I’ve always loved the memoir genre. Most of my writing, be it for theater, film, poetry, song or prose has an autobiographical base. Often my fictional characters serve as vehicles for discussing those aspects of my life that I feel …
The Writer Laid Bare
Adventures in the New Melbournian Writers’ Festival
This year Melbourne added yet another literary festival to its already busy calendar – the biannual Melbourne Jewish Writers Festival, held at the end of May. For a new festival, its program was surprisingly rich and ambitious, with many Melbourne-based …
A Guest Post from Charles Bane, a Poet Laureate of Florida: What I Have Learned From Writing Poetry
My phone rang three weeks ago, and I was informed that I’d been nominated to serve as the next Poet Laureate of Florida, where I live with my wife and son. When I hung up, I turned and glanced, for …
Why do I write about strawberries?
‘What is the most necessary thing for a writer?’ I often ask in my writing classes. ‘A publishing contract,’ an occasional smartass might reply. Mostly, though, I get sound answers: a voice, a good ear for dialogue, a compelling narrative. …
A Guest Post by One of the More Esteemed Australian Editors, Nadine Davidoff: Editor at Work
Australian author Michelle de Kretser once said that her excitement at receiving a publishing contract is not so much due to the promise of being published, but the pleasure of being edited. ‘No-one, not even my own mother, will read …
What am I writing now? Writing Process Blog Chain.
I’ve been invited to participate in a Writing Process Blog Chain where writers who blog describe their current writing process by responding to a standard questionnaire. Belinda Castles, who writes wonderfully lyrical novels and whose lovely company I enjoyed during …