ACT Heritage Library is partnering with the National Centre of Biography and Marion (previously the ACT Writers Centre) in 2023 to offer a monthly program exploring the diversity of Canberrans through biography, autobiography and memoir.

The series begins with Subhash Jaireth and Jacqui Malins discussing Jaireth’s collection of essays, Spinoza's Overcoat: travels with writers and poets (2020) on the writers, and their writing, that have enriched his own life.

The event will be held on 11 February 2023, 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM at ACT Heritage Library 255 Canberra Avenue, Fyshwick. Entry is free but booking is essential.

Subhash Jaireth was born in Punjab, India. Between 1969 and 1978 he spent nine years in Russia studying geology and Russian literature. In 1986 he migrated to Australia. He has published poetry in Hindi, English and Russian. His published works include Yashodhara: Six Seasons Without You (Wild Peony, 2003), Unfinished Poems for Your Violin (Penguin Australia, 1996), Golee Lagne Se Pahle (Before the Bullet Hit Me) (Vani Prakashan, 1994), To Silence: Three Autobiographies (Puncher & Wattmann, 2011), After Love (Transit Lounge, 2012), Moments (Puncher & Wattmann, 2014) and Incantations (Recent Work Press, 2016). A Catalan translation of the novel After Love was published in October 2018 in Valencia. He has also published English translations of Russian, Japanese and Persian poetry, and has translated poems of Indigenous Australian poets into Hindi.

Jacqui Malins is a poet and multidisciplinary artist working across text, spoken word, performance and the visual arts. Her first poetry collection, 'F-Words', was published by Recent Work Press in 2021. She has performed at events including Poetry on The Move, the Woodford Festival and the National Folk Festival. Jacqui co-founded Canberra's Mother Tongue Multilingual Poetry in 2015 and was its organiser/producer until 2021. She directed and produced Canberra's 2021 Poetic City Festival.