Writing

  • Alexis Wright: Boisbouvier Oration, Melbourne Writers Festival

    I’ve never read an Alexis Wright, book. Until she won the 2018 Stella prize, I’d never even heard her name. But I can’t stop thinking about the speech she gave at the Melbourne Writers Festival on Wednesday night, and I… Continue reading

  • The Miles Franklin Literary Award. Melbourne Writers Festival

    I was power walking and angry listening. In my earphones was the voice of an award-winning Aussie writer, discussing his concerns about the literary prizes of the world, and how potentially harmful he thought them to be, considering the subjective nature… Continue reading

  • Krissy Kneen. Melbourne Writers Festival

    Fear of judgement. I could fill a page with all the times it’s crippled me. All the times I wanted to do something but didn’t, all the ways I could have grown in this life of mine if only I’d… Continue reading

  • John Marsden. Melbourne Writers Festival, 2018

    Recently, a friend asked me if I’d ever experienced a ‘sliding doors’ moment. I didn’t even have to think about what my answer would be. I rattled off a moment from the past where a right turn, instead of the… Continue reading

  • Melbourne Writers Festival and Me

    I am the proud owner of a cunning new plan. I’ve just unwrapped it, and there it is, slowly spinning on the Lazy Susan of my mind, while I sit wondering why on earth it took me so long to… Continue reading

  • Coming Home

    Let this heart I wear on my sleeve draw all of its letters in the sand… not just the ones I think you will like me for. And in that sand, let there be scribbles of the past, the present,… Continue reading

  • The Rose

    The rose began to wither, in her heart of woven gold, the ocean melted in her eyes for stories never told. The window shone the morning bright, not once did she look there, the darkness had become her and the… Continue reading

  • Riding In Trains With Girls

    Australia is out the window and I’m feeling every bit of it. The wobble of a train-shaken gut, the blur of gum trees and their naked cousins—every element of this three-hour train ride seems to be working together, whipping me into… Continue reading

  • How Mood Affects Writing

    I’ll be honest with you. I-am-cranky. There. I’ve said it. And now I don’t even know what words are going to end up in this sentence because my fingers are just banging away without me even thinking, without me even… Continue reading

  • This Creative Life

    Isn’t the world of creativity fascinating? For so many reasons, really. But I’ve always been fascinated by the unconscious aspects of the way we create, particularly how the unconscious feeds the creative mind, almost as if it is a direct… Continue reading