{"id":4680,"date":"2014-12-27T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2014-12-27T01:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taramoss.com\/?p=4680"},"modified":"2014-12-27T10:17:06","modified_gmt":"2014-12-27T02:17:06","slug":"2014-year-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taramoss.com\/2014-year-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"2014 Wrap Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between parenthood,\u00a0study<\/a> at the University of Sydney, talks around the country and launching my tenth book, I was pretty remiss on blog updates this year. Here’s some of what I was up to:<\/p>\n

– My most read blog this year was Manus Island – An Insider’s Report<\/a>, which helped to break information to the public about the murder of Reza Barati. I owe a debt of gratitude to the brave contacts on Manus Island who risked a great deal to provide me with information for the blog and assist with other reporting<\/a>, including the unmissable Four Corners report,\u00a0The Manus Solution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

– This year I was honoured to host a series of interviews at the Sydney Opera House ‘All About Women Festival’ with extraordinary women including Alison Bechdel<\/a>, Illwad Elaman<\/a>, Mona Eltahawy<\/a>. (Next year I will be speaking at the festival on March 8 <\/a>with Germaine Greer, Rosie Batty<\/a>, Anita Saarkesian<\/a>, Jane Caro and more.)<\/p>\n

– I launched my tenth book\u00a0The Fictional Woman<\/em><\/a>\u00a0at the Sydney Writers Festival <\/a>in May\u00a0and toured the country for over four months, speaking at schools, universities, businesses and writers festivals on equality, body image, loss<\/a>,\u00a0miscarriage<\/a> and modern parenthood, women’s representation,\u00a0gender and what I call ‘fictions’ <\/a>– limiting stereotypes<\/a>, myths and tropes, many of which originate centuries ago and are still perpetuated in our oft-repeated classic stories. I also narrated the audio book <\/a>version for those who prefer to listen to books, and those with visual impairment (It runs at 9hrs 42mins and can be found here<\/a>.)\u00a0The Fictional Woman<\/em><\/a>\u00a0became a number one non-fiction bestseller and started conversations around the country. Thank you so much for your support.\u00a0When we support books on equality, feminism and humanitarian and social justice issues, particularly by local authors, we make it possible for authors to publish more on the topic and make it feasible for publishers to support issues that matter. Your support makes all the difference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

– One of the many issues I discussed in\u00a0The Fictional Woman<\/a><\/em>\u00a0was\u00a0sexual violence<\/a>, including\u00a0some of my own experiences<\/a>;\u00a0an issue that connected strongly with people of all walks of life around the nation. I had the privilege of having many readers share their deeply moving stories of survival with me this year, and I also had the opportunity to speak at fundraisers<\/a>\u00a0for Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia, and at their 40 year anniversary <\/a>celebration, where I got to learn more about their important work and decades of experiences on the frontlines of sexual and domestic violence in Australia.<\/p>\n

– Many viewers also shared their stories with me after I appeared on Q&A<\/a> at the end of May and spoke publicly about my experiences of sexual assault and rape for the first time, and about the ‘toxic silence<\/a> surrounding this issue…silence protects the predators. It also shames the victims. It also robs us as a community of the tools to be able to support people adequately when these things happen to them.’\u00a0<\/em><\/span>The full program and transcript can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n