The HNSA committee programs our conferences using the principles of diversity and inclusion as a priority. We will not tolerate expressions of any kind of hatred or discrimination at our events.
Our community of writers and readers is welcoming and diverse, and we try to create events in spaces that reflect and enable this.
Our current strategies to support this include:
- Ensuring host university sites are accessible
- Acknowledging the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, and inviting them to formally open the conference with a Welcome to Country
- Inviting writers from a range of cultural backgrounds, life experiences and viewpoints, particularly writers from marginalised communities
- Acknowledging the complex ways in which Indigenous experiences are represented in fiction and in history writing in our countries, and highlighting these issues in panels, speeches and interviews
- Ensuring that at least one of our most prestigious guest roles showcases the work of a First Nations writer
- Establishment of a First Nations Participation Fund in 2019 to support the participation of guests from New Zealand or Australia who might not otherwise be able to appear
- Providing meals and refreshments as part of the conference registration, and keeping prices as low as possible, including discounts for students and concession holder
- Positive engagement with ideas and issues around the need for diversity in the publishing industry and writing communities
- Providing opportunities for aspiring and emerging writers to have their work considered in pitch and short story contests – anonymously and without prejudice
If you have ideas for improvements or changes, we’d love to hear from you.
HNSA Committee
