What a lovely thing to wake up to on your birthday! I have somehow muscled out Justine Larbalestier for top spot on Copywrite’s Top 50 Australian Blogs for Writers. Thanks for reading and linking to me, lovely folks.
I will be writing more on NYWF/TiNA when I hit Bali (hopefully – depending on internet situation), or [...]
Category Archives: Self-indulgence
Birthday notes, more from NYWF/TiNA to come
October 5, 2009 – 8:38 am
Wisdom
September 30, 2009 – 10:28 pm
I’m about to embark on an adventure to two festivals – the National Young Writers Festival, and the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. I want to learn something, many things. And, of course, I want to enjoy every moment. I’ll try and blog when I get a chance, though I’m not sure what the internet [...]
Adventures of the badge with the face of Albert Camus #1
September 29, 2009 – 9:38 pm
Shop assistant: Who’s that?
Me: Albert Camus.
SA: Who?
Me: He’s a philosopher.
SA: What?
Me: A philosopher.
*shop assistant stares blankly*
Me: He’s a writer.
SA: Oh. Does he write poetry?
Me: No.
SA: What does he write?
Me: Philosophy, fiction.
*very long pause*
SA: Ha,ha, I’m such an airhead!
Now
September 26, 2009 – 2:03 pm
Inviting the self out. Stuck inside. Curled up in cultures. Taken away and taken back by what I don’t know. And then what I know. What I can’t grasp because of stuckness. Knowing about Mohezin Tejani’s experience of Pink Floyd in 1973. But never having seen Uganda, India, Nepal, Thailand… Having seen the Grand Canyon but [...]
Melbourne Writers Festival 2009 diary part five: words like triangles (a further experiment in the confessional)
August 25, 2009 – 8:31 pm
This post is a creative, experimental mash-up of personal experience plus one of the poems Bernhard Schlink read on Sunday 23 August in RMIT Capitol Theatre, in a session called ‘Pleasure and Pain: Poetry and the Body’ at Melbourne Writers Festival. The poem is called ‘Ballad of the Outer Life’ or ‘Ballade des auBeren Lebens’, and is by [...]
Melbourne launch of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature
August 8, 2009 – 2:43 pm
The Red Rotunda at the Cowen Gallery at the State Library of Victoria is filled with silver-haired literary giants, and a young woman enters, sweaty and carrying two bags (she has walked from work). She sees a couple of familiar faces but is too intimidated to talk to them. She clasps a glass of champagne and [...]
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 me about Roger [...]
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 [...]
I wanted to marry Michael Jackson
June 27, 2009 – 2:40 pm
<– Little Ange with my first love on the wall.
The first short story I ever wrote, and read aloud, was called ‘Michael Jackson and the Magic Hat’. I was in Year 3. Besides the magic hat, there was mystery, romance and intrigue. My best friends in Year 3 – Genna and Rebecca – both messaged me [...]
Copyright © 2008 Private Media Pty Ltd, Publishers of Crikey.com.au. All Rights Reserved.
Independent news, blogs and commentary on politics, media and business.
Editor: Jonathan Green.
Publishers: Eric Beecher, Diana Gribble.
Level 7, 22 William St, Melbourne, 3000. Ph: 1800 985 502 Fax: (03) 8623 9975
Avatar: a mash-up
This piece is a mash-up of an undergrad essay from a couple of years ago, plus present thoughts, imaginings and speculation on the narrative of self in a virtual environment.
Storytelling is as old as humanity. The human has always actively projected him/herself into realms of fantasy (through song, art, drama, writing). Modernity advanced the visual aspect of [...]