By Nightfall, Michael Cunningham, HarperCollins (Aus pb, Aus ebook, US and Kindle, UK) Over the past few days I’ve been in the audience of four sessions featuring my favourite American author Michael Cunningham. Cunningham’s latest novel is By Nightfall. I’ve drafted a few posts on it since I read it, but was never able to adequately [...]
Tag Archives: reading
The epic qualities of outwardly ordinary lives: By Nightfall and Michael Cunningham in Australia
May 25, 2011 – 11:18 am
20 classics in 2011: blog project
January 18, 2011 – 8:30 am
I am going to read 20 classic, modern-classic or cult books in 2011. All book-lovers have gaps in their reading – how could you possibly read everything? In recent years I’ve been fairly up-to-speed with newer books and Australian literature, but I’ll often find myself in conversation, saying ‘oh, I haven’t read such-and-such yet’. People often assume I [...]
‘I want to read that, too!’ Wanting to know and be everything (but then take my time with something)
December 7, 2010 – 12:27 pm
The Christmas party season is in full swing. I’ve forgotten names, drank too much, jumped on a trampoline, been told secrets, held hands with sweaty strangers (swing dancing), stuttered (kinda a new one) and swapped WIP stories with emerging and published writers. There’s a lot of pressure to be in the know. To have read [...]
Last weekend’s literary connectivity, and what I’ve been reading lately
July 14, 2010 – 2:59 pm
On the weekend I was up in sunny Brisbane for the Australian Booksellers Association 2010 conference. It’s a conference for members and friends of the ABA – so, booksellers, publishers, and some librarians and media. I was officially there as a ‘blogger’ – on a panel called ‘Customers, Connections and Communities’, with Andrew McDonald from [...]
Perth Writers Festival 2010 diary, part one: ‘mint’ ideas
February 27, 2010 – 1:03 pm
We live ‘by and through and for ideas’ said AC Grayling at last night’s opening address. But the majority of ideas that we possess, that have shaped us - the way we see and react to the world - are unconscious or at least unexamined. Spinoza said that freedom came from making the ‘inadequate’ ideas ‘adequate’, that [...]
1993 – a pivotal year (with thanks to Mrs Grant)
December 13, 2009 – 4:18 pm
Besides my Oma, the person who most encouraged my writing when I was a child was my year 3 teacher, Mrs Grant. She was an exchange teacher from Canada and we all grew to love her so much that it was devastating the day she left. She was so sweet that one time, when my best friend [...]
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Writing on writing: guest post by Harry Bingham
I’ve been a professional writer for more than ten years, but it was only recently, when asked to produce a How to Write book by A&C Black/Bloomsbury, that I came to think systematically about this craft of ours. I mean ‘systematically’ in two different dimensions. First, there’s the whole area of technique. How, precisely, [...]