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War = Dead children

One of the things about working with very young children for a long time is that when another 21st-century catastrophe is revealed to us, the first thing one tends to visualise is the actual concrete effect on children. And the thing about these catastrophes – wars, economic meltdowns, terrorist attacks, illegal occupations and so on – is that children are always affected, are, in fact, usually in the middle of what’s talking place – underneath the missile strike, in front of the tanks and bulldozers, in the middle of the family with the suddenly unemployed parents, walking to the shops past the wired-up suicide bomber, riding in the backseat of the family car as it approaches a US army checkpoint. ... read more

Written by Stephen Wright on 9-06-2010, 21 user comments

Maxine Beneba Clarke on Australia’s unexamined racism

In her essay, ‘White Australia has a blackface history’, Maxine Clarke looks at the past, present and personal of blackface in Australia:

8 October 2009

The woman across the aisle from me on the train was reading a newspaper. She squinted at the picture on the cover, chuckling to herself. I leaned over to see what she was smiling about. Her eyes met mine and she quickly folded the paper in quarters, turned it over on her lap and stared out the window. Curious, I looked around at the other passengers. A patchwork of open newspapers stared back at me. On all the covers was a photograph of four men dressed in white suits, faces smeared in black face paint, heads covered with shiny polyester afro wigs. ‘Hey Hey Left Redfaced’ announced the front-page slogan.

... read more

Written by admin on 9-06-2010, 6 user comments

cover images wanted

Overland is one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious national literary journals. In over fifty years of continuous publication, it has published many of Australia’s major writers and thinkers, from Peter Carey, Patrick White and Christina Stead, to Christos Tsiolkas, Amanda Lohrey and Nam Le.

As it approaches its historic two hundredth edition, Overland is now looking for a cover image by a new or established artist, designer or photographer.

Edition 200 will be loosely themed around reflections on the past of the Left and anticipations of its future, and the cover needs to be compatible with this. The image should be striking enough to stand out in a magazine display rack, while allowing sufficient room to include the masthead and associated text in a portrait orientation. Examples of previous covers are available at www.overland.org.au. ... read more

Written by admin on 8-06-2010, 1 user comment

This is my confession

I have something to confess. I am a second-hand bookshop addict.

Beyond Q bookshop

On a recent trip to Melbourne I stumbled across Artisan Books on Gertrude Street. It was bitingly cold and Artisan glowed with rich yellow light. How could I possibly refuse? Inside art and architecture hardbacks with gorgeous slipcovers competed for attention, and I whiled away a pleasant half an hour there. The discovery of a new bookshop is always a pleasure, but it got me thinking about how it’s the second-hand variety that really seduce me. ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 8-06-2010, 13 user comments

A celebration of words and writers

The Emerging Writer’s Festival, held in Melbourne in the last two weeks of May, was just what emerging writers needed to kick off the winter months: inspiration, motivation and the coming together of a writerly community.

Still I have to admit I’m a bit bemused by the concept of ‘emerging writer’, perhaps because I’ve been emerging for quite some time. Call me Sean Condon, but sometimes it seems that when it comes to residencies and grants, the emerged not the emerging get the gig.

So, who better to approach about a definition of ‘emerging writer’ than festival director Lisa Dempster (who must have had her thinking cap on to come up with festival hits like ‘Zine Bus’, ‘You Can’t Stop The Musing: Disco Lecture’ and ‘In the pub’ – writers in the pub: who would’ve thought – and lots of other clever ideas that made the Emerging Writers’ Festival such a success)? Lisa says that if you’re writing but haven’t made a million dollars in sales, you’re probably an emerging writer. I recalled the zillionaire-book-selling authors who recently made an appearance on Bestellers & Blockbusters, and after a moment or two contemplating fame and riches, decided I wouldn’t want to join their ranks. Okay, whom am I kidding? ... read more

Written by Trish Bolton on 7-06-2010, 10 user comments

Friday music thread

Last night I saw the Malthouse's production of Threepenny Opera, and I've been singing 'Mack the Knife' ever since. And that led me to this.

Anyway, consider this an open music thread, particularly for music in film or theatre.

... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 4-06-2010, 25 user comments

Israel, film festivals and the BDS

I have an article up at Drum about the Melbourne International Film Festival and their cultural partner, the state of Israel. It begins:

The Melbourne International Film Festival is receiving Liberty Victoria's free speech award, the Voltaire award, for its "refusal to buckle in the face of intense pressure from a foreign government and a left-wing filmmaker last year".

The "foreign government" was China, which urged MIFF not to screen a documentary on Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur Independence leader who was also a guest of the festival. The award seems valid here: MIFF allowed for a minority voice to be heard, and didn't kowtow to governmental bullying.

On the other hand, the "left-wing filmmaker" was Ken Loach, whose series of written exchanges questioned MIFF's decision to accept funding from "cultural partner", the state of Israel. Loach wrote:

As you are no doubt aware, many Palestinians, including artists and academics, have called for a boycott of events supported by Israel. There are many reasons for this; the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, destruction of homes and livelihoods, the massacres in Gaza, all are part of the continuing oppression of the Palestinian people. We hope you can reconsider accepting Israel as a sponsor.

... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 3-06-2010, No comments

Meanland extract – The iPad: tool of revolution or contrivance of capitalism?

It’s already a revolution and it’s only just begun.

We’ve all heard the grandiose claims: iPad sales hit 2 million in less than two months; the iPad can be used as a language interface for dolphins

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 3-06-2010, No comments

A beginner’s guide to the EWF

This was my first experience of the Emerging Writers’ Festival, and it was interesting to compare it to larger writers’ festivals I am more familiar with. Over nine days, events were spread out over the city at venues such as the Wheeler Centre and BMW Edge, but the weekend program was housed at the Melbourne Town Hall. This created a sense of intimacy and camaraderie, which I think is something writers often crave, and also one of the main reasons for why so many writers’ festivals exist. The act of writing is isolating, and those who practice it need companionship and reassurance from fellow travelers. What is also different about the Emerging Writers’ Festival is that it welcomes and attracts new writers and promotes those who are ‘emerging’. Therefore, the crowd was a mixture of writing students, freelance writers, literary wunderkinds and those who are about to take off. ... read more

Written by Lina Vale on 2-06-2010, 8 user comments

Mother Muse at Sospeso
– a literary event

From the doubts of conception through to the power of labour, and onto the magic and miseries of babies and children and mature awareness as daughters – 5 women wordsmiths share their perspectives to create a multi-voiced portrait of mothering in modern Australia.

Performing on the night: Koraly Dimitriadis, Vicki Thornton, Amy Bodossian, Tiggy Johnson and Sunyata Di Cousens (with links by midwife Geoff Fox).

When: This Friday, 4 June
Time: 7–10pm
Place: Caffe Sospeso, 428 Burwood Road, Hawthorn

The night also includes an open mic section if you would like to read.

... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 2-06-2010, 1 user comment

All you need to know
– the Emerging Writers’ Festival

If you didn’t make it to the Emerging Writers’ Festival last weekend, I’m afraid to say you missed out. The festival, which is aimed exclusively at writers, attracts a different audience to the major festivals which also court readers.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the ‘Never Surrender’ session when author Sean Condon asked, ‘How many people here want to be published?’ The room transformed into a sea of hands. Then the question, ‘And how many people have already been published?’ This time only three of us raised our hands before someone from the back of the room called out, ‘What do you mean by published?’ A ripple of nervous, doubt-filled laughter spread through the room. (Does a blog count? What about the occasional short story in journals? Or articles published online? Or do you mean a full-length book? And what about self-publishing?) Condon’s disparaging response was, ‘Nothing online.’ ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 2-06-2010, 12 user comments

Words fluttered by: thoughts on Wordstorm, The NT Writers’ Festival

As the red sun dipped into the azure ocean, the last words from Wordstorm 2010 were carried away by the cool sea breeze as it blew into the Botanical Gardens. Wordstorm, The NT Writers’ Festival, was put to bed and it will be two years before it returns to Darwin, as next year it will be held in a regional or remote location.

Wordstorm 2010

What a great festival it was. Like all festivals, I only saw a fraction of what I wanted to, but what I saw I enjoyed immensely. The location was fantastic and the festival made the most of it, holding readings under beautiful old trees or among the rainforest around the old Wesley Church, the oldest church in Darwin. ... read more

Written by Rohan Wightman on 1-06-2010, No comments

Overland extract – Cate Kennedy is ‘Driven to distraction’

In Overland 199, Cate Kennedy examines how the constant stimulus of the internet is affecting our writing lives:

I seem to have reached an impasse with the great majority of my friends, relatives, colleagues and associates – a point that sees us veering steadily in two diametrically opposed directions. The source of our dissension is the internet. They feel I’m forfeiting my opportunity for vastly improved connectedness by avoiding Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere; I feel I’m preserving it. They tell me I’m left behind and out of the loop by my choice to shun online social networking; I’m flat out struggling to maintain offline social networking. They believe I’m passing up chances for establishing an online profile; I want nothing to do with an identity curated primarily for self-promotion and stoked with compulsive self-reportage.

They tell me I sound like a cranky old Luddite. The blogosphere, they explain eagerly, is like a vast salon, full of voices and ideas keen for your attention, full of musings on books, films and public events, full of passionately held opinions and lively discussion – exactly what a writer needs. They make it sound like Paris in the 1920s – a creative ferment, testing my capacity to keep up. But the closer I look, the harder I find this to swallow. It’s gradually come to seem, instead, that the last thing a writer needs is the clamouring, 24/7, caffeinated babble-fest that now beckons so seductively from the glowing screen. ... read more

Written by admin on 1-06-2010, 3 user comments

Hope and anger: Raj Patel on free markets, commons and being an activist bum

Raj Patel – the author of The Value of Nothing and Stuffed & Starved – was in Sydney for the writers’ festival. In an electrifying conversation with journalist Ross Gittens, Patel blasted free market ideology, extolled ‘commons’ and confessed he’s a big disappointment to his family. Here are seven things Patel said.

Raj Patel and Ross Gittens1. Becoming an activist
Raj Patel has an Indian name, sounds English and lives in America. His mother was born in Kenya, his father in Fiji and Patel grew up in London helping out in the family convenience store. ‘My father thought I was a bum until I was thirty. Then I got my PhD and now I’m a Dr bum. I’m a big disappointment to my family because I didn’t become an accountant, I didn’t become a lawyer. I became an activist.’ ... read more

Written by Jane Gleeson-White on 1-06-2010, 9 user comments