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 October

In 2016 singer and songwriter Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature, which ruffled a few proverbials but was a fine reminder of the encompassing reach of the term ‘literature’. This is a word that unfortunately evokes an elitism which I’d love you to help me smash open, so we can to re-imbue this word with its truly inclusive essence.

To that end, in this loquacious column I’m making mention of the Song Writing Spring School. It sounds just wonderful and runs between October 9-13 - filled with ideas to trigger creativity, workshops, themed group discussions and host to a bonfire night. Seasoned and skilful songwriters from around the country are there to guide you, it looks creatively rich.

And in perfect juxtaposition, Music Tasmania is hosting a one-day course as an introduction and guide to music journalism. This is not until November, though I’d counsel getting in quickly. More details here.

Seasonal Poets is back and this spring are featuring
Uncle Jim Everett, Anne Kellas and Jane Williams. At lovely old Hadleys, 6pm on October 23^rd. There is an entry fee of some sort, and an opportunity to hear three of Tasmania’s most significant poets.

Twitch, the youth arm of the Tasmanian Writers Centre is calling for expressions of interest for Young Writers in the Huon Valley, specifically seeking eight writers aged between 16-30 to engage in writing residencies down the Huon between 31^st-30^th November. Great gig for young writers! Get on it! EoIs close on October 13.

The Hobart Bookshop is hosting some delights in October. On the 7^th, at 11am, Les Winspear is launching Lian Tanner’s latest book. I loved her Keepers trilogy, which is compelling children’s fiction, and this event will celebrate the first in the Rogues trilogy, Accidental Heroes.  They are also hosting Sir Guy Green as he launches Transported: Tales of Misfortune & Roguery by Brian Harrison-Lever on Thursday, 5 October at 5.30pm and on October 25th, 5.30pm, Pete Hay will launch Ross Brownscombe's In Search of Space: Journeys in Wild Places.
On October 14th, Stella Kinsella is hosting the launch of Wild Orphans, a book for young readers about orphaned kids raising orphaned animals. You can find more information about that event here.
These are all free events and open to the public.

The Tamar Valley Writers Festival has a new website, check it out for information about the next festival, and pre fezzie events. On December 4 they are hosting Fiona McIntosh discussing her latest novel. This is at Launceston’s Grand Chancellor and tickets are available through PetrarchsBookshop. Check out the new website here.

The Tasmanian Poetry Festival is back with aplomb, with poets such as Pete Hay, Mala Anthony, Izzy Roberts-Orr and Samuel Wagan Watchorn on the program. The Launceston Poetry Cup returns for the 33^rd time! Heaps of other delights on the weekend long program, 6-8 of October.

Launceston is also host to a National Book Council Tasmania event with historian Peter Cox discussing his book Lefroy, Tasmania’s Forgotten Gold Town. This is a free event that will take place at the Launceston LINC on October 18, at 12.45 for lunch, or 1.15 for the talk.

 And don’t forget Undisciplined, a 2-day extravaganza, thought frenzy, symposium, minglefest, networking, idea inspiring event that is happening in Hobart 19-21 October. Thinkers and creatives from all around, near and far, sharing insights (of course) and ideally some effulgence to our delightful surrounds. This is the work of Creative Island and Pippa Dickson.

Fullers’ event calendar is as busy as ever, hosting among others foreign correspondent Peter Greste discussing his book The First Casualty on the 17th and the launch of poet Graeme Hetherington’s collection A Post-Colonial Boy on the 13^th. I’m also excited to check out Eat Wild Tasmania, by Rees Campbell and John Gibson with Sally Wise, which is launching there on October 19. This book is about bringing Tasmanian bush foods into the kitchen. It has information about what to grow, where to grow it and what to do when its grown. I hope your interest is piqued as much as mine.
These are all free events, but make sure you rsvp.

Tansy Rayner Roberts is a busy woman. She’s a prolific writer and she is running more of her wonderful school holiday workshops, and soon, her first workshop for adults.
The school hols one, Creative Writing Magic, witches and wizards, is for 7-11 year olds and will establish a space where they can create wicked characters and write and illustrate them. At $38 per workshop or $70 for two kids/2 workshops it is reasonable priced holiday activity that will hopefully have some inspirational writing legs for the rest of the holiday.

Do you have something you’d like to contribute? Letters - racheledwards48*@gmail.com

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