I've been meaning to add video content to LiteraryMinded for yonks! I've interviewed authors on stage, I've read my own work aloud, I can write about books - but speaking alone into a camera is an entirely different kettle of fish...
literature
Elif Batuman, author of The Possessed: a ‘responsive’ interview
Elif Batuman's The Possessed (Aus, US/Kindle) is a personalised, intelligent, humorous exploration of Russian literature; and of academia, reading, and writers - with plenty of travel and adventure. It's the kind of book you devour and dog-ear - where you're learning with delight, being provided insight into authors, stories, countries, languages and lifestyles. I thought Elif would … Continue reading Elif Batuman, author of The Possessed: a ‘responsive’ interview
Embracing the medium: what makes a successful cultural blog?
The following article is a slightly amended version of the speech I gave during the Emerging Writers' Festival panel The Revolution Will Be Downloaded, May 2009. In my reading of cultural blogs (particularly literary blogs), and through a growing audience for LiteraryMinded, I have found that some recurring elements exist in blogs which could be deemed successful. My measure of … Continue reading Embracing the medium: what makes a successful cultural blog?
Literature Aspiring Writers Should Read – Part 2
Faces in the Water – Janet Frame (1961) Skills acquired by reading: ~ The way to create an external world and circumstances that symbolise or reflect an internal one. ~ The way to express loneliness, emptiness, and deprivation in subtle, tugging ways. ~ The way to write about large-scale oppression and unfairness in society by … Continue reading Literature Aspiring Writers Should Read – Part 2
The Company of the Dead – David Kowalski
First published in the July 2007 issue of BOOKSELLER + PUBLISHER magazine (c) 2007 Thorpe-Bowker (a division of RR Bowker LLC) http://www.bookseller+publisher.com.au/ In 2012 the world is occupied by German and Japanese forces. America is divided. Agent Kennedy of the Confederate has always felt that something in his world is amiss. His thoughts are confirmed … Continue reading The Company of the Dead – David Kowalski
Literature Aspiring Writers Should Read – Part 1
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov (1955) Skills acquired by reading: · The way to seduce readers with lyricism · The ability to describe desire so that the reader will be both compelled and sickened · The ability to plant a wry smile on a readers face despite him/herself · The way to challenge censors, even personal … Continue reading Literature Aspiring Writers Should Read – Part 1
Racists – Kunal Basu
2006, Phoenix, 9780753821503 (Aus, US) The ultimate experiment. A black boy and a white girl, raised equally as savages by a mute Nurse on a desolate island. Her only instruction is to keep them alive. It is 1855, and expert British Craniologist Samuel Bates is debating with French scientist Jean-Louis Belavoix about racial superiority. The … Continue reading Racists – Kunal Basu
The End of the World – Paddy O'Reilly – A creative review
2007, University of Queensland Press, ISBN: 9780702235948 (Aus, US) This is a book of short stories by Australian author Paddy O’Reilly. She has published one novel The Factory. Denise O’Dea in Australian Book Review says of The Factory: ‘...it turned an ingenious intellectual premise into a complex, gripping, flesh-and-blood story. It was full of ideas … Continue reading The End of the World – Paddy O'Reilly – A creative review
The World According to Y – Rebecca Huntley
2006, Allen & Unwin, ISBN: 9781741148459 (Aus, US & Kindle) It’s strange, this book was only published last year but already there is one major change in what my generation might consider a priority. There is absolutely no mention of Gen Y being conscious of climate change. It just shows what a wonderful thing a … Continue reading The World According to Y – Rebecca Huntley
LiteraryMinded 