Thursday 8 April 2010

Miscellaneous Voices 1, Sketch 2

It's always nice to receive books in the mail, and even better when they include something of your own. Both of these books arrived in the last couple of weeks for that very reason.
Particularly exciting is Miscellaneous Voices: Australian Blog Writing. An anthology of blog posts from Australian writers, it is the first book of its kind (in Australia). I look forward to seeing how well it is received in the community and I'm looking forward to its official launch next week.

It will be launched by Laurie Steed, page seventeen's 2010 Fiction Editor, at Readings, Carlton, on Wednesday 14th April from 6pm. Maybe I'll see you there.

Sketch is an exciting publication too, with each (annual) issue containing 'an eclectic mix of art, digital design, fiction, non-fiction, poetry and more'. This is issue 2, which (I've heard) sold out at the launch and went for reprint. It's an honour to share pages with Amelia Walker, Ashley Capes and Anne M Carson, to name just a few, although my favourite piece (so far) is the poem 'Jade and Porcelain' by Jeff Klooger.

I was really pleased when my story 'Old Rock' was accepted for Sketch Issue 2. Sure, it's always good to receive an acceptance, but this one was a little better than usual. Old Rock is one of the pieces I tracked my progess of in the piece I wrote for the The Reader, produced by the Emerging Writers' Festival last year. In case you've read my piece in The Reader, 'The Red Haze', it's the one inspired by my next door neighbours. In case you haven't, I stood on the toilet lid (while my kids ate toast in the kitchen and) listened to my neighbour tell the cops about his son punching him the night before in a drunken stupour while his (equally drunk) friend raced off (in his car) to avoid the same fate.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

'Miscellaneous Voices' is just chock full of virtual legends.

I loved 'The Red Haze' in the Reader, I've lived next door to people like that, as have people who have lived next door to me.

Tiggy Johnson said...

Thanks Mark. I wonder if any of your neighbours wanted to erect a monolithic sculpture of reflective materials ;)
I lived mostly on main roads before moving out to 'the bush' and I promise this is the first time I remember having to deal with a noisy neighbour.

Misc Voices is one of the few anthologies in my collection that I have read from cover to cover.

Graham Nunn said...

I definitely need to get my hands on a copy of Miscellaneous Voices. So many of my fave bloggers in there!

Tiggy Johnson said...

Yes you do need to get one, and a little birdie told me there's one on its way.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Tiggy - yeah, love that piece of Jeff's in Sketch.

And misc voices is great, really keen for it to take off, so much good stuff inside, and a nice range of forms too