February promises to be a bundle of reading-and-writing fun. Delve into what’s in store for the literary-minded this month.

Every Wednesday: Word Salad
A weekly event for word lovers, South Coast Writers’ Centre’s Word Salad has a different focus each Wednesday. First Wednesday of the month, is an Open Mic to perform your own work or another’s, facilitated by local poet and author Garry McDougall. Poetry with Bite is an evening of reading and enjoying poetry, led by local poet/publisher/Ron Pretty. On the third Wednesday of the month The Big Book Club, facilitated by Lynne Cook and Judi Morison, will appeal to fiction addicts. The fourth Wednesday of each month has Literary Hotspot serving up a feast of book launches, author talks and special guest events. On the rare fifth Wednesdays, there are special events. At the Philanthropy Tribe Book Cafe, 151 Crown St, from 6pm for a 6.30pm start.

2–3 Feb: The Backstories: Moya Dodd
Presented by Carriageworks and Contemporary Asian Australian Performance, The Backstories is a performance piece that takes us through three generations of professional football player Moya Dodd’s family — from the Chinese market garden her grandparents tended in Western Sydney to her rise through the ranks of world football. At 19 Moya was selected for the Matildas and represented Australia for almost 10 years. Appointed to the Executive of international football association FIFA in 2013, she was one of the first women to serve on the board in FIFA’s 108 year history. Developed by William Yang and Annette Shun Wah, with musical accompaniment by Gareth Chin, The Backstories is a rare glimpse behind the public persona of Moya Dodd as she shares the experiences that have shaped her life.

5 February: Story Club: It’s Complicated
An evening of tales and chortles, Giant Dwarf’s crowd-pleaser, Story Club, is a live storytelling night where a line-up of exceptional people read true, hilarious stories. The 5 February Story Club is themed It’s Complicated, including readings from Emma Alberici, David Cunningham, Penny Greenhalgh, Phil Spencer, and hosted by Ben Jenkins.

6 February: To Be Honest
To Be Honest is a new Australian theatre work created in collaboration with young people from Canterbury Bankstown and presented by BYDS, presented at Bankstown Arts Centre. Back by popular demand, the show examines contemporary stories of cultural displacement, homelessness, cycles of crime and the challenging struggles of some young people’s extraordinary lives around the Canterbury Bankstown area. Here more about it on Radio National’s Books and Arts.

6 February: Word in Hand with Omar Musa, Nancy J Denis and LEWA
The dynamic poetry event, Word In Hand, is starting up again for 2018. Join them at The Red Rattler to see a stellar POC line–up, featuring Omar Musa performing work from his new collection, crowd favourite Nancy J Denis and new powerhouse collective LEWA. There’s an open mic from 7.30pm—whether it’s through words, song, or rhyme: the stage is there to be shared. Sign up on the night, 5 min slots.

7 February: The Uncommon Feast
Usher in the Year of the Dog with a special literary event at Ashfield Town Hall. Join celebrated Asian-Australian writers Lachlan Brown, Wai Chim, Eileen Chong, Isabelle Li, and emcee Sheila Ngoc Pham, as they read from and discuss their work including themes of culture, identity and, of course, food.

The Uncommon Feast is a coming together to showcase writers who have intriguing commonalities and differences. The event will open with a live performance by Eugenia Teng playing the gu zheng (Chinese 26 string zither), and concludes with traditional Chinese tea and snacks, book sales and author signings.

16 February: Speaker Series: Mirror Sydney with Vanessa Berry and Walter Mason
In her delicately wrought essays and hand-drawn maps, Vanessa Berry describes her encounters with unusual, forgotten or abandoned places in the city in which she was born and raised, using their details to open up repositories of significance, and to create an alternative city, a Mirror Sydney, illuminated by memory and imagination. Hear her speak all things Mirror Sydney at Ashfield Library in conversation with Walter Mason.

16 February–25 March: Single Asian Female
Single Asian Female skewers race and gender in a sassy, fierce and very funny night out. After a smash hit season at La Boite in 2017, Michelle Law’s biting Australian comedy lands at Belvoir in February.

23 Feb–7 April: Kill Climate Deniers
What would it actually take to stop climate change dead in its tracks? Guns? Revolution? A pumping soundtrack? Kill Climate Deniers by David Finnigan’s new play takes over the Stables this February. It’s Kill Bill meets Tim Flannery, and it’s all true.