National Poetry Week: Share

Now I've recovered a little from my buying spree yesterday, I'm here to share. I haven't thought a lot about what to share, so I'm making it up as I go. Hope it works out ;)

First up, I'm going to share an old favourite, Clancy Of The Overflow. At the recent Queensland Poetry Festival I was very pleased to listen to Helen Avery recite it (along with half a dozen other classics) and have had it playing in my head a little since.

In the spirit of sharing other people's work, I notice the National Library are getting in on NPW and have done some sharing of their own. Also, poet and blogger Gabrielle Bryden is sharing poems this week that are mostly written by not-usually-poets. This link will take you to today's entry and you can scroll back and forth to see what else has been shared: she's sharing all week.

Yesterday I shared my buys and recent reads as well as an opportunity to get a copy of my chapbook, First taste, for $10 including postage within Australia, and promised to spend all of this week's sales on more Australian poetry.

I'm not sure if this link will work, but Cranbourne Library in Victoria are sharing poetry from a variety of Australian poets on their Poet's wall. I'm not sure how long it'll be there but if you get a chance, drop by to check it out.

I can't end the post without sharing some of my own poems. I have a few in online publications, so I'll send you to a few. This is an audio poem published in Cordite that I wrote shortly after the passing of my grandmother. Also on Cordite, this poem was written after noticing Claudia as a baby seem to discover for the first time that she was able to control her fingers. I have a few others on Cordite that you can find yourself, but I also recommend you have a good look around in general, there is some fabulous poetry available and it's all free to read and/or listen to.

This link to Verity La will take you to what has been called a brave poem, Shopping for girls. And... just one more: A poem about visiting my father in hospital for the last time that I would ever see him, in the June 2010 edition of The Diamond and the Thief.

I said I wasn't going to share the poem I wrote on Monday on WRITE day, but for some crazy reason, I've changed my mind. It's in the spirit of this week, right? It doesn't have a title, so feel free to suggest one (or anything else), though mostly, I just hope you enjoy it (especially after I sent you to all those not-so-happy poems). And lastly, feel free to do your own poem sharing in the comments (short poems or links to poems).

(Untitled)

Pulling my jeans on

I notice chicken shit
on the cuff
remember wiping it from the side
and sole of my shoe yesterday.
I pull the jeans on anyway
because the shit doesn’t smell
and looks like dried mud
not that anyone will notice
or care
unlike when my toddler
has left a trail of snot
across the shoulder of my t-shirt
and someone invariably says
that’s disgusting.

National Poetry Week: Tuesday = Buy

It's National Poetry Week, and I'm excited.

Yesterday I wrote a poem, for WRITE day, and today, for BUY day, I've started well. I'm stuck at home so restricted to the online shops, but that's working out fine. Too fine, perhaps. Shopping online really is too easy. Anyway, I've bought:

Anthony Lawrence: Bark (UQP)

Michelle A Taylor: If the world belonged to dogs (UQP): one for the kids.

Kate Middleton: Fire Season (Giramondo). Recommended by a friend

Cate Kennedy: The taste of river water (Scribe)

and I'm sending off for a copy of Heather Taylor Johnson's Exit Wounds (Picaro Press).

And it's less than two weeks since I bought up at the Qld Poetry Festival!

In case you're after ideas, here are a few titles I've already enjoyed this year.

Michelle Dicinoski: Electricity for beginners (Clouds of Magellan).

Max Ryan: Before the Sky (Picaro Press). (Only $5, inc post.)

Robyn Rowland: Seasons of doubt & burning (5 Islands press) and my recent favourite,

Rosanna Licari: An absence of saints (UQP). I'd prefer to direct you to the publisher's shop, but they don't appear to have copies for sale, but you could pick one up here if you're quick.

I'm also offering my poetry chapbook for $10, including postage within Australia, so if you're interested in buying a copy, email me at 'tiggatha [at] gmail [dot] com' and I'll send you payment instructions. If you'd like to read a review first, go here.

AND... I've decided that any money that comes in for sales of First taste by the end of this Friday, I will spend on Australian poetry, including the books above I have already bought/ordered.

Tomorrow is SHARE day, so if you can handle me posting here again in such a short period, I might come back and share some poetry. Meanwhile, I hope you're enjoying National Poetry Week too.

not a resolution

I wouldn't call it a new year's resolution but in 2011 I plan to engage in some serious slowing down. I'm not sure at the moment what that entails exactly, except that it definitely means less time online.

This will be easier than if I'd said it at any other time, as despite our new home being in the metropolitan area of Brisbane, as far as Telstra and its fabulous services go, we may as well be creating a new town in the middle of the desert. Without ADSL, it shouldn't be too tough to stay off the interwebs.

So, at some stage in the near, or not so near, future, I may update you on my 2010 reading (I stuck with reading novels by only Australian women) and a few other bits and pieces. Or I may not. One thing I'll tell you now though, is that in 2011 I plan to read novels that are debuts by Australian writers. I'm starting with Forster's 'The book of Emmett'. I'm also reading Gretchen Shirm's short story collection, 'Having Cried Wolf,' which I was fortunate enough to 'win' recently on twitter when Affirm Press had a little competition. Not that a short story collection would have to be a debut collection for me to read it this year. Just novels.

You asked for it!

You wanted a sneak peek of First taste before I leave for warmer pastures? Wanted to get your hands on a special pre-launch copy... for just $10? Want to find out what all the butterscotch sauce is about? Just want to see my face one more time before I go?

Well, because you asked, I'm going to deliver.

I will be reading from the new book during my feature at Sospeso Readings on Friday 2nd July, merely hours before we head off. So come along and share in the celebration, or risk waiting until November. It's happening at 428 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, from 7pm. Free entry, open mic, co-feature Anna Fern, the very last Sospeso Readings, it's a night not to be missed!

But if you really can't come along, you might catch me at one of these places.
Thursday 1st July: Featured reader at Storytelling at Dog's Bar, 54 Acland St, St Kilda, 8pm.
Friday 25th June: Attending 'hanging from the Props' featuring Emilie Zoey Baker and Eddy Burger, presented by the MPU, details here.
And I'm still considering finding my way to the Short & Twisted launch this coming Sunday.
And if you really can't make it to anything but have to have a copy of First taste NOW, just send $12/copy (inc P&P) to me at PO Box 566, Cockatoo, 3781, and if it arrives by Fri 2nd July, I can even sign it to whoever you like.

But really, come to Sospeso! I'd love to see you there.

TwitterFEST and the 'Australian' novel

With the Emerging Writers' Festival introducing an online program this year, you don't necessarily have to be in Melbourne to take part (although I do recommend going to live events if at all possible, have been to two so far and have loved two so far).

Though it does help if you're on Twitter (which is easy).

This afternoon, while Dylan slept, I jumped into TwitterFEST to join the discussion "What is an 'Australian' novel?" I'm not sure I have an answer to this (do you?), although if I use their list of suggestions, I'm inclined to think an Australian novel is one written by an Australian.

There were certainly some interesting ideas presented, including whether novels are 'Australian' due to setting, theme/s, style and voice. Not to mention categorisation for awards where a requirement is that the story 'is Australian', but I'm not going there.

At some point the discussion veered towards diversity in voices of 'Australian' writing, and writers and I was asked to comment on my thoughts about same, given I'm reading novels by Aussie women only this year. Now, I'm not sure I'm qualified to say much given I'm only reading about 2 novels a month, and perhaps it has more to do with me trying to read them for pleasure than to pick them apart, but I'd say there is definitely variety in what I've been reading. I think this because I'm sure I'd put the next book down if it sounded or felt too similar to the last or another recent read.

As for short fiction, I feel confident to say there's plenty of diversity.

Though it occurred to me later that this is perhaps a reader's response and part of the reason the question caused so much confusion for me. Especially as compared to when I came to it as a writer.

As a writer, it all seems somewhat pointless as I'm going to write what I'm going to write in the style and voice that I write it in. It's going to be hard enough to score a publishing contract trying to do the very best writing that I can without introducing concepts that might make me think I should be writing according to a certain constraint, whatever that might be.

And despite the various awards scattered around the place, I find it hard to imagine that writers would really write with award criteria in mind.

Though please do let me know if you disagree. And share what your idea of an Australian novel is.

sobbing like a sooky-la-la

I'm doing well with my quest to read novels only from Australian women this year. I'm discovering authors I hadn't ever thought to read before as well as new ways to choose books.

For instance, I'm currently choosing books from the Children's Book Council of Australia shortlist for Book of the Year. Before getting to this list my favourite was still the first book I read for the year, Sonya Hartnett's The Ghost's Child, although Joan London's The Good Parents had offered worthy competition. I read Hartnett's Butterfly, at Carole's suggestion, and while I enjoyed it, I preferred The Ghost's Child.

But last night I finished Judith Clarke's The Winds of Heaven. It was amazing and left me sobbing like a sooky-la-la. In fact it took ages to read the final chapter because I could hardly see through tears and was glad Bryden had already gone to bed by the time I got up to that bit :)

Usually when I finish something that's had such an effect on me, I tend to put off starting anything else for at least a few days, probably longer. But I'm not sure I can.

When the shortlist was announced, I went and put the ones I wanted to read on hold at the library. Of course I hoped they wouldn't all become available at once, but I have until Thursday to collect two before they're passed on to the next person in the hold queue. And there will be a hold queue. I'm also the next person in the queue for a third book.

Part of me thinks perhaps I should let the library pass one on to the next person and go to the back of the queue, but I'm not sure I'll do this.

I am sure, however, that the next book I'll read will be Penny Tangey's Loving Richard Feynman. As a tragic science geek who has a soft spot of her own for the late Feynman, how could I not?

What are you reading right now, and what made you choose it?

just a little update

While I've probably already read more novels this year than for the whole of last, I would like to be able to say I read more than one and a half novels last month. Even if just by half a book.

This whole reading challenge has got me talking more about my reading habits, if I could call them that, and I must admit I did feel better after learning (at playgroup) that out of my 'reading' mum-friends, one and a half books a month is not too bad. Even so, I'll see if I can't get over the two book line this month. Give or take a chapter here and there, as I'm not the type to necessarily be reading only one book at a time. But sticking to just Australian women has not been a problem. I guess it won't be at one and a half books a month.

As far as my writing plans, I'm generally going okay. I've managed to leave the house to write as much as I hoped to, although perhaps only just, and that time has certainly been some of my most productive. I am finding though, that by the time I've met non-fiction commitments and then written poems as they demand to be written, I haven't found any time for fiction. Perhaps this is something that was going to happen as I settled into a new way of working and it will sort itself out. I hope so, although I'll definitely revise my goals in another couple of months. The good news is that the amount of writing I've done fits in with my goals.

The name change saga continues. Vic Roads turned out not to be nearly as difficult as the phone dicussion with them suggested, and I have so far changed my name with most of the more important places. Mostly because I sacrificed a work day with no kids to get it done. Including booking a lunch date with Bryden to make sure the day wasn't all about sitting in waiting areas.

I wasn't sure how easy eating out was going to be on the detox, but it proved to be no problem as we found ourselves eating fancy Chinese, although I'm sure any Asian cuisine would cater easily. As well as for my taste buds. I actually have been out for two other meals this week, which I thought were going to be more difficult because the venues were pre-set. One was in a pub and I was sure I'd have to resort to a bowl of chips (which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing), but it didn't come to that. Nor did the second occasion and I'm not sure whether I'm not just a little disappointed.

The study? Well, I'm not convinced I want to share an update on that. Let alone consider that Bryden might need to work in there as soon as next week!

Novels by Australian women: my 2010 reading challenge.

Shortly after my previous post, the following appeared in my Twitter feed:

EmergingWriters: Will @tiggyjohnson spend a whole year reading only novels by Australian women? That would be interesting! http://bit.ly/8NhLnR

Well, I've decided to take this on as a challenge so will only read novels by Australian women this year. Sorry to all you blokes with fabulous books, or to the non-Aussies, but it is just one year.

And it is just for novels. I'll still be reading whatever poetry or short stories happen to take my fancy, as well as being indiscriminatory as far as non-fiction goes.

I probably won't really discuss the works I'm reading, because reviewing just isn't my thing. Although I will say that so far, of the five titles I've finished thus far, my favourite has been 'The Ghost's Child' by Sonya Hartnett. A truly beautiful tale.

I'm sure too there's no chance I'll be able to maintain the pace I've set so far, but I'll see how I go. And I'm sure I'll enjoy coming across new authors as the months roll past. Actually, all five so far, as well as the two in-waiting, are by authors I haven't previously read. I'm sure this won't remain the case by the end of the year, as I'm sure to search for more from Hartnett, at the very least.

Anyone else set any reading goals for 2010?