Sleepers Publishing August 2009, Australia 9781740668132 Three children – one insular, one bold, and one stubborn and growing – dare each other to undertake dangerous or humiliating tasks in the ‘danger game’. Their lives are daring enough, with an unstable father and a mother on-edge, and mature secrets inside each of their little heads. Only two of [...]
Monthly Archives: July 2009
Kate Grenville’s Dark Places
July 28, 2009 – 7:59 am
A LiteraryMinded review of an Australian classic. Dark Places Kate Grenville Macmillan 1994 + Text Publishing 2008 (Aus, US) Dark Places charts the life of a pitiful, self-absorbed and knowingly empty man, Albion Gidley Singer. From a young age he attempts to fill a void that exists within him – a void associated with his lack [...]
They will give me new parts
July 26, 2009 – 1:42 pm
part blog-post, part insight into current creative development I ate banana pancakes this morning. I saw an old man on a bike in matching denims and a stackhat. I looked into somebody’s eyes. There are nine paper tasks on the floor. They will give me new parts like Frankenstein’s monster. A producer this week told [...]
Progressive writers
July 23, 2009 – 7:29 am
I’d like to introduce you to some of the writers who also participated in the Overland Masterclass for Progressive Writers, a week-and-a-half ago. Simonne and Maxine have written summaries of the workshop, if you want to know what it was all about. The dynamics were interesting - the ‘progressive’ themes varied greatly, and were executed differently [...]
Guest review: Sam Cooney on Mark Mordue’s Dastgah
July 21, 2009 – 8:05 am
Dastgah, Mark Mordue Allen & Unwin (2001, Australia). Also published overseas. Review by Sam Cooney. Dastgah is an account of Australian writer, journalist and editor Mark Mordue’s first trip overseas: a one-year journey through the regions of India, Nepal, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Iran, and the cities of Paris and New York. The [...]
Bike, tram and bar launches
July 19, 2009 – 11:37 am
Wow, what a week! On Monday afternoon I fell off my bike, gorifying one knee, but it is starting to heal up. Unfortunately my bike is still f**ked. The front brake is in love with the front wheel and won’t let go of it. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to get it looked at soon. [...]
How to Eat a Wolf by Sharanya Manivannan: a poem
July 16, 2009 – 8:17 am
Does all lust start and end like this? Don’t get me wrong. I loved my wolf. I held him tethered like a pussycat. I nursed the rumble in his belly with hands gentle as a burglar’s. He lived on milk and blood and ocean. He had violets for his furs. It’s just that he was [...]
Peter Goldsworthy’s Everything I Knew
July 14, 2009 – 8:06 am
Penguin Aus ISBN 9780143009634 (paperback, August 2009) It’s 1964 in small-town South Australia and Robert Burns (like the poet) is on the cusp of adolescence. ‘Happiness is a default state’, he narrates, looking back. Reading it, no matter when or where you grew up, one can relate to that simplicity, the time before ‘adult’ aspects of [...]
Somewhere in there…
July 12, 2009 – 7:46 pm
I’m exhausted and incoherent so I won’t offend you with a blabbering blog post. I’ll try and sum up things in a minimalist fashion: Overland Master Class for Progressive Writers: inspiring, practical, beneficial + connections made. My party last night: 4am tequila, Trivial Pursuit, gender conversations, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, chips for breakfast. My week [...]
Literary heroes
July 10, 2009 – 8:10 pm
Today was the first day of the Overland Masterclass for Progressive Writers. There are nine of us, giving (hopefully) constructive feedback of each others’ stories, plus taking in feedback from Overlandassociate editor Rjurik Davidson. Each day, an established writer also participates in the workshop, and today it was Tony Birch. Tomorrow will be the incomparable [...]
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