'Language gave to me the body I knew was mine and brought into existence so many possibilities for what my gender can be.'
Across these twenty fresh and boldly intimate stories, Erin Riley writes about the things that matter most- family, heartbreak, humanity, justice and swimming, and the messy, hard graft of becoming one's authentic self.
In weaving together their everyday while questioning society and its structures, Erin gifts us stories that double as a manifesto on how to disrupt and reinvent narrative, identity, love and community.
Life is complicated, messy and - when small risks are taken - even exhilarating. In Erin's hands we fall in love, get curious and become exasperated with (and sometimes charmed by) the people in their life, emerging with new perspectives on how to be in the world.
Social worker and counsellor Erin Riley is a recipient of Penguin Random House Australia's 2021 Write It fellowship program, which aspires to find, nurture and develop unpublished writers across all genres, with a focus on underrepresented sections of our community.
A remarkable new storytelling voice on the block, Erin Riley takes you from one topic to the next with a warm, trusting hand.
Taking aspects of memoir and essay, A Real Piece of Work explores the nuances of identity, family, social work, and making sense of yourself and those around you. Riley offers distinct insights and reflections across twenty stories, shifting from an early adolescent longing for love, to an intimate recount of their experiences as a social worker, to finding solace in the work of Fiona Wright during COVID lockdowns. Thoroughly researched and charged with heart, Riley places personal experience in conversation with theory in order to offer new ways of interpreting ourselves, and the world we live in.
Through bending the conventions of essay and memoir, A Real Piece of Work encourages readers to share in Riley’s questioning of systems and structures. While exploring issues of a serious and topical nature, the sense of hopefulness found in each story is nothing if not infectious.
- Jamil
