Sheila Ngoc Pham & Jumaana Abdu: In Conversation

Sheila Ngọc Phạm is a writer, editor and producer working across public health, media and the arts. She writes for a wide range of literary and mainstream publications, and was a finalist for the 2021 Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism. Her most recent essay, 'Western Sydney is dead, long live Western Sydney!' was commissioned by utp and published on Sydney Review of Books. Sheila has held editorial roles at the ABC and is currently undertaking a PhD at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation. Sheila lives on Dharug land with her husband and two children.

Jumaana Abdu is a writer currently working on her debut novel as the recipient of a Wheeler Centre Next Chapter fellowship, for which she has also undertaken a Varuna Writers’ House residency. Her work has been published in Kill Your Darlings, Overland, and The Sydney Morning Herald. She is in her final year of medical school.

Kiri Zakinthinos, General Manager at Utp, is an arts professional and writer. Her driving purpose in all her work is a desire for a fairer, more inclusive, more democratic cultural landscape, which reflects our plurality of cultures and lived experiences.

As a child of migrants and first-gen Australian, and having grown up in West and South-West Sydney navigating two cultures and pursuing a path in the arts, she's passionate about making space for and supporting others on similar journeys.

Kiri has worked in the creative industries in diverse roles within local government and the small-medium non-profit sectors in both the visual and performing arts for organisations such as Campbelltown Arts Centre, Cumberland Council’s Peacock Gallery and Arts Studio, Ensemble Offspring, Diversity Arts Australia, and anti-racism social change organisation, All Together Now.