Elise Valmorbida

"Growing up Italian in Australia meant growing up with migrant stories. My head was full of people and places that seemed foreign and yet were utterly familiar—part of me, like my Italian face and my Italian surname. Migration is not just about geography. The ‘places’ can be cultural, emotional, sometimes utterly notional."
—Elise Valmorbida, Forbes interview, 2019

Elise devises and teaches creative writing workshops that explore Migration Stories. Sometimes she calls them Suitcase Stories. Participants may be from different countries or cultures, but many people—and many characters—‘migrate’ in other ways: perhaps their journey is from one kind of life, or one identity, to another.

FORTHCOMING DATES:

MIGRATION STORIES
1-day workshop with Writers Victoria, Saturday 18 January 2025
—booking opens soon!

WRITING FACT OR FICTION
2-day workshop with CoAsIt Melbourne, 8 + 15 February 2025
—booking opens soon!

WRITING FROM THE HEART
1-day workshop at CoAsIt Melbourne, Saturday 22 March 2025
—booking opens soon!

RECENT + PAST WORKSHOPS
WRITING ABOUT PLACE (CoAsIt, Melbourne), WRITING ABOUT THE PAST + PRESENT (CoAsIt, Melbourne), WRITING 'HOME' (Writers Victoria), WRITING MIGRATION STORIES (Writers Victoria), WRITING FAMILY STORIES (CoAsIt, Melbourne), GUARDIAN MASTERCLASS (London) 'Migration Stories', FABER ACADEMY (Sydney + Melbourne)

'SUITCASE STORIES' TALK
The first in the CoAsIt Italian Australian culture series, recorded remotely via Zoom from London in lockdown, May 2020
link here

		Migration + other stories

		Home Books Teaching Central Saint Martins Arvon Migration + other stories Writing + wellbeing Writing Projects Events Contact + Links		“If there’s one common element in all my writing, it’s an interest in migrants and migration. I guess it’s natural given my own multicultural origins, but it’s also at the heart of storytelling: the migrant brain is prone to metaphor—the perpetual balancing of here and there, different worlds in simultaneous play.” —Elise Valmorbida, The Guardian, 2009 "Growing up Italian in Australia meant growing up with migrant stories. My head was full of people and places that seemed foreign and yet were utterly familiar—part of me, like my Italian face and my Italian surname. Migration is not just about geography. The ‘places’ can be cultural, emotional, sometimes utterly notional." —Elise Valmorbida, Forbes interview, 2019 Elise devises and teaches creative writing workshops that explore Migration Stories. Sometimes she calls them Suitcase Stories. Participants may be from different countries or cultures, but many people—and many characters—‘migrate’ in other ways: perhaps their journey is from one kind of life, or one identity, to another. FORTHCOMING DATES: MIGRATION STORIES 1-day workshop with Writers Victoria, Saturday 18 January 2025 —booking opens soon! WRITING FACT OR FICTION 2-day workshop with CoAsIt Melbourne, 8 + 15 February 2025 —booking opens soon! WRITING FROM THE HEART 1-day workshop at CoAsIt Melbourne, Saturday 22 March 2025 —booking opens soon! RECENT + PAST WORKSHOPS WRITING ABOUT PLACE (CoAsIt, Melbourne), WRITING ABOUT THE PAST + PRESENT (CoAsIt, Melbourne), WRITING 'HOME' (Writers Victoria), WRITING MIGRATION STORIES (Writers Victoria), WRITING FAMILY STORIES (CoAsIt, Melbourne), GUARDIAN MASTERCLASS (London) 'Migration Stories', FABER ACADEMY (Sydney + Melbourne) 'SUITCASE STORIES' TALK The first in the CoAsIt Italian Australian culture series, recorded remotely via Zoom from London in lockdown, May 2020 link here