Writing and risk is a topic that has preoccupied my thoughts for at least the last few years.

As a writer, the act of stringing together words never feels risky—save, perhaps, for that moment when I sent off the uncorrected proof of my memoir, The Hate Race, to my mother, who after the full week she took to read it told me she thought it was ‘okay’. But visiting VCE literature classes across Victoria over the last two years to speak to students about Foreign Soil, my 2014 book of short fiction, there is one recurring question, which isn’t about the text. This question is generally asked by girl students and students of colour. The question is: Aren’t you afraid?