feelings are not generated from major change, but from the lack of it. Hong notes that contemporary literature doesn’t often have a place for these feelings to land; one of the many things that are so special about Lee’s work, is in her ability to draw these kinds of feelings. Much of this comes down to the precision and visual economy of the page: there is such clarity to her lines, and her characteristic compositional restraint, that allows the book to bear the weight of these unresolved feelings – that Hong is talking about. And, as you read, they only grow heavier – through the book’s growing hesitations, deferred conversations and subtle adjustments in posture or expression or distance between characters. (A critic for the New York Times writes in his glowing review of Cannon that the book’s real antagonist is not a character but instead inertia.)
I think this is so affecting – the inertia, or the irresolution, for the most part – because Lee is incredibly good at paying attention to, and drawing the everyday: hands crushing garlic, cracking an egg, or snapping a Tupperware lid shut. We feel the swampy heat of summer, watch as a bead of sweat slowing drips down a face, spot the vegetables peeking out of the top of a tote bag. Her drawings take such pleasure in the textures of daily life, which is precisely where this complex knot of feelings tends to reside. But there is still very much space to breathe. In her author’s note, Lee writes that this book was an exploration of rage, but too of silliness. Which I love, and which feels so true. It is such a mark of talent that she manages both affective registers with great ease. We care about these characters because they are so very imperfect. It is in the silly absurdities that I think she makes the very most of the comics form, so I will leave you to find these moments for yourself.
Just a final note; Lee’s Stone Fruit was previously longlisted for the Stella prize; tonight, across town, it has just been announced that she has been longlisted once more for Cannon (!!) So, with that, please join me in celebrating and launching this brilliant work.
Brisbane Writers’ Festival events with Pat Grant and Luke Beesley
Pat Grant will be speaking about his graphic novel, Blue, at the Brisbane Writers’ Festival this year. Details here.
Luke Beesley will be appearing as a reader in residence at the Brisbane Square Library. Details here.
Giramondo writers at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival
Alexis Wright will be appearing at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival this year. Arnold Zable will be talking to her about her latest work, The Swan Book. Tickets are available here.
Lisa Gorton will be on The Morning Read, the Three Poets session and will be chairing an in conversation with Peter McPhee and Ian Donaldson, details here.
Chi Vu will be discussing her novella, Anguli Ma, in Asian Stories, Australian Postcodes. Details here.
Melbourne Launch – Prepare the Cabin for Landing
Alan Wearne’s latest collection, Prepare the Cabin for Landing, will be launched in Melbourne by Owen Richardson at Collected Works Bookshop on Thursday 14 February, 6 for 6.30pm.
Prepare the Cabin for Landing Melbourne Launch
Thursday 14 February
6 for 6.30 pm
Collected Works
Level 1, 37 Swanston St
Melbourne 3000
For further enquiries, contact Kris: (03) 9654 8873
open sesame Sydney Launch
Michael Farrell’s latest collection of poetry, open sesame, will be launched in Sydney at Sappho in Glebe on Sunday, 7 October at 3.30pm.
More details here.
Giramondo at the Sydney Writers Festival
Giramondo writers will be appearing at the following Sydney Writers Festival events
For more information, of to book tickets, visit the Sydney Writers Festival
Tuesday 18th May
Inside the Westside Writer’s Group
Bankstown Youth Development Service
6-8 Bankstown City Plaza
Bankstown
6:00 pm -9:00 pm
Join some of Western Sydney’s most exciting writers for an evening of readings with live editing and critical feedback from editor Ivor Indyk and special guest author Alexis Wright. The Westside Writers Group is supported by Giramondo and BYDS, and includes writers Michael Mohammed Ahmed, Lachlan Brown, Rebecca Landon, Peter Polites, Luke Carman, Fiona Wright, Felicity Castagna, Lina Jabbir and Susie Ahmed.
Food and refreshments will be provided.
Thursday 20th May
Changing Places
Sydney Theatre, Richard Wherrett Studio
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
For an immigrant the place of arrival can be alien and challenging and, all too often cruelly hostile, however much the newcomer tries to adapt. Alison Booth’s novel ‘Stillwater Creek’ tells the story of a Latvian concentration camp survivor and her daughter trying to fit in to an Australian small town in the 1950s. Kim Cheng Boey’s collection of essays ‘Between Stations’ is a rumination on wandering and belonging as the author travels the world before migrating from Singapore to Australia, while Natasha Solomon’s charming ‘Mr Rosenblum’s List’ chronicles the efforts of a German Jewish refugee to become an English gentleman.
Friday, 21st May
Poetry on the Harbour
Bangarra Mezzanine
10:00am – 11:00
Kim Cheng Boey, Adam Aitken and Judith Beveridge Hosted by Ivor Indyk.
Poetry: The Last Genre Standing?
Bangarra Mezzanine
4:00pm – 5:00pm
Will poetry outlast the novel in the digital age? Some say it’s the novelists who should be worried and that poetry ? unique among writing forms ? cannot be superseded. Robert Gray, Michael Palmer and Jennifer Maiden join Mark Tredinnick in discussing the likely effect of digital technologies on poetry.
Poems to Share
Heritage Pier, Upstairs
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Eleven outstanding Australian poets – Kate Fagan, Lachlan Brown, Adam Aitken, Lindsay Tuggle, Greg McLaren, Elizabeth Allen, Fiona Wright, Joanne Burns, Judith Bishop, Andy Quan, Keri Glastonbury – come together to celebrate the work of the Red Room Company (redroomcompany.org). The audience is seated at tables with poets, to hear readings as well as a discussion on sharing. This event coincides with the release of Corban & Blair and Red Room’s Poems to Share card set, featuring the work of 40 Australian poets. Hosted by Johanna Featherstone.
To enter, you must bring something, anything to share, such as twig, a monetary donation or a poem.
Saturday 22nd May
Brian Castro
Sydney Theatre, Richard Wherrett Studio
11:30am – 12:30am
Brian Castro’s body of work stands as testament to his ingenious adaptation of fictional forms, with his latest novel ‘The Bath Fugues’‚ continuing his creative use of musical structure. He talks Bernadette Brennan about his rich prose style and the joyful play and provocation he brings to his writing.
Three Australias
Sydney Dance Company, Studio 4
1:00 – 2:00 pm
Three poets, three voices, three views of our country: Les Murray, Ali Cobby Eckerman and Kim Cheng Boey read from their work.
Reading Muster 7
Sydney Dance Company, Studio 4
4:00pm – 5:00pm
Australian writers pass the word around, reading their own work. Kate Veitch, Shirley Walker, Jack Marx and Tom Cho are rounded up by our Drover.
Late Nights at Number One
Number One Wine Bar
Goldfields House
1 Alfred Street
Circular Quay
9:30 pm – 11:30 pm
Enjoy a post-event drink or bite and listen to Jennifer Maiden, Adam Aitken and David Brooks read their poetry at the contemporary and relaxed Quayside wine bar, Number One (numberonewinebar.com). Your host: Patrick Muhlen-Schulte.
Sunday 23rd May
Poetry Anthology Overload?
Bangarra Mezzanine
11:30 am – 12:30 pm
For a small country we sure have a lot of poetry anthologies ? four at last count and more on the way. Two of them are represented here: Robert Adamson edited ‘Best Australian Poems 2009’ and Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray have just completed a thousand-page anthology. They explain their respective approaches to Susan Hayes.
Out of the box with Tom Cho
Museum of Contemporary Art
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
In ‘Look Who’s Morphing’, Tom Cho’s first book, his characters dance through pop culture arm-in-arm with the likes of Whitney Houston’s bodyguard, Godzilla and a Gulliver-sized cock-rock singer. It’s a bizarre, biting and utterly hilarious rollercoaster ride that’s been shortlisted for prizes all over the place.
Every week, FBi 94.5 dives into someone’s record collection to talk about the music they love, the life they lead and how the two interact. Tom is a fiction and freelance writer who has written short stories, zines, the occasional business plan, and even a fictional program for the Melbourne Writers Festival. He and FBi arts broadcaster Matt Levinson will go on a conversational journey into rock star fantasies, going Gaga over style and cock rock excesses ? with a rumoured exorcism thrown in for good measure.
Afternoon Tea and Readings
Heritage Pier, Upstairs
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
A Sydney Writers’ Festival institution. A civilised and relaxing high tea with readings from poet Les Murray and novelists Brian Castro and Kirsten Tranter. Hosted by Geraldine Doogue.
Shanghai Express
Sydney Philharmonia Choir Studio
2:30pm – 3:30 pm
It takes more than a translator to publish your book in a foreign country. Giramondo Publisher Ivor Indyk talks to Patrizia van Daalen, senior rights and acquisitions manager for the private Chinese publishing firm Shanghai 99, about getting your book into China.
Research and Writing: Personal Journeys
Sydney Dance Company, Studio 1
4:00 – 5:00
‘The Nib’: CAL Waverley Library Award for Literature recognises excellence in literary research with its annual prize. Last year’s winner, Robert Gray (‘The Land I Came Through Last’), and shortlisted authors Greg de Moore (‘Tom Wills’) and John McDonald (‘Art of Australia’) talk about their books with Suzanne Leal.
Presented by Waverley Library and Copyright Agency Limited.
Book Launch: Judith Beveridge’s Storm and Honey
Giramondo Publishing warmly invites you to the launch of the new collection of poetry by Judith Beveridge, Storm and Honey, to be launched by Mark Tredinnick.
Saturday 21 November
4.30 for 5.00 pm
upstairs at Gleebooks – 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe
RSVP: 9660 2333
Giramondo at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival
Giramondo authors will be appearing at the following Melbourne Writers Festival events:
Fable, Fantasy And The New Short Story
21 Aug 2009
11:30am – 12:30pm
ACMI 1
Be warned. Mothers should not read these stories to their children. Author Tom Cho and Singaporean writer Cyril Wong have debut short story collections which play with reality, fantasies and myths.
Brian Castro in Conversation
23 August
4.00pm – 5.00pm
Festival Club
27 August 2009
1 pm – 2 pm
Festival Club
Tom Cho, author of Look Who’s Morphing, interviews Josephine Emery about happiness and identity. Josephine gives us an advance insight on her much-anticipated upcoming book Real Possibility of Joy
Why I read
22 Aug 2009
1:00pm – 2:00pm
ACMI 2
Prominent authors Steven Carroll, Raimond Gaita and Alice Pung discuss what they read as children and the doors that books and reading unlocked – with Antoni Jach, author of Napoleon’s Double.
Kevin Hart delivers the Blaiklock Memorial Lecture on Robert Gray
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Kevin Hart will deliver the 2009 Blaiklock Memorial Lecture, speaking on the singularity and immanence in the work of Robert Gray: ‘Only This: Reading Robert Gray’
Thursday 16 July
Woolley Common Room, John Woolley Building A20
Science Road, The University of Sydney
6.00 for 6.30pm
RSVP for catering: eileen.corrigan@usyd.edu.au
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Kevin Hart reading: ‘The Poets Life Works’
The Poet’s Life Works is celebrating four major Australian poets over four months. Each month, the project features one poet performing a new work in a Sydney space – surrounded by items, sounds, samples and symbols of their poetry. An artist from Chalkhorse gallery in Sydney will be commissioned to respond visually to the poet’s oeuvre. This is the latest project from The Red Room Company, and Kevin Hart is the featured poet in July, reading a new commissioned work, as well as selected poems from his collections, and, with Johanna Featherstone, discussing what it means to write. He will be joined by artist Michael Robson, whose drawing and print-making are influenced by literature.
July 17th
6.30-8.00pm
St James Church
King St, Sydney
To RSVP and for more information, contact tamryn@redroomcompany.org or call (02) 9319 5090.
The Poet’s Life Works is supported by Turning Studios.
Perth Book Launch: Tom Cho
Giramondo Publishing warmly invites you to the launch of the new collection of fiction by Tom Cho,Look Who’s Morphing to be launched by Shalmalee Palekar
on Tuesday 9 June
at 6.30 pm
Planet Books
636 Beaufort St
Mt Lawley
RSVP: (08) 9328 7464
books@planetvideo.com.au
Adelaide Book Launch: Brian Castro
The Barr Smith Library and Giramondo Publishing warmly invite you to the launch of the new novel by Brian Castro, The Bath Fugues, to be launched by Katharine England
on Friday 5 June
5.30 for 6.00 pm
Barr Smith Library Reading Room
University of Adelaide
Enter by Eastern Doors
RSVP: (08) 8303 4064
patricia.hawke@adelaide.edu.au
Art After Hours: Tom Cho at the Art Gallery of NSW
Author Tom Cho reads from his new book Look Who’s Morphing, in association with ‘Double Take: Anne Landa Award for Video and New Media Arts 2009.’
The ‘Double Take’ exhibition considers what it means to transform the self into another persona – doppelganger, karaoke performa, avatar, robot or fantasy alter-ego.
Wednesday 27 May
5:30 – 6:00 pm
Central Court, Ground Level
Art Gallery of NSW
Art Gallery Rd
The Domain
Book Launch: Tom Cho Look Who’s Morphing
Giramondo Publishing and Gallery 4A invite you to the launch of the new collection of fiction by Tom Cho, Look Who’s Morphing, to be launched by William Yang.
Thursday, May 28 2009
6:00 for 6:30 pm
Gallery 4A
181- 187 Hay St, Sydney
RSVP info@4a.com.au or (02) 9212 0380
1:00pm – 2:00pm
ACMI 2
Woolley Common Room, John Woolley Building A20
Science Road, The University of Sydney
6.00 for 6.30pm
6.30-8.00pm
St James Church
King St, Sydney
The Poet’s Life Works is supported by Turning Studios.
at 6.30 pm
Planet Books
636 Beaufort St
Mt Lawley
books@planetvideo.com.au
5.30 for 6.00 pm
University of Adelaide
Enter by Eastern Doors
patricia.hawke@adelaide.edu.au
5:30 – 6:00 pm
Central Court, Ground Level
Art Gallery of NSW
Art Gallery Rd
The Domain
6:00 for 6:30 pm
Gallery 4A
181- 187 Hay St, Sydney