Paige Turner - September

Many times have I begun this column with a breathy incitement to get some bookish events into you. This month you’ll be struggling not to – what, with ingenious and lovely People’s Library, the Tamar Valley Writers’ Festival and a resounding swathe of other events, both north and south, I challenge you to stay by the hearth with a cat on your lap.

As well as the above two celebrations of the word, which you can read more about in these pages, I am really looking forward to hearing Sholeh Wolpe (Iran/US) discuss her translation of The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar. Originally written in Persian in the twelfth century it is considered one of Persian literature’s most celebrated masterpieces. Rumi (who is the number one bestselling poet in the United States today, all these centuries after he first penned his earthy and ethereal beauty) believed Attar to be “the Master” of Sufi mystic poetry. Sholeh will read from her translation and discuss the process of bringing this luminous, allegorical tale to a contemporary English translation. All this, at Fullers on September 19, 5.30pm. Make sure you drop Fullers a line to rsvp (@fullersbookshop.com.au).

You’ll also find her performing some of her own poetry – and a performance to behold it will be- (I’ve had the fortune to see her perform twice before, once in Guangzhou, China and once in Singharaja, Bali, I travel for beautiful words, I really do)– at The People’s Library on September 18 at 7pm. I hope she will also be delivering a workshop – check out Transportationpress.net for more details (Transportation Press is sponsoring her visit to our island, and yep, that’s me).

Ray Glickman is in the state for the Tamar Valley Writers’ Festival and after the festival he’s travelling south to deliver, with Ian Andrew, a special workshop on democratic publishing called Publishing Power to the People. This will take place on the afternoon of September 20. This workshop will cost $30, run for three hours and cover subjects such as they lay of the land in independent (self) publishing, what the merits of independent publishing actually are, especially compared to the traditional publishing space, and it will also include a panel discussion, as well as a Q & A opportunity for participants. Drop me a line for more details. 

Let’s jump ahead a little to October 2 at Fullers Bookshop, when I’ll be chatting withKrissy Kneen about her new novel, Wintering. This novel takes Queensland author Kneen, who has in the past delved deep into some transgressive erotica, pushed boundaries with futuristic imaginings and smashed paradigms with sexy blue goo to the deep south of Tasmania. Krissy makes for a generous interview subject – and this book is rich pickings for an entertaining conversation.

Margaretta Pos has edited Among the Willows and Wild Things: The Fingal Valley Nature Diary of a Young Girl in the 1930s. This was written by Ann Page, Margaretta’s mother and will be launched at the Tamar ValleyWriters Festival at the Tamar Valley Resort at Grindelwald, on Saturday, September 15^th at 1.15pm. It is a free public event and legendary raconteur and editor of the Tasmanian Times, Lindsay Tuffin, will be doing the launching honours. He will be in conversation with Margaretta Pos about the book. The Governor, Professor Kate Warner, has written a foreword, the preface is by Margaretta Pos, with illustrations by Sabina Gillett, who lives in Perth (Tasmania). The Hobart launch will be at the Hobart Bookshop, Salamanca Square, on Friday, September 21^st at 6pm. It will be launched by Don Knowler. Knowler writes the weekly column, On the Wing, for the Mercury. He is the author of The Shy Mountain, a year in the life of kunanyi/Mount Wellington and other books.

Among the Willows and Wild Things is a limited edition of 300 copies published by Forty South. It retails for $35. 

Poet Jane Williams will be bringing her work to an appreciative audience alongside Susan Austin at the next Republic Readings, on Sunday, 2nd September at 3pm. This will happen at the Republic Hotel in North Hobart. It’s a free event, with a welcoming open mic.

I’m super stoked to see Robbie Arnott’s book Flames shortlisted for The Readings Prize, and it is equally lovely to see playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer win the Brotherhood of St Lawrence’s national Hope Prizefor his short story ‘Like Dresses in a Tree’.
Robbie has also been shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards' University of Queensland Fiction Book Award. 

Silent Reading returns in September. In September it is coinciding Australian Reading Hour (some days I have a few of those) and is happening as part of the soon to be fabled People’s Library. For more details, check out the Island Facebook page.

You’ve read here about the progressive monthly gathering Reading For the Revolution, organised by Millie Rooney. These are now a regular instalment at 0730 on the second Tuesday of the month at the Food Store in South Hobart.

As always Fullers Bookshop is providing a buzzing space of culture, hosting book launches including Andrew L Urban’s Murder by the Prosecution on the 6^th of the month, and Clementine Ford discussing her new book Boys Will Be Boys on September 27.

If you’ve got any book news or interesting word related elements, drop me a line

Racheledwards488@gmail.com

Paige Turner - May

May seems that it should be a slowing month, one where we wend our ways a little closer to the fire, stay a little longer in our beds. It’s busy though, in the world of stories, of books and writing in Tasmania, who has time for hibernation? – well, maybe just in bed for one more chapter, one more chapter.

May 3 sees the launch of the debut novel from Robbie Arnott, a surreal novel about the intricacy of family, fissures running through Tasmania and a novel very distinctly of this island, with our shores and innards pulsing through the pages. It will be launched by Richard Flanagan at Fullers on May 3, 5.30pm. Mark my words, Robbie will be heralded as the new Flanagan.

You can read an extract of Flames in the latest Island magazine (which is a ripper edition by the way) – and you can also show your tax deductible support for the long running Tasmanian literary magazine by making a donation (which will be doubled by Creative Partnerships Australia. Participate in their survey, too, and go in the running for some good prizes.

The Australian Book Review’s State of Poetry, Tasmania is back again. Edited by Sarah Day it features work from poets including Ben Walter, Gina Mercer, Anne Kellas and Jim Everett-puralia meenamatta. It’s free and available on the ABR website.

The Story Island Project are running free storytelling workshops for young people of all abilities, aged around 6-11 starting on Tuesday, May 15 at the West Moonah Community House. They will run these afterschool workshops between 3.30-5pm over the next 6 weeks. Come for one, come for all!

The Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History is a new book prize delivered by UTAS that recognises works that have made contributions to understanding Tasmanian history. The inaugural shortlist includes Alison Alexander’s Beneath the Mountain, Tony Fenton’s wonderful Fleeting Hopes, a history of Port Davey – and the winner of the Tasmanian Book Prize Into the Heart of Tasmania, by Rebe Taylor which I have recently had the informative pleasure to read. The winner will be announced in June.

The Tasmanian Writers Centre, with less than two months worth of operating costs and a new board, elected after all former incumbents announced they were not renominating at an AGM late last month are still running Seasonal Poets - and I would definitely be heading along if it weren't for my wisdom teeth removal earlier that day-  as this is a valuable event on our poetry scene. Seasonal Poets for Autumn will include readings from Susan Austin, Ben Walter and Gina Mercer. $15 waged, $10 members and unwaged. Hadleys Hotel, May 21, 6-8pm

I'm super delighted to hear that a new SLAM night is starting down South, maybe we can rival the wickedness of Launceston's Slamduggery.
LINC Tasmania are hosting a SpecialStorytime with Victoria Ryle on May 16, to celebrate National Families Week. Discover how to transform a simple piece of paper into a book! This is a seriously excellent thing to do – and I’m speaking from experience. Take your kids along and they will walk away with books of their very own making. 

Speaking of All That We Are, you have until this Sunday, May 6 to get your EoI in to ArTELIER: Artists in Tasmania: Ecology of Learning, Intergenerational Exchange and Reflection, a new project that invests in Tasmanian young people by empowering the artists who work with them. ArTELIER will build the capacity of the Tasmanian arts ecology of artists, creative activists and educators who currently work, or wish to work, with children and families.
For more information click here.

The shortlists for the 2018Norma K Hemming Award have been announced. This award is presented by the Australian Science Fiction Foundation for a work of speculative fiction published in 2016-17 in Australia or written by an Australian citizen that explores the themes of race, gender, sexuality, class or disability – and for the first time, this year’s award has categories for both long works and short fiction. For the first time, this year’s Norma K Hemming Award comprises two categories: long works and short fiction and included in the short fiction category is Did We Break the End of the World’ (Tansy Rayner Roberts, Defying Doomsday, Twelfth Planet Press). The winners will be announced in June. 

The Society of Women Writers Tasmania Short Story Competition 2018 is now open for entries (closing August 31^st but don’t put it off until then). They are seeking entries of short stories of 1200- 1500 words on the theme ‘Life Changing’. Word Count. Prizes of $200, $50, HC and C certificates are up for literary grabs in this competition which is open to all. For furtherinformation visit this link.

The recently announced Vogel Prize (awarded to Emily O’Grady for The Yellow House) has seen Tasmanian writer Kate Gordon commended by the judges for her manuscript The Light Between the Trees. I think that this wonderful writer, author of my favourite YA, Vulpi and Thyla has also been brewing a children’s book. Prolific!

                                   

The TamarValley Writers’ Festival, which is coming up in the middle of September (mark your diaries), The Star Cinema and Foot And Playsted are hosting The Sydney Writers Festival Live and Local at the Star Cinema in Invermay May 4-6. Authors who will be live broadcast are Jane Harper, bestselling crime writer, author of The Dry and Force of Nature, Peter Greste, Australian journalist and author of The First Casualty and Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage. 

Sustainable Living Tasmania has a graphic animator, Pan, doing an internship. He’s creating a video to inspire people about Tasmania’s role in securing a stable global climate. The concept is great and now they need a writer to volunteer their time and words to write a 2-3 minute script. Contact Todd Houstein at Sustainable Living Tasmania for more information.

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

Paige Turner - March

Recently, I read a disdainful comment regarding mindfulness and storytelling, suggesting that they are both flash-in-the-pan fads. Oh Disdainful Commentator, how wrong you are – both of these activities, practices and wisdoms are already long enduring and it is with delight that I point you to a twenty-first century iteration of storytelling - the Story Island Project’s free, fun storytelling activities for young people at the Moonah Taste of the World Festival on Sunday 25 March. Activities will include live storytelling sessions from notable Tasmanian children's authors, book-making challenges and opportunities for young people to explore new writing ideas. Come along and pick up a free kids' storytelling activity booklet to take home! Follow the Story Island Project on Facebook for more information.

Also, Strategic Storytelling for Social Change is happening – and this is two days dedicated to story, the crafting, capture, and harnessing of story that foster community, explores shared values and creates hope – and ideally influences others on a path of social justice. For more information, check out Storytelling for Social Change on the old F’book.- or via the website.

Revolutionary Readers Relax! Reading for the Revolution is back. It is a monthly discussion that is taking place in March on Tuesday 13th at 7.30am, upstairs in the Food Store in South Hobart. March’s discussion will rove around Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu, The UluruStatement from the Heart, and The Referendum Council Final Report. Y

Tamar Valley based writer Shirley Patton has her debut novel The Secrets We Keep launching in Hobart on March 22 at Fullerswhere she will be in conversation with poet and former Island editor, Gina Mercer. Launceston, fear not! Shirley will be at Petrarch’s Bookshop on April 12. 

Still pondering the very lovely Tamar Valley, the Tamar Valley Writers Festival, which is happening in September this year (14-16, mark your diaries) is co-hosting the Tasmanian part of Tim Winton's national tour to promote his new novel. Tender Hearts, Sons of Brutes  is a one-hour-long presentation conducted in partnership with Penguin and Petrarch's Bookshop. This is taking place on March 24^th at the Tramsheds Function Centre in Inveresk, bookings are essential and details can be found on the Tamar Valley Writers Festival website.

The Tasmanian Society of Editors, who offer some gems of workshops, are hosting Merridy Pugh to chat about her adventures publishing Pig Tails: The First-Ever Guinea Pig Novel on Thursday 15 March, 7pm at Rosny LINC. Details and booking information are ontheir website.

A TasmanianRequiem is a “new work for voice and brass” that is being performed in Hobart in April. Get your tickets soon, this is a short season and it is the piece of theatre I am most excited about in Tasmania this year. http://tasmanianrequiem.com/

On March 15 at the Hobart Bookshop, one of Tasmania’s most respected poets, Anne Kellas is launching her new chap book The Netted Air, with official launching duties falling to another poet elder, Sarah Day.

CutCommon has released its first ever print issue and it is awesome. Steph Eslake, the editor believes it to be the first classical music street press in the world. Pick it up for free around Tasmania (there are more than 2900 copies being distributed to more than 50 locations as part of a national Roving Launch in the next few months). For more details check out the website. 

KickStart Creative Exchange are again offering some gems, including sessions on Celtic History beginning on March 25^th. More info is available on the website. 

Twenty years ago Paul Pritchard wrote an incredible book recounting his catastrophic brain injury on the slenderest piece of rock in the ocean, the Totem Pole. He now has the rights to the book and you can pre-order a copy here. 

A View for Lovers and Sinners examines the blurred lines between love and sin through a collection of short pieces created by Tasmanian artists Kitty Taylor and Nathan Tucker. Each piece combines an image from a unique location with a short fiction response. They will be posted into a FBalbum, at the rate of one a week.

Island is at it again, hosting the Writing Cave on March 6,13 and 27, Silent Reading on March 7 at Quartermasters (in partnership with Transportation Press and Bright Thinking on March 15. For more information on all of these activities, plus Damon Young’s March 22 Philosophy Class, check out the Island Facebook page.

The launch of Jane Williams’ new collection of haiku and senryu echoes of flight will be launched by Lyn Reeves on Saturday, March 17, 11am at the Waterworks (Site number 9, last hut on the left). Lyn will also be leading a short Ginko (haiku walk) following the launch and there will be cake. So many good reasons to go!

If you have any book or story or writing related news you’d like to share, drop me a line – racheledwards488@gmail.com

Paige Turner, January

May this gentle summer wrap you in some sweet tendrils, afford you relaxation and also some dedicated reading time. And a hammock and some proper time immersed in the sea. And sunrises and stone fruit, and strawberries. Juicy, sun warmed strawberries. And peace of mind, and some love, too, while we are about it.

I have been hanging around with Vladimir Putin, in the form of The Man Without a Face, the unlikely rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen and balancing this with Women and Power by Mary Beard. Women and Power is a book tiny in structure but huge in content, tracing misogyny back through Western culture and explains why women have had such a hard time getting heard, with culturally endemic silencing and mocking of women’s voices. Beard is a historical scholar of significance and she explains how abuse and tirades against women on Twitter are the continuum of Ancient Greece’s Aristophanes’ mockery of women’s voices. Both of these books, as well as Masha Gessen’s latest The Future is History, How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, are setting a summer reading tone for me.

The other part of my summer reading will consist of new poems from Tasmania and from Iran, as Transportation Press launches its 2018-2019 publishing program with Wine and Words, poems from Tasmania and Iran. We are welcoming Shirindokht Nourmanesh back as editor of the Iranian content and the esteemed Tasmanian poet and scholar, Pete Hay is on board to source and edit the best new writing from Tasmanian poets. Check out the website for more information, better still sign up for the newsletter on the website.

MonaFoma is happening in the middle of the month. North and south. I’m busting to hear Maxine Beneba Clarke, award winning poet and author, most recently of The Hate Race, perform some slam poetry during the festival. Slam’s a powerful form that takes poetry to a whole new universe, where words crystallised through the filter of form are taken into a performative space.

Cut Common, with the smart and savvy Steph Eslake at the helm and which showcases emerging artists across the country will be launching its first ever print magazine in 2018 and will be having a roving launch in twenty places (I love this idea). You can get more information here.

Fullers Bookshop’s event program hardly stopped for Christmas – and in January they are hosting the launch of Treaty and Statehood by Michael Mansell. This is on January 12 at 5.30pm and Bob Brown and Jimmy Everett are both speaking. Not to be missed by any Tasmanians. So many elders in one room and from what I can glean about the book, new territory and topics that we should be considering. For further information and to RSVP – Fullersbookshop.com.au

I’m delighted to break the news that Nigella Lawson will be in town, and speaking at the Federation Concert Hall on February 1. Nigella is famous for her general lusciousness as well as her cooking and her magnificent cookbooks (I love them! So many TV chefs but her recipes are solid). She will be discussing her new book At My Table. Tickets will soon be available at the TSO Box Office, and for more information contact Fullers, as they are the organisers of this event.

Speaking of cookbooks, Pie Hard is a super new Tasmanian one, from Amelia Cree and Honni Cox. About all things pies – sweet, savoury, and all the trappings and tricks. The recipes include a Strawberry Champagne Cheesecake and a Chilli Chocolate Ganache Tart which may be featuring in a pie filled summer.

January’s Bright Thinking event, from the New Philosopher and Womankind, crew, in partnership with Island mag will return on January 11 at the delicious Salamanca Arts Centre. The topic will be ‘Property’ and panellists will be announced soon. Bright Thinking is a monthly philo café that Marc Sautet (founder of the first philo café) would approve of: one that is participatory rather than dictatorial. A topic is chosen ahead of time for each event to allow attendees to prepare; the hope is that people participate and put forward their point of view. It is open to all thinkers who are looking for solutions to the fundamental problems faced by humankind. For more information, check out the New Philosopher website.

It has been a wonderful year of reading and book events for Tasmania in 2017 and I expect more of the same as well as some invigoratingly creative publishing and writing ventures in 2018. If you have any news you would like to share, drop me a line racheledwards488@gmail.com

Peace and Love.

Paige Turner - December

Holden Caulfield, is mild and banal next to Maria del Carmen Huerta, the narrator of Liveforever, a book that is both murky and luminous, and has been cited as a Colombian version of The Catcher in the Rye. Liveforever tracks a counterculture of 1970s Colombia with an intensity fuelled by rumba, dancing and salsa. The Catcher in the Rye’s Caulfield pales into wishy-washy adolescence up next to Maria, popping as she salsas across sweltering Cali. I’ve a sneaky copy of Catcher, on my little secondhand bookshop, On Her Selection and I’ll be posting my copy of Liveforever to someone I thought about a lot as I read it.*

The Story Island Project is launching a book that showcases the stories collected from, and created by, communities across Hobart's northern suburbs, reimagining the life of the Brooker Highway. The book features writing and illustrations from young people as well as a contribution from Tasmanian author Danielle Wood. Stories of the Brooker Highway celebrates the northern suburbs as a place rich in stories, and a community filled with strong, creative voices. The book will be launched at 1pm, 7 December at Glenorchy LINC. All welcome.

Steph Parkyn’s linocut that was inspired by (in an ekphratic process) Gina Mercer’s poem, Handfeeding the Crocodile is perched boldly, and yellowly on my wall, a suitable backdrop to my current reading of Into the World, her first novel and one which covers subject matter that had me entranced from the outset. It is the fictionalised account of Marie-Louise Giradin who, disguised as a man joined the French explorers whose names are intertwined in our Tasmanian history, D’entrecastreaux, Kermandec, and Laballadiere amongst them, as they sailed on the vessels Recherche and Esperance in a bid to find their missing country man, La Perouse.Into the World, which is a ripper read will be launching in Launceston at Petrarchs Bookshop on Friday 1st Dec at 6pm  and in Hobart at Fullers Bookshop on Friday 8th Dec at 5.30 pm. I’m fortunate to be in conversation with Steph for that event, North West – you don’t miss out, Steph will be delivering an author talk at Devonport LINC on Wed 13th December 2.30pm.
Island, hot off of the back of their fabulous 150^th celebrations, will launch issue 151 on Sunday 3 December  at midday. They are riffing off the fabulous photo of esteemed Tasmanian author, Heather Rose who features both inside the mag, and on the cover, replete with a magnificent red apple, at Willie Smith’s Organic Cider Apple Shed down the Huon. For more details check out the Island magazine Facebook page.

 State Cinema Bookstore is holding their VIP shopper evening on December 7^th in store between 5-9pm. 20% off compadres – and to join you simply have to be subscribed to their e-newsletter and/or be part of their loyalty program. You can even subscribe on the night.
The following paragraph is redundant, click on the link below to reveal the winners -
This column will go to print before the Tasmanian Premier’s Lit Prizes are announced late inNovember. I’m reluctant to share my picks but of each prize I’d recommend sinking your peepers into many of the books on the list, especially Heather Rose’s The Museum of Modern Love, The White Room Poems by Anne Kellas andPete Hay’s masterful collection, Physick.These alongside James Boyce’s LosingStreak. I’m tantalised and looking forward to the announcements.

The Tamar Valley Writers Festival is happening again next year and the dates are locked in for 14-16 of September. This is a lovely festival, similar vibe to the Ubud Readers and Writers Festival actually – and one that I will definitely be heading to again. The festival is also hosting Fiona McIntosh at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, in conjunction with Penguin Books and Petrarchs Bookshop. This will take place on Monday 4 December from 5.45pm until 7pm. Tickets are available from Petrarchs, ph: 63318088. Fiona McIntosh is a wonderfully diverse writer whose recent fiction work has spanned continents and tells the story of the lavender farm in Northern Tasmanian and its French antecedents.

Kristyn Harman, author of the award winning Aboriginal Convicts returns with Cleansing the Colony, Transporting Convicts from New Zealand to Van Diemen’s Land,  a story about a little known cohort of 110 [people who were transported from New Zealand to serve as convict labourers in Van Diemen’s Land. The stories of these people reflect the way the British sought to purge the colony of, as they saw it, a burgeoning criminal underclass. This is happening at 5.30pm on Thursday 7 of December at Fullers.

Finally, I wish you all a smooth Christmas and a joyous entry to the new year. I wish all those working in bookshops kia kaha, strong heart – for these trying times.
Peace xx.

If you have any book related news, drop me a line – racheledwards488@gmail.com

*It has been such a deep pleasure to hand this book over in person.

Paige Turner, December 2016

Blessed are the booksellers, especially at this dastardly time of year, where the Christmas retail spirit leaches every echo of goodwill from your shopping laden pores. Consider them, hauling tonnes of books, displaying them beautifully, finding your perfect gift and wrapping until their fingers are shredded and paper stained. And smiling throughout. Blessed are the booksellers.

2016 has been a devastating riot for many, with the death of a lot of pop stars, and Bob Dylan being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It has also been a year of fantastic new books and new reading discoveries. Some quick highlights from me include a baptism by fire into the world of comics and graphic novels, notably JW Clennett’s alt history of Tasmania, The Diemenois, Lydia Davis, a US writer and translator whose short stories and novels astound me with their simplicity and weirdness is a new favourite writer and Roberto Calasso’s gorgeous little book The Art of Publishing touched and inspired me.

Personally I’ve met some excellent writers both in Tasmania and around the region and I look forward to continuing my work with writers from Iran, India, Tasmania and Burma in particular. There is some astonishing contemporary work coming from these areas. At Transportation Press, Tasmania’s newest publisher (and close to my heart, as I am Editor in Chief) we will be announcing two excellent projects early in the new year, but as a teaser; Of Wine and Words will riff off the ancient Persian connection between wine and poetry, and Smoke, an international microfiction competition, generously sponsored by FullersBookshop will be launched.

Around Tasmania in December, as the darling booksellers cower under piles of your Christmas shopping lists, a number of events are still going ahead.

On December 6 at Fullers in Hobart, Musquito, Brutality and Exile by Michael Powell will be launched by eminent historian Henry Reynolds at 5.30. Musquito, a legendary Aboriginal man was transported first to Norfolk Island then Van Diemen’s Land and became well known for organising against white settlers. He was hanged in his part in the murders at Grindstone Bay in 1825. This book offers excellent insight into Aboriginal resistance in NSW and Van Diemen’s Land. (pictured).

On December 14 also at Fullers Bookshop, Francesca Haig will be chatting with me about the second novel in her Fire Sermon trilogy. These books are richly imagined and action packed post-apocalyptic thrillers. Kirkus Review said of the first two that they “poised to become the next must-read hit”. I’m looking forward to this, especially in the face of the burgeoning new genre ‘CliFi’ – climate change fiction, generally post apocalyptic. Other notables in this genre include Clade by James Bradley, The World Without Us by Mireille Juchau and Briohny Doyle’s wicked The Island Will Sink.

On December 15, again at Fullers, the 2nd edition of The Abels, Tasmania’s finest mountains, each over 1100m high. Hear from the crack team of bushwalkers that has bagged every peak as they give a studied portrayal of each mountain. Learn the best routes to take, how and when to take them, and find intricate notes on mountain nomenclature and history.

The Hobart Bookshop is hosting the launch of Hani Abdile’s I Will Rise on December 16 at 5.30pm. Hani is a Somali asylum seeker who came to Australia by boat when she was only 17 years old. She is an award winning slam poet and you can hear her at the Bankstown Slam here. 

Celebrate Tasmanian books another way this Christmas with Tassie Books on Facebook. It’s an excellent way to interact with local writers and to buy local. Thoughtfully managed by author Anne Morgan, this page offers direct links to writers andpublishers. 

Some excellent news from Island, one of Australia’s leading lit mags. Not only was their Poetry Editor, Sarah Holland-Batt, listed as a finalist for her poetry collection The Hazards (UQP 2015), she won. As well, David Ireland’s The World Repair Video Game, published in Island in serial form and subsequently published by Island as a limited-edition hardback, was short listed as a finalist in the Fiction category.

Tasmania’sbiggest and most recognised publisher, Forty South have some new books out, Shadows in Suriname by Margaretta Pos tells her family’s history in Suriname. Anne Blythe-Cooper was runner up in the Erica Bell Manuscript Prize and this has manifested as The Shape of Water, a fictionalised account of Sophia Degraves, the wife of the same Degraves who started Cascade Brewery and was responsible for Australia’s olden theatre, The Theatre Royal in Hobart. They have also just released a new book by Adele Ogier Jones called The Coffee Palace.

A new book, Big Stake by SJ Brown, the third in the DI Mahoney series is out. It is a cop drama set in Hobart. This book turns the spotlight on the damage inflicted by the prevalence of gambling in modern Australia.

Blessed are the booksellers and consider them, sweating under the stench of desperation and sticky tape. I wish you all beautiful summers of reading, learning and yarning.

If you have any book news contact me at racheledwards488@gmail.com

A presentation on reading groups

When I worked at Fullers, I hosted five discussion groups on a single book, every month for four years.  This is a presentation about reading groups and community a I did at a conference looking at creativity and health a while ago.

Reading Groups

It is a great pleasure to be involved with a conference that revolves around such a crucial and inspiring issue – that of creativity and health. All of us, by very dint of us being in this room probably know about the magic that art and being creative can make to our lives – and I just love living in a time where this is discussed – and people like Jacquie Maginnis seek to get the message out there further. We may say ‘der, of course arts and creativity are good for us’ – but because this can’t be quantified, bottom lined, explained in a functioning spreadsheet, as a whole, it is not recognised widely in our society – even though we know it in our bones. I just wish that we could all attend every session of today’s program.

Reading groups are a gentle way to access the creative in our communities, an easy and fairly conservative way to get people into a creative space that also has the potential to offer a sense of inclusion, worth, participation as well as getting our hearts and minds functioning in a wider, more generous manner. They may not provide the breathy exhileration of singing in a choir, or the gentle satisfaction of finishing a water colour, nor the pumped magic of having a good dance in your living room – but what they can offer is a small key to healing our communities (dare I assume that our communities need healing? – yes, they do, because in so many instances, there is no community in our communities).

    I have worked as a professional facilitator of reading groups for four years – hosting between 4-5 groups each month, discussing one book. Groups averaging in size 6-7 people – often 10 or 11 and in two cases, 2 people.

These groups were set up 15 years ago, and had been run for ten years by one erudite woman. The hosts for the year before me were two young men, one of whom has just had a book about philosophy published, the other is just compelting hist Phd about travel writing and the author Robert Dessaix. Me? I just like reading – and I like people, connection, community and debate.

Reading groups provide this space – for connection, community building and discussion –and simply because it is an artificially created situation it therefore has the added bonus of being a safer space for these connections to be established, for sharing and for the airing of diverse opinions.

In so far as a reading group will generally discuss one book, it is also the most wonderful space to practice the sharing of diverse and often conflicting opinions in a mature and generous manner.

Now, I think that the general sense of a reading group is best done as a cliché –

Let’s just say – ladies of a certain age, perhaps with a tipple in their hands, perhaps taking time ‘of their own’ to socialise in a sanctioned space of the intellect – and I imagine that is dominant demographic of reading groups around the Western world.

So, what is a reading group or a book club?

Is it the 200 funky Sydney kids who meet at a cool night spot to dance to the music of a cult classic novel? A Kurt Vonnegut, Bukowski or even the soundtrack to the new movie of On the Road by Kerouac? Is it a group of dear friends who meet every three months to pick over a chapter of Nietsche? Is it a mothers group that meets hurredly over coffee discussing the latest romance? Is it a structured study group? A group of mates tittering over scenes in Fifty Shades of Grey or two women yarning over TV week – or twenty strangers in a room metaphorically ripping a graphic novel to shreds? All of the above and more. We live in an age where the book as we know it is being fundamentally reinvented and our reading habits are changing as well. Of course it presumes a literate society – and we know that taking the time to be with art or story can sometimes be seen as a luxury – but we also know the power of story in our worlds – written or not. I have a friend who argues strongly that Australia has more of an oral culture- and that books are a mere artefact of this.

Broadly speaking – our reading habits are changing – we no longer rely on the book in the traditional style of cover and pages, generally read from cover to cover – we, generally, are reading as much as we ‘ever’ has but from more disparate sources. The internet affords us this – access to our own libraries, personally curated daily. Articles or short stories sourced from people we from twitter, the latest entertainment news, ABC just in Hobart through to blogs we either check into regularly or stumble across in a seeming random manner. It is all reading – reading wider and not necessarily deeper.

In that context, what is considered the ‘traditional’ (and still most practised form of a book group) seems staid. This model is, of course, the stereotype I described above.

*What are some other forms of discussions about books that you would like to see/participate in?

I can speak most to this style of reading group – it is these that I have worked with closely – in fact intimately over the last four years. These groups, despite the fact that they existed for a very small demographic, exhibit all of the lovely symptoms that a book discussion can cause to erupt.

But how to establish a group? I’m sure that you all participate in little guerrilla book clubs all through your waking lives – small discussions about text – What is it most that you enjoying discussing here – I like literature, I like powerful, stylish, moving literature. Not necessarily story driven, but it has to be what I consider ‘well written’: queue: question number one:

What do you mean by well written?

And why would you even consider starting your own book club? Generally, this is because you have desire to discuss books –and accordingly you have probably attracted some friends of the same ilk. Ask them – find a place and a time and a date about a month away, choose the book and read like crazy.

It’s a good idea if you’ve chosen the book to read around it – inevitably the lead in some of the discussion will fall to you – what is it that drew you to this book. Talk about personal connection and resonance but go easy on the personal stories – the group will be carthartic without you seeking a talking cure.

Send around some links to articles or reviews that you find relevant to the book. Some people will read them, some not, and often on the grounds that to read around spoils the text. Sometimes I agree.

At the meeting I often think wine would be lovely –the groups at Fullers have always been dry.
Some feedback I’ve received, is that the time for personal catch up at the beginning of the group is really important – a number of the Saturday group now meet up an hour or so earlier and have lunch before the discussion starts. “It’s always nice to have a bit of a social side for a few minutes to get to know the people as well as the facilitator as more than simply attendees at a book group, It is good tohavea bit of social time and then get the book”

There are also wise suggestions for a changing facilitator, which often happens with groups of friends – who ever is hosting, often has chosen the book, most often the person looked to if the conversation is flagging.

In terms of maintaining the group – there are one million trillion book discussion groups in the world – that is an official figure – and each of these groups ebbs and flows, has nuances of course. It will of course generate similar amounts of energy to that which is put in.

Rachel Cusk, author of a number of novels and memoir wrote a depressing article that was published in the Guardian some months ago – headlined “Novelist Rachel Cusk joined a book group to discuss beauty and truth. Instead she found herself defending Chekhov, and perplexed as to why the English resist stories of everyday life” of course tells of a very small coterie of book club attendees – of course there are places for dense literary discussions (to which I am quite partial) but generally the discussion of books ranging from Grapes of Wrath, The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels, Don Quixote – yes, it is true – I picked the 914 page translation as the Summer read – no discussion in December or January – a good two plus months,

Cusk arrived in a small town in England and joined the local, long established book group. It was her turn to choose and she chose Chekhov, a Russian master of short stories – seriously! Do yourselves a favour, a quick yet slow dip into beautifully sculpted stories, moments of the characters’ lives.

“The ladies filed in despondently, holding their grim copies of Chekhov as people hold unsavoury things when they can't find anywhere to dispose of them. There were nuts and crisps and chilly little glasses of red wine, which people sampled erratically, undecidedly, as though, now the solace of reading had been contaminated, their generalised need for consolation had itself become strange and unfamiliar. So, someone said. So. There was a great sighing, a great wearied exhalation. “  and I had to read that in all its cutting intensity. I know that feeling actually – I met with it severely a couple of times – the choices? Everything from Lolita through to Yoko Ogawa’s Hotel Iris – the story I chose as it had a translator as a protagonist and i was reading a lot about translation. It also had a sado masochistic relationship between a teenager and a geriatric.

But let’s forget all of that and consider some other and varied styles of reading groups/book discussion groups that can exist – and then look, in a bit more detail at why this space can be creative, freeing, beautiful and, in a broader, community sense, therapeutic.