Upcoming Event

Parramatta Literary Salon #6 – Abbas El-Zein

May 27, 2026 6:30 pm — Tickets $11.90
Arts & Cultural Exchange, 8 Victoria Rd Parramatta

May brings a new edition of Parramatta Literary Salon as ACE spotlights the body of work of a new writer.

Come along for a night of captivating conversation as acclaimed author Abbas El-Zein sits down with Western Sydney writer Yumna Kassab. Together, they’ll explore the power of literature in a night filled with thought-provoking ideas.

Vietnamese-Australian writers Annabella Luu and Antoinette Luu will also perform some of their incredible poetry work before the conversation.

Event Details

When: 6:30PM-8:30PM Wednesday 27 May, 2026
Where: Arts & Cultural Exchange, Parramatta
Tickets: $11.90 per person on Eventbrite.

Booking essential. Secure your tickets via the link below.

Free for First Nations or people experiencing financial hardship. For further information email: [email protected] 

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About Abbas El-Zein

Abbas El-Zein has written fiction and non-fiction about war, identity and displacement. His work has appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, Australian Book Review, the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, as well as literary magazines Heat, Meanjin, Sydney Review of Books and Overland. He has published novel, Tell the Running Water, set in civil-war Beirut, an award-winning memoir, Leave to Remain, as well as a collection of short stories, The Secret Maker of the World. His latest book – Bullet, Paper, Rock, A Memoir of Words and Wars – won the 2025 National Biography Award and the 2024 University of Queensland non-fiction book award and was shortlisted for the Douglas Stewart non-fiction category of the 2025 NSW literary awards.

About Yumna Kassab

Yumna Kassab is the author of The House of Youssef, Australiana, The Lovers, Politica and The Theory of Everything. Her latest book, Goodbye, My Love, is available from Ultimo Press. Her books have been listed for a number of prizes including the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Stella Prize and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.
During her time as the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature, she wrote Parramatta: A Dictionary of Place and Memory which will be published in July this year.

About Annabella Luu

Annabella Luu is a Vietnamese-Australian writer, slam poet, perennial student, and dog mum from south-west Sydney. For Annabella, poetry is a way to access the tenderness beneath our hardened selves. She is currently working to demystify her experiences as a second-generation daughter of refugees settling on Darug Land.
She has published her poetry in various journals, including Voiceworks and DVAN’s Diacritics, and performed most recently at the State Library of NSW. She is also the editor-in-chief of the UNSWeetened literary journal at UNSW.

About Antoinette Luu

Antoinette Luu is a Vietnamese-Australian writer practising in south-west Sydney. Her poetry reconciles life in the diaspora, and how this life is at once burgeoning, threatened, loving, complicit and lived on unceded Darug land. Poetry is her praxis of empathy.
Antoinette currently volunteers with the Bankstown Poetry Slam and was a four-time finalist at their National Youth Poetry Slam. She is part of the poetic quartet, After All, who won the 2025 Grand Slam, and worked as a senior editor for the UNSWeetened Literary Journal.

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