KAVITA BEDFORD
I am an Australian-Indian AUTHOR, educator and workshop facilitator based in Sydney.
My novel, Friends & Dark Shapes,
is out NOW in USA, AUSTRALIA & ITALY.
"Bedford is a talented writer with a wonderful eye for detail, and her crisp, measured sentences are genuinely impressive."
The New York Times
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ABOUT
I am an Australian-Indian author and an experienced educator, workshop facilitator and public speaker.
I have a background is in media, anthropology and literature. I have taught in these disciplines and worked in anti-racism and storytelling work for the past decade. I am passionate about telling stories from new perspectives that are traditionally left out of mainstream literature and media. My central themes of work have focused on migration, globalisation, conflict, the body, female identity and voice.
My first novel, Friends & Dark Shapes, was published in 2021 by Europa Editions (US), Text Publishing (AUS) and Edizioni E/O (Italy) and was Shortlisted for the NSW Premiers’ Literary New Fiction Award, the Small Press Network’s Book of the Year 2022 and The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award. My writing has appeared in a range of publications including The Guardian, Guernica, Literary Hub, The Saturday Paper, Roads & Kingdoms, The Griffith Review.
I previously worked in digital storytelling for social impact. As a former editor of The Point Magazine, we explored the impact of international conflict on diaspora communities and as the creative producer of a digital storytelling project, Mapping Frictions: Stories from South-West Sydney, we looked at how place shapes marginalised communities. As part of a Churchill Fellowship I explored alternative migrant narrative approaches across Germany, UK, Turkey, Greece and Australia.
As a workshop facilitator, I have been running creative writing workshops as well as holding sessions that incorporate storytelling for individuals and organisations dedicated to navigating difficult conversations in community engagement and social change. I have developed and run workshops across a range of arts organisations, government, media, social change agencies, NGO's and major writing festivals.
I am also a trained Hatha yoga practitioner. I enjoy a community-centred approach to teaching, focusing on alignment and embodied flow and want to share the benefits of writing from the body— as well as the mind.
I incorporate these different modalities in my workshops to create ways for people and communities to better connect to their own bodies, stories and creativity.
I am represented by Mary Krienke at Sterling Lord Literistic Agency, New York, USA.
Photo credit: Christopher Woe
FRIENDS & DARK SHAPES
Shortlisted for the New South Premier’s New Fiction Awards, the Small Press Network Book of the Year Award, 2022, and The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award
A group of housemates in Sydney’s inner city contend with gentrification, divisive politics, stalled careers, their own complicated privilege as second-generation Australians, and the evolving world of dating in this moving, funny, and stylish debut novel.
Wry, relatable, lyrical, and beautifully told, a book about politics, desire, youth, relationships and friends, Friends and Dark Shapes introduces a bold new Australian voice.
REVIEWS FOR FRIENDS & DARK SHAPES
"Bedford is a talented writer with a wonderful eye for detail, and her crisp, measured sentences are genuinely impressive. After grief, alienation and loneliness suffuse the novel, the story earns its way toward a sense of hope."
The New York Times
“Astonishingly assured and full of razor sharp observations about what it means to live precariously in a changing city. It’s hard to believe this is Bedford’s first novel.”
Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation and Weather
“An intimate, epiphanic portrait of millennial city life...Bedford, filtering her Didionesque prose (and her protagonist’s Didionesque generational cataloguing) through a wider emotional lens, excels at. Like Helen Garner and Christos Tsiolkas’ own debuts, Bedford’s is more concerned with taking the pulse of young, artistically-minded people alive and struggling through the city’s struggle, slipping and sinking through the every-nothing days of urban anomie and insecure work and relationships”
The Guardian
‘Bedford writes extraordinarily moving sentences and it’s exciting to see this level of talent in a first novel.’
The Australian
SELECTED WORK
WRITING
GUERNICA, The Wolf
GUERNICA, The Daintree
LITERARY HUB ,Redefining the Modern Flâneuse
THE SATURDAY PAPER, How to wait
ISLAND MAGAZINE, Riverine
NEW AUSTRALIAN FICTION KYD 2022
GOING DOWN SWINGING, Mardi Gras
GRIFFITH REVIEW, The Spectator
THE GUARDIAN, A Love Letter to Sydney
DIGITAL STORYTELLING PROJECTS
Editor and journalist for The Point Magazine, a community-based and youth-focused digital publication that looks at countering violent extremism and the impact of international events on local multicultural diaspora groups in Australia.
Photo credit: George Voulgaropuolos
Creative Producer for a digital storytelling project dedicated to celebrating stories from Western Sydney. Media sensationalism has dominated the region but these are people with diverse and complex stories to tell.
Photo credit: George Voulgaropuolos
WORKSHOPS
Describe your image
Describe your image
I am an experienced workshop facilitator and have been running workshops on writing, literature and developing a creative practice. I also employ a range of methodologies to hold space for individuals and organisations looking to navigate difficult conversations, deepen community engagement or unblock creativity. I am a trained Hatha yoga practitioner and I enjoy a community-centred approach to teaching, focusing on alignment and embodied flow and I incorporate these different modalities in my workshops to find a way for people and communities to better connect to their own bodies, stories and creativity.
PARTNERSHIPS
