Enjoy an evening with author Reneé Pettitt-Schipp as we launch her incredible work of non-fiction.

Join Dr Reneé Pettitt-Schipp in conversation with the Honourable Dr Carmen Lawrence as they launch Reneé’s new non-fiction work, The Archipelago of Us. The Archipelago of Us is a new non-fiction work by Reneé Pettitt-Schipp, offering a deeply personal insight into the political world of Australia’s detention system. Written about Reneé’s experiences of teaching asylum seekers on Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the work also offers the reader a rare glimpse into these paradisiacal island-scapes, as well as the lives of islanders whose futures play out alongside refugee people at the border of our nation. 
 
Reneé Pettitt-Schipp’s work with asylum seekers in detention on Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands inspired her first collection of poetry, The Sky Runs Right Through Us. This collection was shortlisted for the Dorothy Hewett manuscript prize as well as the 2019 CHASS Australia Student Prize. In 2019, The Sky Runs Right Through Us also won the WA Premier’s Literary Award for an Emerging Writer. Reneé currently lives in WA’s Great Southern.