- We will need the bravest of writers, those who will search ceaselessly through the backwaters of their minds, hearts, and souls to find ways to powerfully articulate the new stories, the new sagas, the new imagination, and the new epics of the world, inspired by their doubt, fear, love, longing, and wondering. They will need to see beauty despite the destruction, experience deep sorrow, and find that incorruptible truth amid the growing dust storms… By this I mean their stories will tell of all life being of equal value, how the light shines not just on ourselves (and our own personal address) but on the whole.
Alexis Wright is a member of the Waanyi nation from the highlands of the southern Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia. She is the author of the novels The Swan Book, Carpentaria, and most recently Praiseworthy winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and the Stella Prize.