Waiting for Kate Bush is a funny, fast-paced read. The characters are full of interesting Dickensian qualities, quirky parallels, and twists which tease out the theme—that nothing is quite what it seems. Fame is a fleeting and strange thing which…
A review of Wrong About Japan by Peter Carey
As one would expect from an author who can write well about anything, the book is full of the kind of detail which makes for good travel writing: setting, character, anecdote, and scenery descriptions, but this is much more than…
A review of The Turning by Tim Winton
The Turning often makes for painful reading, as we are drawn deeply into the heart of these stunted, unhappy, and sometimes doomed lives, but Winton’s prose is transcendent. Taken together, these stories create their own turning, a sense that life…
A review of Weeds in the Garden of Words by Kate Burridge
Like a true gardener, Burridge’s love for language is never so strict or pompous that it excludes admiration for what is truly beautiful or unique, even if it is as pernicious and destructive as a weedy plant. Like her very…
Interview with Peter Bowerman
In this effervescent interview, the author of The Well Fed Writer: Back for Seconds talks about his new book (and how it relates to his old one), the huge demand for commercial writers, perceptions and misconceptions about commercial writing, how he found his many experts, how he juggles short and long term goals, how to leverage a creative writing background, on mentoring, his next book, and lots more.
A review of The Well-Fed Writer Back for Seconds
Bowerman clearly loves what he does for a living, and not just because it keeps him well-fed. These days all writers need to be cognisant of audience, and willing to sell their talents in one way or another. Although Bowerman…
Interview with Ouyang Yu
The “Angry Chinese Poet” is true to form in this feisty interview which looks at his new collection of work, about labels, on writing in two languages, the nature of ‘academics,’ his literary journal Otherland, migrants, predjudice, and his many rejections.
A review of New and Selected Poems by Ouyang Yu
Despite (and perhaps at times, because of) the anger and rejection, Ouyang Yu’s voice has become a quintessentially Australian voice. We are almost all migrants, and most people have felt the kind of self and societal alienation that many of these poems touch on. This deep-seated irony is obvious enough to add power even to those poems that anchor themselves in silliness.
A review of Putting It On Paper by Dawn Josephson
While the book is targeted towards book authors, much of the advice is useful for any writer who needs to promote themselves (that is, for any writer). Writing good press releases, cover letters, bios and self-promoting articles are the keystones…
Interview with Dr Coral Hull
In this courageous and very in-depth interview, the author of Broken Land talks about her extensive body of work, her many ongoing projects, her literary magazine Thylazine, her passions, her politics, and the positives and negatives of life as an empowered multiple.