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Author In-Conversation: Marcia van Zeller

Author In-Conversation: Marcia van Zeller

24 February 2026

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Marcia’s latest release, 'Be a Good Girl, Valerie,' is an uplifting and empowering #metoo fiction, based on her lived experience.

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Marcia’s latest release, 'Be a Good Girl, Valerie,' is an uplifting and empowering #metoo fiction, based on her lived experience.

About the Author:

Marcia Van Zeller is a Perth-based Author, Journalist and Academic. Born in Canada, Marcia van Zeller arrived in Perth in the 1980s to embark on her career in journalism and professional writing. She has worked as a features writer and sub-editor for The West Australian, in PR positions for a huge range of organisations and format (print and online), and spent the past 12 years as a sessional academic at Curtin University, teaching units in Professional Writing and Publishing.


After many years spent composing words to the specifications of others, Marcia decided she had a story or two of her own to tell. She wrote and selfpublished her first novel, a historical fiction titled The Capes, as part of her PhD thesis through Curtin University’s School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry.

About the book:

With a longing to write something more personal and contemporary, Marcia’s new release, Be a good girl, Valerie, is an uplifting and empowering #metoo fiction, based on her lived experience as an aspiring TV reporter sexually harassed by her boss in London during the 1970s.
Exposing the unfair consequences of saying ‘no’ in the workplace, the book vividly and with cracking dry humour illustrates the power of standing up for another woman’s rights, and your own. It’s set between the retro vibe of 1978 London and 2018 metropolitan Perth, and tells a confronting tale of woman in her 60s, named Valerie, who faces her traumatic past by championing her Gen-Z coworker Anna, who has effectively been fired for rejecting her boss’ advances.


Protagonist, Valerie is a delight. Wise, funny and bold. Emma Thompson crossed with Helen Garner.

Event Information

Hosted byCity of Melville Libraries
Time2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
CostFree, bookings essential
Contact DetailsContact Library staff on 9364 0115
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Location

AH Bracks Library + Creative Space
Corner Stock Road and Canning Highway
431 Canning Hwy
Melville WA 6157 Get Directions

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