A Real Piece of Work | Erin Riley in conversation

Join Erin Riley, Dr Ruby Grant and Rodney Croome AM for a conversation about A Real Piece of Work as a queer/trans memoir, its insights into relationships, family dynamics, and support and advocacy for the LGBTQI+ community.

‘Language gave to me the body I knew was mine and brought into existence so many possibilities for what my gender can be.’

Life is complicated, messy and – when small risks are taken – even exhilarating. 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.

Erin Riley (they/them)

Erin Riley is a writer and social worker from Sydney.  Erin’s debut memoir, A Real Piece of Work was published by Penguin Random House in 2023. Their most recent essay about autistic burnout was published in the recent UQP anthology Someone Like Me. They are spending 2025 travelling Australia with their partner and their dog wwoofing, recovering from burnout and writing about it. 

Rodney Croome AM (he/him)

Rodney Croome AM, champion of LGBTQIA+ rights throughout Australia for more than two decades and Tasmanian Australian of the Year 2015.

Yalei Wilson (they/them)

Yalei Wilson is a trans nonbinary person exploring the fuzzy edges of living in and working for community in nipaluna/Hobart. Perceived by some as a kind of gender Pied Piper, they spend time reflecting on congruency – to self, to the people they support, and the spaces and systems we move through together.

Dr Ruby Grant (she/her)

Dr Ruby Grant (she/her) is a senior research fellow and lead of the LGBTIQ Research Theme at La Trobe University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex Health and Society.