In the past few months Paul Murphy has been kindly forwarding me his book trailers. I visited his website, http://www.booktease.com.au, and was impressed by the range and quality of his work in this emerging field. In our visually aligned and keyboard-bound culture, book trailers will increasingly play an important role in drawing readers to the … Continue reading Interview with Paul Murphy, book trailer specialist
Interviews + Profiles
Interacting with other literary-minded folk…
A dream-logic London squid riff: an interview with China Miéville (part two)
Read part one here. Angela Meyer: Just going back to what you were sort of talking about, the excessive nature of Kraken (Aus, US, UK) and chucking everything in – I’m really interested in your writing and I just find it so rich but at the same time I found I still was reading it … Continue reading A dream-logic London squid riff: an interview with China Miéville (part two)
A dream-logic London squid riff: an interview with China Miéville (part one)
China Miéville’s Kraken (Aus, US, UK) is savvy, exuberant, sci-fantastical fiction – a novel about a stolen giant squid and the ensuing adventures of museum curator Billy Harrow. It’s a super-fun read, set in a richly imaginative alternate London, filled with sassy, dirty, sweet, dangerous and apparitious characters. It was great to be able to have … Continue reading A dream-logic London squid riff: an interview with China Miéville (part one)
Brass Monkey Books: a cultural exchange between Indian and Australian literature
When I was working at Bookseller+Publisher, Kabita Dhara wrote an article for us on her Asialink residency in India. In New Delhi, Kabita worked on literature that had been translated into English from India’s many regional languages, with a view to understanding the processes behind choosing a title for translation and assessing markets for it. Kabita, … Continue reading Brass Monkey Books: a cultural exchange between Indian and Australian literature
Like, embrace the pain: the Bret Easton Ellis interview (part 2)
It's very telling, you know? Find part 1, right here, folks. Kathy: My two very favourite novels of all time are Lunar Park, and Pet Sematary by Stephen King, which kind of makes perfect sense… Bret: Yes, it does. Kathy: I’m really interested in the idea that Lunar Park may be becoming a film. I’m … Continue reading Like, embrace the pain: the Bret Easton Ellis interview (part 2)
Like, embrace the pain: the Bret Easton Ellis interview (part 1)
Pictured: Carrie, Samantha, Carrie Let’s begin at the end. After Kathy Charles and I finished our interview with the very engaging Bret Easton Ellis, we sat with his publicist over a couple of glasses of Chandon, waiting for Ellis to wrap-up with our friend Robbie Coleman. Robbie emerged, white-faced and swearing, revealing that the interviewee had turned interviewer … Continue reading Like, embrace the pain: the Bret Easton Ellis interview (part 1)
Alex y Robert by Wena Poon: virtual book tour
I met the talented, vivacious Singapore-born American writer Wena Poon last October, sharing a taxi ride from Denpasar airport to Ubud, Bali, for the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. In that taxi and during her panels I learnt that Wena was dauntingly 'together' - interweaving careers in writing and Law, travelling the world, and seeming like she … Continue reading Alex y Robert by Wena Poon: virtual book tour
Exquisite restraint for maximum expression: an interview with Colm Tóibín (part two)
Brooklyn Colm Toibin (Aus, US) Picador 9780330425612 Part one of this interview can be found here. Tóibín has, to date, written or edited 21 books. I asked him which had been the most difficult to write, and which had been the most joyful. He said: ‘There’s a long story in the collection Mothers and Sons which I … Continue reading Exquisite restraint for maximum expression: an interview with Colm Tóibín (part two)
Exquisite restraint, maximum expression: an interview with Colm Tóibín (part one)
Brooklyn Colm Toibin (Aus, US) Picador 9780330425612 Acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Tóibín was recently in Australia for the Sydney Writers Festival as well as events in Melbourne, including one for the Wheeler Centre. I caught up with Tóibín at his Melbourne hotel to ask him some questions about writing and his latest novel Brooklyn, which I recently had … Continue reading Exquisite restraint, maximum expression: an interview with Colm Tóibín (part one)
Both ways is the only way she wants it: an interview with Maile Meloy
As the title indicates, Both Ways is the Only Way I Want it (Text, May 2010 in Aus, Riverhead US), Maile Meloy's engaging collection of stories, is about the fear, desire, pleasure, confusion and complications of wanting it both ways and sometimes having it so. It's like Guido's dilemma in Fellini's 8 1/2 - he wants … Continue reading Both ways is the only way she wants it: an interview with Maile Meloy
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