It's been a while since I updated, so I'll shove it all in one post. First of all, Happy New Year! 2014 was an incredible year for me, though it started out rocky (I was unemployed for about two months). The highlights were finishing my doctorate, publishing Captives, and having a story included in Best Australian Stories 2014. … Continue reading Projects and publications, plus an opportunity for online writers
Angela’s Publications
Links, news, teasers, explanations…
Best Australian Stories 2014, ed. Amanda Lohrey
I've really enjoyed reading this year's Best Australian Stories (which includes my story 'Too Solid Flesh', originally published in Island 137). One commonality I found between the stories, which reminded me of the power of fiction (what it can do), was an emotional complexity that can only be 'shown', not explained. For example, in Julienne van Loon's 'Bring … Continue reading Best Australian Stories 2014, ed. Amanda Lohrey
Captives reviewed in Cordite
Jo Langdon has written a beautiful and perceptive review of Captives for Cordite Poetry Review. 'The space beyond the stories is essential, and the words themselves appear with an illusory ease and simplicity.' Read the rest here. Captives is widely available, including from the publisher, Readings, Booktopia, Avid Reader, Fishpond (free worldwide shipping), or your local bookstore. The ebook is available on Kindle, Google Play, iBooks, Kobo & more.
Review of The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion in The Australian
I reviewed The Rosie Effect, Graeme Simsion's follow-up to The Rosie Project for the Weekend Australian. It's a warm read, and a successful sequel. Following is an extract from the review. — As with the first book, these incidents are humorous and cause cringing; the reader observes the miscommunication, the unravelling, and longs to step in as an … Continue reading Review of The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion in The Australian
MWF 2014, Flashing the Square, Memory Makes Us
Melbourne Writers Festival has been fantastic so far. Stimulating keynotes from Helen Garner and Chris Hadfield, and I really enjoyed yesterday's panel 'Crossing Cultures', about cultural hybridisation. There were some great insights into contemporary China from Zhang Tianpan: contemporary China is very complex, but also very simple. There are many commonalities with the West—'we all … Continue reading MWF 2014, Flashing the Square, Memory Makes Us
Review: Slush Pile by Ian Shadwell, for The Australian
Sometimes an author will have one big hit and then … nothing. When we meet Michael Ardenne, the antihero of Ian Shadwell’s Slush Pile, it has been more than a decade since he won the Man Booker Prize for his debut novel Ephesus. Now, he is 'as dry as an old dog turd'. Instead of writing, … Continue reading Review: Slush Pile by Ian Shadwell, for The Australian
Review: Herman Koch’s Summer House with Swimming Pool in The Australian
'Summer House is a dark satire, scalpel-sharp and more cohesive than The Dinner, with a more complex unreliable narrator, a compelling structure, and a sutured but festering wound of themes.' Read my review of Dutch author Herman Koch's disturbing novel Summer House with Swimming Pool here. I also reviewed his previous novel, The Dinner, for The Australian.
Flash fiction is like a good dram
Cross-posted from the SA Writers' Centre blog. I wrote this post ahead of my flash fiction workshop at the SA Writers' Centre in Adelaide (this weekend: 22 June, book here). I also have workshops coming up at Writers Victoria (see also my interview), the Tasmanian Writers' Centre, and at Byron Bay Writers' Fest! On my desktop … Continue reading Flash fiction is like a good dram
Interviews in The West Australian and Tincture
In the West Australian: 'I thought of (Captives) as a pillbox of stories,' Meyer says. 'There are different coloured pills - a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one—and they produce different effects and maybe you can't take too many at once. And they're a little dark and a little strange. But … Continue reading Interviews in The West Australian and Tincture
LiteraryMinded is seven; Captives is born; writing-work balance
I missed my blog's birthday. For the first time. You can imagine why. Something else I've written has just been released, my tiny book of short fictions, Captives. Actually, there's more to it than that. I haven't felt like I've had a proper chance to let publication wash over me, that now when I say to … Continue reading LiteraryMinded is seven; Captives is born; writing-work balance
LiteraryMinded 