Johanna Bell - Department of the Vanishing

Name: Johanna Bell - Department of the Vanishing
Start: 2026-04-14T18:30:00+11:00
End: 2026-04-14T18:30:00+11:00
Location: Upstairs at Gleebooks

About

6pm for 6:30pm Tuesday 14 April

In conversation with Zoë Sadokierski

Before the Anthropocene, the air pulsed with birdsong. Now, a silence is falling.

Ava spends her days at The Department, rebuilding lost species from the remaining fragments of art and scientific data. Her dying mother thinks she should quit. So does her lover, and the sex workers who loiter outside her apartment. But when a ghost from her past shows up, Ava is compelled to follow its broken song deep into the archives––uncovering a secret that could reverse the age of silence.

Set in a time of mass extinction, Department of the Vanishing blends documentary poetry, archival image, and narrative verse to explore the vital questions: Can we live in a world without birdsong and is it possible to create a new opus with the fragments left over?

‘Rare and resplendent. A full-bodied roar at the crimes of extinction and a psalm for the wonder of the living world.’ Jennifer Mills

‘A sexy, compelling and beautifully crafted elegy not only to birds but to feeling itself. The denouement is spectacular; I cheered and wept.’ Angela O’Keeffe

‘Simultaneously fragile and furious, intimate and immense, Department of the Vanishing is a remarkable achievement.’ James Bradley

Until recently, Johanna Bell lived in Garramilla (Darwin) where she founded a storytelling studio to elevate voices from regional Australia. She now lives in Nipaluna (Hobart) where she writes fiction, poetry and children’s books. Her work is widely published and she has won a string of awards, including a Tasmanian Literary Award for the manuscript of Department of the Vanishing.

Zoë Sadokierski is a designer, writer, creative producer and associate professor in Visual Communication at the UTS School of Design. She is a former president and founding member of the Australian Book Designers Association. In 2015 Zoë established Page Screen Books, an independent publisher of artist’s books and visual essays. Her book Father, Son and Other Animals (2024) explores climate change and species extinctions through the lenses of parenting and creative practice.