UNSW Canberra and the ACT Writers Centre are over the moon about their newest writer-in-residence, and her first outing, a public lecture will be held tomorrow.

Non-fiction writer Jane Gleeson-White is the program’s second writer-in-residence, following fantasy writer Isobelle Carmody as the inaugural recipient in 2017. News is that poet Angela Gardner has been selected for the 2019 residency.

The ACT Writer-in-Residence program provides writers with access to UNSW Canberra facilities, including the Academy Library’s Special Collections. They are encouraged to engage with students and researchers on campus.

Dr Gleeson-White is spending her time in Canberra researching for her upcoming book, “Burnt Angels,” which will look at the effect of the Pacific War on Australian culture and the impact of the Japanese invasion of New Guinea on three generations of women.

So far she describes the book as “genre non-specific but tending to fiction.”

In her talk she will be talking about her research on the 1942 Japanese invasion of Papua New Guinea for my new book— “the things that are firing my imagination, the challenges I’m finding trying to imagine such a work, and why I think this history is so important,” she says.

Dr Gleeson-White believes there will be something in the lecture for anyone who is interested in World War II, as well as those interested in writing and the creative process.

“1942: Rabaul Year Zero,” a public lecture by Dr Jane Gleeson-White, Adams Auditorium, Building 111, UNSW Canberra at ADFA, Campbell, 6pm, September 25, free but registration advisable to jane-gleeson-white-unswc.eventbrite.com.au