Australia
Kgshak Akec is a rising literary star, drawing from her own family's South Sudanese refugee background to craft moving stories of survival and belonging. We met Kgshak (pronounced ‘keh-shâk’) to learn more about her writing journey and what she hopes readers take away from her work.
Kgshak Akec bounds into The Book Bird, a quaint little store in the Victorian city of Geelong.
She exchanges warm greetings with the manager before scanning the shelves. Near the front of the shop, she picks up a copy of her novel, Hopeless Kingdom. Shortlisted for the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award, it tells the story of a South Sudanese family searching for acceptance in their new home, Geelong.
“Hopeless Kingdom is a book that I wish existed when I was a little girl growing up,” says 28-year-old Kgshak. “I wish that I could have picked up a novel and seen myself reflected.”
The book follows the story of a young girl called Akita and her family. After being forced to flee war-torn Sudan, they moved to Egypt and then later to Australia. The novel reflects the journey that Kgshak’s own family made.
Kgshak has no memories of life in her native country because she was so young when her family fled. “Those are burdens that my mother carries. Those are burdens that my father carries,” she says.
In Egypt, Kgshak’s father sought the assistance of UNHCR, which helped the family get humanitarian visas to come to Australia. They lived in Sydney before eventually relocating to Geelong, a move that Kgshak found difficult.
“In Sydney we were one of many South Sudanese families. In Geelong, we were the Sudanese family, so that was hard to wrap my head around.”
It was during the COVID lockdown that Kgshak started thinking about her mother’s journey. “I started asking myself questions like, what were her dreams when she was a little girl? What was it like growing up in Sudan? What was it like coming to Australia aged 36 with five young children and not knowing how to speak the language?”
It was those questions that led to the birth of Hopeless Kingdom. In Kgshak’s South Sudanese culture, storytelling is important, but it is an oral tradition. There is no written form of the Dinka language.
“I was so fascinated with the notion of documenting stories down on a piece of paper and having that story be somehow immortalised.”
Kgshak says she’s been amazed by the positive reception the book has received, not only in the South Sudanese community, but the wider Australian community.
“I think it's opened my eyes to the power of storytelling, the power of truth telling, and the power that it has in connecting us all.”
The majority of funds raised by Australia for UNHCR are directed to UNHCR’s emergency operations, providing the ready funds and resources to respond quickly and effectively in situations of crisis and disaster.
