SIENNA BROWN
2024
Invited to be on the Judging panel for the ARA Historical Novel Prize which will be awarded in October.
Invited to be on the Judging panel for the Voices of Women Short Film and Script Festival with an announcement in mid December 2024 with screenings and readings in early February 2025 in Sydney, New York and Kenya.
Currently working with The History Lab at UTS’s Impact Studios to produce a series of podcasts profiling Caribbean people in Australia, to be aired in 2025.
Developed and co-produced Callaloo & Wattleseed, a unique one-day symposium, held May 3rd, at Western Sydney University Parramatta City Campus, that focused, for the first time, on the cultural contributions of Caribbean Australians, in the arena of music, education, literature and performance. Callaloo & Wattleseed forms part of a broader ARC-funded project, Creole Voices in the Caribbean and Australia, which is led by Ben Etherington and Sienna Brown. Ben and Sienna have previously teamed up as convenors of the Australian Association for Caribbean Studies conference.
2023
A 3 week research trip to Jamaica, sponsored by an ARC Development Project Grant. During which Sienna gave a presentation about her novel Master Of My Fate at the Center for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies.
Trials and Tribulations of William, an article was published in July in The Gleaner, Jamaica's oldest newspaper. https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/focus/20230709/sienna-brown-trials-and-tribulations-william
Attended the CSA Conference on the island of St Croix, connecting academics and historians from across the Caribbean and also those who came from places like Brazil, Germany, US, France, Mexico and South America.
Gave a paper - Immigration Belonging: the Caribbean Experience in Australia in the 19th Century.
2022
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Interviewed by Sarah L'Estrange for ABC Radio National Book Show to explore the line between fact and fiction with historical novelists.
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Invited to be a Judge for the The WestWords/Ultimo Prize which is a new prize that aims to reveal the diversity of a contemporary Australia. Click the link to find out who the winner was!
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Research Associate at Western Sydney University. My position is being funded by a three-year Australia Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grant and is administered through the Writing & Society Research Centre. In collaboration with the Chief Investigator, Dr Ben Etherington I will lead the project’s second theme of the ‘Caribbean experience in Australia’. This will involve synthesising archival research and creative literary reconstruction to explore the lives of Caribbean people arriving in Australia.
Begun work on her second novel – Memories Beneath a Caribbean Sun
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In Conversation with Kathryn Heyman, Author and AWMP Director - hosted by Australian Writers Mentoring Program
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A brief presentation for the Australian High Commission for International Women's Day
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2021
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Wrote, Narrated and Co-produced with Dr Ben Etherington a podcast for Radio National’s History Listen Series: Caribbean Convicts in Australia - the podcast is still available for listening. Research for this project was funded by The school of humanities and communication arts, Western Sydney University
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HNSA’s Historical Fiction Virtual Conference on a panel with with Kelly Rimmer (the Warsaw Orphan) and Sue Williams (Elizabeth & Elizabeth), and chaired by Kelly Gardiner (La Trobe University).
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Interviewed for the HNSA's Imagining The Past series of podcasts about Master of My Fate
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Interview on Words and Nerds: Authors, books and literature. Check out the interview.
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William my main character in my novel Master Of My Fate was featured in an exhibition held at Hyde Park Barracks as part of Fiona Hall's Who Goes Here? Check out me telling William's story.
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A Lie Agreed Upon - I'm on a panel at the Sydney Writers Festival on 29th April @12:00-1pm. It should be a fascinating hour. It's already sold out, but you can get on the waiting list.
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Writing Western Sydney: The Readings is a weekly series of videos available on the WestWords YouTube channel. Check it out: Sienna Brown reads an excerpt from Master Of My Fate
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2020
December
Article on the Jamaican Products website about writing the novel. It's also a great place to find out more about the Caribbean Community in Australia and purchase fabulous Jamaican food. You can also read it on my own blog page.
November
Research Assistant, Western Sydney University
I have been commissioned by Dr Ben Etherington to write a 40-50 minute podcast about the Caribbean men who arrived in Australia as convicts in the first half of the nineteenth century. This follows along and builds on my research for my novel Master of My Fate. The key priority for the research is to have a script that stands alone, but can also serve as a ‘proof of concept’ for an audio series about the Caribbean experience in Australia.
October
Master Of My Fate shortlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2020
Arts Hub - ARA Historical Novel Prize now the richest genre-based prize for literature
by Andrea Simpson - October 13, 2020
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Sydney Morning Herald - A rich focus on the past in fiction
by Jason Steger - October 9, 2020
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The Australian - Literary prize making history
by Stephen Romei - October 8, 2020
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June
A Black Lives Matter interview with Tina Quinn @2ser107.3’s Friday Drive program.
May
Sydney Living Museums and Master Of My Fate is up on the HPB website -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGNLNXBtnZ0&feature=youtu.be
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UNLOCKED Winter, No 26 - Sydney Living Museums' quarterly member magazine.
In Brief (on page 5) a blurb about Master of My Fate
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An in depth web article adapted by Jacqui Newling from ‘William Buchanan, slave, rebel, convict, bushranger’ written by me in Insites, Historic Houses Trust, 2013 (pp10–11). It's a brilliant reveal about the factual side of William's life. I've often wondered what he would think, and how amazed he would be to know he's kind of famous and his story has been brought to life.
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I'm also part of the collection of contemporary voices featured in 'Legacy: Hyde Park Barracks today', it's on the ground floor. Who would have thought!
In-conversation with David Sly writer, author and editor with a career spanning over forty years.
When: Mon 02 Mar, 3:45-4:45pm
Where: Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden, West Stage, Adelaide
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Books + Publishing
Brown wins 2020 MUD Literary Prize for debut fiction
24 February 2020
2019
Events
Sienna Brown In-Conversation with Jacqui Newling,
Colonial Gastronomer
Better Read Than Dead Bookshop
May 2019
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Sienna Brown In-Conversation with Jacqui Newling,
Colonial Gastronomer
UNSW Bookshop
June 2019
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Sienna Brown In-Conversation with Ben Etherington
Western Sydney University
Writing and Society Research Centre
July 2019
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Articles
What travel taught me
Traveller Online Magazine 2019
Repeating Islands
News and commentary on Caribbean culture, literature, and the arts
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Changing Paths
Paper given at the Australian Association for Caribbean Studies (AACS) Conference 2015
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How a Slave Ended up at Hyde Park Barracks
Published in HHT Members Magazine
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Radio Interviews
Night Life interview with Sarah MacDonald, ABC Radio
The Stretto Show, 2ST Radio Nowra
Early Mornings with Barry Nicholls, ABC Radio 720 Perth
Breakfast with Jacquie Mackay, ABC Radio Capricornia
Mornings with Nick Rheinberger, ABC Radio Illawarra
Evenings with Kelly Higgins-Devine, ABC Radio 612 Brisbane
Saturday Breakfast with Rick Whittle, ABC Radio Wide Bay
Blackchat with Lola Forester, Koori Radio 93.7FM
Life Matters, ABC Radio National
At one of my favourite bookshops Harry Hartog