Sydney book launch: How to Be Between by Bastian Fox Phelan

About this event

Please join us to celebrate the Sydney launch of How to Be Between (Giramondo, May 2022), the debut memoir by writer, musician and zine maker Bastian Fox Phelan. An exploration of youthful anxiety, medical discourse and shifting identities, How to Be Between shines a light on what it means to find joy, resilience and radical self-acceptance in a body that refuses to fit within gender binaries.

The book will be launched by writer, theatremaker and Queerstories curator Maeve Marsden at The Burdekin's Lava Lounge (level 3).

Copies of How to Be Between can be purchased on the night through event booksellers Better Read Than Dead.

This event is free, but RSVP is essential. Please register through Eventbrite to attend.

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ABOUT HOW TO BE BETWEEN

Young women’s bodies are relentlessly scrutinised and judged, so for most, the appearance of facial hair is a traumatic experience – unnatural, unfeminine, unwanted. But what happens when a female-assigned person decides to embrace their facial hair? In How to Be Between, Bastian Fox Phelan explores how something as seemingly trivial as facial hair can act as a catalyst for a never-ending series of questions about the self. What happens when we accept our bodies as they are? What freedoms are gained by deciding to pursue an authentic sense of self, and what are the costs? As Bastian navigates adolescence and young adulthood, they meet many people who ask, ‘Who, or what, are you?’

Written with a tender sense of compassion and openness to experience, Phelan’s memoir charts a young activist and writer’s life as they find their voice through political action, publishing zines and playing music. An exploration of youthful anxiety, medical discourse and shifting identities, Bastian Fox Phelan’s memoir shines a light on what it means to find joy, resilience and radical self-acceptance in a body that refuses to fit within gender binaries.

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ABOUT BASTIAN FOX PHELAN

Bastian Fox Phelan is a writer, musician and zine maker living in Mulubinba Newcastle on Awabakal land. Their zines, including cult classics Ladybeard and How to Be Alone, are held in collections around the world, and they have worked with the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and National Young Writers’ Festival on major zine fair events. Bastian’s writing has been published in journals including Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, Archer and The Lifted Brow, and they make music as part of dream-pop duo Moonsign. How to Be Between is their first book.

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ABOUT MAEVE MARSDEN

Maeve Marsden is a writer and theatremaker. She was a 2020 Phillip Parsons fellow at Belvoir Theatre, and has written, directed and performed in a number of critically acclaimed theatre productions, touring Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Maeve curates national storytelling project Queerstories, and her writing has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, Guardian Australia, Junkee and Archer Magazine, among others.

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ABOUT THE BURDEKIN

The Burdekin is a heritage-listed, five-storey venue on the corner of Oxford Street. An iconic building and popular destination on weeknights and weekends, it hosts everything from live music, to dance parties, to open drag comps, to stand-up comedy, to drag brunch on its new beautiful rooftop. Open six days a week, it is an inclusive space for entertainment, private bookings, good food, delicious cocktails and fun times.

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