Thursday, June 1, 2017

Paige Turner, June 2017

Waaay too much going on to allow space for any chitchat banter or personal rhapsodisations on recent reads. (I took Paul Auster with me to Bangkok, The New York Trilogy, adored it to pieces, three stories of detectives and identities lost and assumed and as slippery as fiction. Then Olga Masters’ Collected Short Stories which was dry and dusty and I did not persist, then Gao XingJian, Nobel laureate and his One Man’s Bible, sexy, lively alongside a despotic regime. I will return to him.

Loud MouthTheatre Company presents SHIT by Patricia Cornelius at The Backspace from June 21. The fabulous Maeve Macgregor is directing and the precis runs like this -Bobby and Sam are survivors who combat the restrictions enforced on them by their gender and their class, and our expectations of them: but how much can they get away with? Tickets at Theatre Royal.

Poet Gina Mercer and yoga teacher, Shanti Panaretos are hosting a retreat with yoga, writing and very good food. Gina is a recognised Tasmanian poet and this sounds like a lovely weekend; guided in movement, encouraged in writing and eating good food. It is taking place in Dodges Ferry at the end of July. Get in touch- shantimacan AT hotmail.com

Forty South have got a few newbies out, I’m reading Tasmania’s Forgotten Frontier, a history of exploration, exploitation and settlement around Tasmania’s Far North-East Coast by John Beswick. Fergus Gives a Hoot (pictured) by Kathleen McLaren is being launched by Donald Knowler, journalist, author and the most wonderful writer of birds on 1 June, 5.30pm at the Hobart Bookshop. The book is about roadkill and it is for kids.

The Tasmanian Writers Centre are in a busy and curious space in the lead up to their Writers and Readers Fest, the program is coming soon. They are also hosting the sharply generous Benjamin Law, on June 18 for a workshop on Memoir and Life Writing.
22 June is a Twitch event, Twitch being the centre’s youf arm, currently without a rudder I believe. I’ll still celebrate the Young Writers in the City: Glenorchy event, 5.30pm at the Moonah Arts Centre. More information? Click here.
The wonderful James Dryburgh is also hosting a workshop with TWC about writing essays. James' collection Essays from Near and Far gives an introduction to his thoughtful writing.

The Comic Art Workshop do excellent things. They did a residency on Maria Island and the next one is in Yogyakarta, Indonesia later this year. Some of the work from the Maria residency is in an exhibition at the chapel in the Penitentiary on Maria, at Darlington. More reason to visit Maria and remember to tell the tourists to watch out for the waist high devils that may attack.

Hobart local Kate Gordon is working with multi-award-winning publisher Twelfth Planet Press to launch their new children's imprint. Titania's books will be aimed at children between the ages of 3 to 13 and will have a focus on diversity and inclusiveness, within magical worlds. The first project for Titania will be a children's book by award-winning writer and scholar Nike Sulway. You can follow Titania on Twitter at @Titania_TPP, or via their their Facebook page.

Twelfth Planet has also launched crowdfunding for an ambitious anthology, Mother of Invention, which will feature diverse, challenging stories about gender as it relates to the creation of artificial intelligence and robotics.

On June 2 at Utas the Human Rights Art and Film Festival, is screening Constance on the Edge. There’s a panel discussion and more details can be found here or by searching HRAFF on Facebook. The eponymous Constance is a strong Acholi woman who was one of the first refugees from South Sudan to settle in Wagga Wagga with her family in 2005

Alongside the stylish and interesting quarterly Island mag publishes, they also host one of Australia’s most important poetry prizes, The Gwen Harwood. Entries close in August. Utas is running a writing prize with Island, open to all current and former students and staff of the institution. Well worth a look. Island 149 will be out for winter reading and contains an art feature on Sonia Heap’s the Armoury,  Bruce Pascoe’s Lin Onus Oration- Sea Wolves and a piece on Chauncy Vale and Nan Chauncy by Brigid Magner plus an essay on Queenstown and the Unconformity fest, by Tas Poetry Festival Director Cameron Hindrum.

Fullers in Hobart, on June 8 is hosting the launch of Nic Gill’s book Animal Eco Warriors, Humans and animals working together to protect the planet which looks wonderful. Nicole is one of Australia’s increasingly recognised science writers and this is her first book.

Tansy Rayner Roberts is leading a workshop called Scavenger Fiction at the Resource Coop in South Hobart on June 25. This is a creative workshop set amongst the South Hobart Tip Shop Bookshelves; the works as inspiration and Tansy there to guide through the writing process. Bookings are essential for this June 25 workshop, education@resource.coop or call 6332 3891

Make sure you check out the Huon Valley Midwinter Festival’s call for entrants to the Storytelling Cup - coming soon.

And if you want to drop me a line, tell me what you’re reading or what you’re writing or any other news – racheledwards488 AT gmail.com

A version of this column was also published in Warp, June 2017

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