Since domestic violence began featuring regularly on the front page in 2014, few journalists have worked harder to illuminate its true, complex nature than Jess Hill. Already her work – particularly her six-month investigation into the Family Court – has won multiple awards, including the 2016 Walkley Award for longform journalism.
At the beginning of last year, Jess decided to redouble her commitment to this cause and embark on a book, commissioned by one of Australia’s best small publishers, to answer the most fundamental questions of all: why does domestic violence really happen, what is its effect, and what can we do as a society to stop it?
This will be a book for anyone who wants to understand one of the most confounding cultural phenomena of our time, but also for the people who need to understand it: from those who’ve experienced violence in their own relationships, to those who have to respond to it every day – service providers, police, lawyers and judges.
This is challenging work. Jess has spent many months engaged in investigative research to break new ground in this area. What began as a six-month project has grown into more than a year’s work, funded only by a publishing advance that equates to about a six-week wage. Jess remains, however, absolutely committed to publishing a book that she hopes will truly progress the debate and the politics around domestic violence – its deeper causes and effects, and the social and political responses most likely to succeed.
We have had to talk Jess into accepting assistance from us and from you. She is acutely aware that she’s investigating a sector that is chronically underfunded, and has thus been reluctant to rally support.
Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to make book-writing – especially when it requires such rigorous investigation – financially viable in Australia. Credit cards rack up, Sydney rents are astronomical, and writers often find themselves going into debt to fund the projects they believe in. This is partly why so many vital issues don’t get the attention they deserve.
She is working as hard as she can to finish this book by the end of July, because that’s when she has to meet another significant deadline: the birth of her first child. After that, she will have six weeks off, and then get back to work for another few months of edits and rewrites.
Jess has already received amazing moral and emotional support from readers of her work, the domestic violence sector, survivors and colleagues. If you are not in a position to contribute financially, but you care about the issue, we would be grateful if you’d share this page with your networks.
Thanks very much for your support of Jess and her book.
In appreciation,
Gabrielle Kuiper, Monica Attard, Lynda Hill, Richard Hill, and others.
Home Truths: The Costs and Causes of Domestic Violence
Cycle of Violence (on perpetrators)
In the Child’s Best Interests?
Suffer the Children: Trouble in the Family Court
What I’ve learned about domestic violence in my year reporting on it
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Jess Hill is a freelance journalist with 10 years’ experience. She has been a travel writer, radio producer, Middle East correspondent, radio documentary maker and investigative journalist. Since 2014, she has reported almost exclusively on domestic violence, and was the recipient of three 2015 Our Watch Walkley Awards, including the Gold Award for reporting on violence against women. In 2016, her work on domestic violence and the Family Court was awarded a Walkley Award, an Amnesty International Australia Media Award, and the inaugural Walkley Award for Women’s Leadership in Media.
Jess is now 30 weeks pregnant, and has only a few weeks left in which she can travel interstate to conduct vital research for the book. Funds raised will be used to pay for travel and research during this period, and some living expenses until the book is finished. It will also be used to recoup money already spent on flights, accommodation, and other research costs already accumulated.
At various times, Jess has experienced vicarious trauma in the course of her work, which has occasionally slowed its progress. Pregnancy now adds another unpredictable variable. However, neither factor should prohibit Jess from finishing the book, which is scheduled for release in July/August 2018.