Overland literary journal

Out in the Field

Written by Alec Patric on 6-11-2009

Grass roots Australian literature lives and dies beyond the interest of most readers, even the many who say they love our local stories and voices. Events that might be supported by hundreds of professed lovers of the word often attract merely a handful of diehards.

But that’s alright as well.

I don’t mind the guerrilla film-making feel of faces and voices, bodies in motion coming into focus, words cutting through the air in muted explosions and the shrapnel of sporadic laughter. Clinking of knives to plates and espresso machines hissing. A dropped glass and that shattering that can create a half second of silence. Local events passed hand to hand by those that make images of us and our communities. Wanting to know where it’s coming from and who it’s being spoken to. Come and listen and you’ll know.

Grass roots means getting out in the field, and if you mean it when you say you love Australian literature, you’ll come out and see Maxine read part of her brilliant novel ‘Black Lazarus.’ If that’s not enough for you, then there’s other writers you might see, like Emilie Zoey Baker, Graham Nunn, Amelia Walker, Ashley Capes, Peter Farrar, Christopher Currie, David McLaren. You’ll want to come and hear me as well perhaps, reading from the most important story I ever wrote –-> that ‘first’ story. Sean M. Whelan is about as good as it gets in performance poetry, but you’d already know that, if you’ve come to one or two of these kinds of events. So, of course, you’ll want to get yourself down to the Burrinja Café at about 1:00 pm tomorrow in Upwey (351 Glenfern Road). We’ll share a beer and say cheers to Aussie stories and poetry.