Paige Turner, May 2017

A few writers I am loving at the moment include Lidia Yuknavitch and Lucia Berlin. Yuknavitch’s novel, The Small Backs of Children is chilling and beautiful and violent and sexy; it’s about being an artist and about how art cannibalises life. Add some Lucia Berlin into your lives too, her short stories, collected over many years are now available in a book called A Manual For Cleaning Women. Berlin has a wild energy in her writing (and her life too, many of these stories arise from life) and she cuts through all of the flab of the world, with a sentence or two.Recent local work that is excellent includes Seven Stories, a collection of short stories edited by Ben Walter that houses some of the best writers in Australia, who happen to reside in Tasmania, and Jesse Shipway’s difficult and challenging In Memory of Genocide inTasmania, 1803-2013, Scars on the Archive.

Event wise, and as usual there are lots of offerings from around the state. Let’s start down south, at Kickstart Arts and as part of their fabulous program, Creative Exchange. On May 23 at 6.30 Yoav Bar-Ness from Tasmanian Geographic will be teaching tools on how to craft an engaging narrative with a focus on adventure and memoir. You can explore how non fiction can best utilise the tools of fiction writers. Thirty bucks, bookings essential. Kickstart are also also calling for people to run courses in anything creative in the world  to “teach what you love and get paid”. Register here. Ivy Alvarez, poet, via Tasmania, via Wales, via Philippines, via New Zealand, has edited an edition of Atlanta Review, which contains general poetry submissions, as well as poetry by writers from New Zealand. This is the Spring 2017 issue (indeed, the world is upside down, but it is Spring in Atlanta).

Publishing comrades in Thailand, Crime Wave Press are about to publish two new books, one an anthology by Andy Rausch, a Hollywood screenwriter, Riding Shotgun and Other American Cruelties. The other is a noir-esque thriller a la Dennis Lehane by Tony Knighton, Three Hours Past Midnight.
I normally focus on celebration of writing and events in Tasmania, but I seriously celebrate all small publishers from around the world. Check out theirnifty vid here.

Last month I was fortunate to attend a full day amongst inspirational people discussing Creative Activism. Organised by Victoria Ryle, Sara Wright and Simon Spain as part of All That We Are, I am still percolating. Karen Revie was one of the artists I met. She has spent a long time in the visual arts and is returning to writing of recent times, and she’s off to Flinders Island to write, as an artist in residence at the Mountain Seas Artist Retreat. Karen's artistic process involves the investigation of magic in science and science in magic.  Her current writing project is a fantasy narrative about dragons and is a literary compliment to Draco, a permanent public sculpture by Karen on the grounds of QVMAG.
My interest is piqued -
The Tasmanian Writers’ Centre is gearing up towards the September festival and in May are offering a workshop with the erudite, experienced journalist, Claire Konkes. This workshop is on May 21 and will cover the following; writing profiles, magazine features, reviews and opinion, how to pitch articles and get paid, how to structure magazine features, including literary devices, elements for effective writing and also working with sources. I think this is a seriously good opportunity, Claire has the knowledge and is able to convey it effectively. The Writers Centre, in collaboration with Recognise and National Reconciliation Week are hosting a good looking session on May 30 at the Moonah Arts Centre, with speakers including Uncle Jimmy Everett, who I had the pleasure of meeting at Nayri Niara good spirit Festival, and New York Times correspondent and author of The Memory Bones, Caroline Brothers.

Hobart Bookshop are delighted to host an event to celebrate the release of Robert Dessaix's

newest book, The Pleasures of Leisure. Robert will be in conversation with writer Adam Ouston (whose PhD thesis focussed on Dessaix's work) at the Salamanca Inn on Monday May 8th. The bar will be open and you’re come along to hear these two writers in conversation – it promises to be an leisurely and pleasurable evening. This is a free event from the ever generous Hobart Bookshop. Respect.

Tasmanian writer Nicole Gill is heading north, almost as far as you can go. She'll be speaking at the Northern Territory Writers' Festival in the middle of the month, almost as graphic novelist and publisher, Josh Santospirito returns from one of his homelands, Alice Springs. Tag.
Finally, Transportation Press, a space where I spend quite a bit of time, has extended the deadline of their internationalmicrofiction competition, Smoke, until May 16. This comp is generously sponsored by Fullers Bookshop and has $800 in prizes available for your 320 word piece of fiction. Get amongst it – transportationpress.net

If you have any book or writing news please drop me a line -racheledwards488@gmail.com