I’m so happy to be part of this speculative fiction festival on at the beautiful NSW Writers Centre tomorrow. I’ll be talking all things AI and cyborgs with Sean Williams, Krissy Kneen and John Birmingham and there will be wonderful sessions with James Bradley, Julie Koh, Kaaron Warren and many other wonderful writers I am so looking forward to seeing.
Big Little Lies bursts the bubble
‘So, in a story like Big Little Lies, the atmosphere of beauty and wealth allows for greater focus on internal battles and flaws rather than on the struggle for survival in a hostile environment.’ – My piece for The Monthly on why the TV adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s bestseller Big Little Lies is not soap.
30th May – Love and Music: Varuna Blue Mountains Sydney Writers’ Festival Event with Graeme Simsion and me
Tuesday 30 May The Carrington Hotel
10:00am – 11:00am
@ The Carrington
SINS OF THE PAST
Award-winning British writer Natalie Haynes’ book The Amber Fury explores a contemporary murder and its narrative connections with the ancient Greek tragedy plays. Australian writer Maggie Joel’s The Safest Place in London, a 1940’s wartime drama, reflects this author’s fascination with time and place. Session Chair Katherine Johnson’s mystery The Better Son, a novel about family secrets and lies, is set in 1950’s Tasmania.
11:00am – 12:30pm
@ The Carrington
LOVE AND MUSIC
Graeme Simsion’s latest book The Best of Adam Sharp is set in France and has been described as ‘a dilemma with lots of music’ with ‘complications, transgressions and resolutions’ for its main character. Claire Corbett’s Watch Over Me is a thriller of love under the pressure of occupation and war in which music plays an important role. They talk about their work with Varuna Chair David White.
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6th May: Launch of Watch Over Me with Patti Miller at The Carrington Hotel
Join us Saturday afternoon, May 6, 3-5pm by the fire in the cosy Library at the Carrington Hotel for the launch of WATCH OVER ME, described by Tom Keneally as ‘this gem of a novel’.
Launching the book will be renowned author and teacher Patti Miller. We look forward to seeing you there for a fun launch and delicious Arctic Tea – scones and CLOUDBERRY jam, for which there will be a modest cover charge of $5. Please RSVP to Megalong Books on 4784 1302 or books@megalongbooks.com.au
3rd May: Launch of WATCH OVER ME with Tom Keneally
We would love you to join us at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts in Pitt St, Sydney on Wednesday, 3rd May, 12:30 – 1:30 for a stimulating in conversation with renowned author Tom Keneally as we discuss my new novel. It will be fun.
Best Australian Stories 2015
Best Australian Stories 2015 is now available. It’s a cracker this year and I’m thrilled that my (very) short story – my first microfiction – 2 or 3 Things I Know About You is included. And yes, the title is a reference to Jean Luc Godard, though the film director in the story is not Godard. Worth checking out this collection.
The Trillion Pearl Choker
My story The Trillion Pearl Choker has been published in the Elemental edition of Sydney University’s Southerly Journal.
“The Land of Parrots had had it coming for a long time, people said….
As with many seismic changes the rumbles barely registered at first.”
‘Elemental is concerned with our experience of the elements in an era of climate change. The four elements of classical thought (earth, fire, water, air) align with what we now call four states of matter and hence to what is termed the “material turn” in contemporary debates in the humanities. This material turn seeks new ways of understanding the physical world and is motivated by the urgency of shared vulnerability on the planet.
In Australia this experience of extreme weather, including floods and fires, embroils the entire ecosystem including literary ecologies. This issue considers a range of Australian writers who address the modern experience of the elements in their volatility and magnificence, raising questions, recording and responding to the matter as the matter at hand.’
Must Australia Always Be Imaginary?
Must Australia Always Be Imaginary: Cartography as Creation in Peter Carey’s ‘Do You Love Me?’ My first academic journal article, drawn from research for my exegesis, published in the June 2015 edition of Antipodes: A global journal of Australian/NZ literature.
Why We Need to Talk About Option J
Japanese submarines and why we need to make sure we don’t end up with the submarine equivalent of coal-fired power stations – on The Strategist, the blog of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Australia’s Direction on Defense
My latest article and my first time writing for The Diplomat, a magazine I’ve long admired ever since the time, years ago, when it was still produced in hard copy in Australia.
