This is cross-posted from the Melbourne Writers Festival 2012 blog. Paul D Carter’s debut novel Eleven Seasons was the Australian/Vogel Literary Award winner for 2012. It’s a coming-of-age story set in the ’80s/’90s about Jason Dalton—Hawks supporter and burgeoning player—struggling to find room to breathe and grow and be himself. I asked Carter some questions about the novel: … Continue reading Football & figuring out: Paul D Carter on Eleven Seasons
Interviews + Profiles
Interacting with other literary-minded folk…
QLD Poetry Festival: introducing a.rawlings
The Queensland Poetry Festival runs from 24 to 26 August 2012. This year, I’d like to introduce you to Arts QLD Poet-in-Residence, the Canadian poet, sonic art-maker and multidisciplinary artist a.rawlings. During her residency in Queensland angela rawlings (known as a.rawlings) will be harvesting sound from the local environment for a project called Sound Poetry … Continue reading QLD Poetry Festival: introducing a.rawlings
Writing & playing Dickens: Q&A with Simon Callow (MWF 2012)
Cross-posted from the Melbourne Writers Festival 2012 blog. Simon Callow is an actor, writer and this year's festival keynote speaker. At the festival he'll be talking about the great storyteller Charles Dickens, the subject of his latest book Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World. I asked him a few questions about his work... You’ve … Continue reading Writing & playing Dickens: Q&A with Simon Callow (MWF 2012)
That noticing thing: Emily Perkins on The Forrests
Bloomsbury, May 2012 9781408809235 (buy paperback, ebook) I recently posted my review of New Zealand author Emily Perkins' latest novel The Forrests (read it here), one of my favourite books of the year so far. I was also asked to conduct a Q&A with Emily Perkins for Bookseller+Publisher's April/May 2012 issue. It's re-published here with their permission. I hope you enjoy … Continue reading That noticing thing: Emily Perkins on The Forrests
North jazz: Kent MacCarter talks to Johan Harstad about Buzz Aldrin: What Happened to You in All the Confusion? (guest post)
Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? UWA Press, Australia 9781742582634 (buy paperback) by Kent MacCarter The concert in which Norwegian novelist Johan Harstad can eat a sandwich, drink a watermelon granita and adroitly conduct an interview without any noticeable pauses for gulping or chewing is an impressive orchestration. Amid my questions and … Continue reading North jazz: Kent MacCarter talks to Johan Harstad about Buzz Aldrin: What Happened to You in All the Confusion? (guest post)
Pleasure, memory, decay, and The Stranger’s Child: an interview with Alan Hollinghurst
I had the pleasure of speaking with British novelist and Man Booker Prize winner (for The Line of Beauty) Alan Hollinghurst at his hotel last month in Melbourne, over a pot of tea. Hollinghurst's latest novel The Stranger's Child opens in 1913. The poet Cecil Valance is visiting his Cambridge friend (and secret lover) George Sawle … Continue reading Pleasure, memory, decay, and The Stranger’s Child: an interview with Alan Hollinghurst
The isle of man: Sweet Old World by Deborah Robertson
Vintage, 9781741668254 March 2012 (buy paperback, ebook) This article was originally published in The Big Issue no. 402. Deborah Robertson’s latest book started out as a completely different project. The author of award-winning, bestselling novel Careless (2006) and the earlier short-story collection Proudflesh (1997) left her teaching position at Murdoch University—eventually relocating from Fremantle to … Continue reading The isle of man: Sweet Old World by Deborah Robertson
Up in the air: an interview with Carrie Tiffany on Mateship with Birds
Picador, February 2012 9781742610764 (paperback, ebook) A version of this article was published in The Big Issue No. 399 Carrie Tiffany’s debut novel Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living was published in 2005 to high praise. Now, her second novel Mateship with Birds—a compelling and elegant meditation on family, desire and country life—confirms the author’s attraction … Continue reading Up in the air: an interview with Carrie Tiffany on Mateship with Birds
The poetic & the profane: an interview with Miles Vertigan, on Life Kills
Sleepers Publishing 9781742701851 October 2011 (paperback) This interview was first published in Bookseller+Publisher magazine. Life Kills is a slim novel but I imagine many hours went into its construction. Can you talk a bit about how it came together? For a number of years I’d been writing rants; stories told in single, unpunctuated paragraphs that … Continue reading The poetic & the profane: an interview with Miles Vertigan, on Life Kills
Writing death: Walter Mason interviews Jeremy Fernando
Writing Death by Jeremy Fernando (available here) by Walter Mason Jeremy Fernando is a Singaporean poet, writer, philosopher and critic, and his latest book, Writing Death, is an almost-perfect combination of these vocations. Recently described in a Singaporean magazine as 'Asia’s Sexiest Philosopher', Fernando’s erudition and grasp of theory are balanced by a playful approach … Continue reading Writing death: Walter Mason interviews Jeremy Fernando
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