Food Is Life: A writing/craft seminar with Candice Chung

We're marking the paperback publication of Candice Chung's brilliant memoir Chinese Parents Don't Say I Love You with a craft seminar on how to use food to say the unsayable and deepen your narrative!

Writing about how and what we eat is so much more than the act of describing a meal. It is one of the most powerful ways to capture the texture of daily life, and often the secret to tapping into our relationship with desire, identity, politics and place — the ultimate ‘show don’t tell’. Together we will explore how to use food as a world-building device, reveal personality (think of all the things we learn about someone on a dinner date), dramatise power dynamics between characters and as a portal into our private memories and yearnings.

Part One: What Can Food Do?

How do writers of different genres use food to make their stories come to life? We will explore the surprising functions of food scenes in speculative fiction, short stories, memoir and essays. How can food escalate tension, bring levity and invite empathy? Plus, tips on mastering precise descriptions and the art of what’s left unsaid.

Includes an in-class writing prompt.

Part Two: The Power of Longing

In this session we will learn about an animating question that brings organic momentum to any cooking and eating scene. We’ll examine the role of desire — those that we’re aware of and those that we’re not — in our eating lives.

Closing Q+As.

About the instructor:

Candice Chung is a writer, editor and a former restaurant reviewer for The Sun-Herald. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Good Food, The Australian Gourmet Traveller, Gutter and more. Her first book, Chinese Parents Don’t Say I Love You: A Memoir of Food, Family and Finding Love is a Financial Times Best Summer Book of 2025.