Overland literary journal

Award Winning Australian Writing 2011

Award Winning Australian Writing 2011
Adolfo Aranjuez (ed)
Melbourne Books

I still remember when I won my first literary competition. It was 1998 and I was a second-year creative writing student. My tutor that year had urged us to start sending our work out, had counselled us that we would likely fail more than we would succeed but if we really wanted to be writers we must persist. I remember him holding up a sheaf of papers, a catalogue of his rejections, and feeling heartened. I don’t recall how many competitions I entered before I won my first, but I don’t think it was many. What I do recall is the thrill of that win. The validation I felt. Somebody thought my words mattered. To confirm this there was an award ceremony, a trophy, a modest cheque, publication in an anthology, and an article in the local paper. It was all rather dizzying. I didn’t realise at the time that most competitions offer little reward. A certificate to be filed away and a few hundred dollars to be banked, but rarely publication. Which is why this anthology is such a gem. ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 8-12-2011, 7 user comments

The short of it

With the release of my debut collection of fiction I’ve been talking about the short story a lot and it’s got me thinking.

To my mind the short story is undervalued. There are a plethora of short fiction competitions and a handful of literary magazines that will publish them, but a collection in book form? Unless you’re Tim Winton forget it. Nam Le’s debut collection The Boat (2008) is one notable exception. It won every award imaginable and became an international bestseller. Then A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Writers were no doubt hoping all this was a sign of changing times, a sign that the short form was gaining greater recognition. But even Marion Halligan, one of our most celebrated authors with 20 books to her name, recounts how when her latest short fiction collection, Shooting the Fox , landed on her agent’s desk she phoned her up and groaned, ‘Oh, Marion. Short stories?’ ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 8-09-2011, 8 user comments

The art of the book launch

I was recently at the woefully attended launch of a highly successful Australian author. He has published an impressive number of books, won a stack of highly prestigious national awards, and has a dedicated readership. Yet this (reasonably well publicised) launch attracted only a handful of people, and of those only one or two were not colleagues and friends. I don’t know how the author felt about this turnout, but I found it heartily depressing.

I once read that the average number of people at a book launch is three. A dismal figure indeed. Though I must say that during my years of attending book launches I have never been part of such a miniscule gathering (and consequently doubt the veracity of this statistic – perhaps it was floated to make authors feel better). ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 13-05-2011, 13 user comments

This writing life

I have recently returned from a blissful week at Varuna Writers’ Centre. For the uninitiated Varuna is writers’ heaven. Housed in author Eleanor Dark’s former Blue Mountains residency, it is the only place of its kind in Australia where writers can stay and focus solely on writing. With four other writers living in the house, evening conversations often turned to the writing process. We talked about how, when and where we write. About the perfect space in which to create. Varuna aside (for surely there is nowhere more perfect than this place), I confessed to a love of cafes. There you can write in a bubble but are surrounded by life that feeds you. The novel I went to Varuna to work on has mostly been written in this way, fuelled by many a cup of coffee. ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 10-02-2011, 13 user comments

Fiction review: Bereft

Bereft
Chris Womersley
Scribe

Occasionally a book so exceptional comes along that you want to greedily devour it in one sitting. Like a new lover you want to spend every moment together and become resentful when forced to part. You eat with it, curl up in bed with it, and pick it up the moment you wake. This rarely happens to me, but it did with Bereft.

Bereft is Chris Womersley’s second novel, and his first, The Low Road, won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction in 2008. If Bereft doesn’t pick up some prestigious awards I’ll be very surprised. ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 8-12-2010, 1 user comment

10 SHORT STORIES YOU MUST READ IN 2010

Some time ago I reviewed last year’s free anthology offered by the Books Alive campaign with any purchase from its 50 Books You Can’t Put Down list. Let’s just say if I was Roger Ebert I’d have given it two thumbs down. This year the Australian Government-funded campaign has been re-branded Get Reading! and there’s another anthology giveaway, so I was interested to see how it compared. ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 30-09-2010, 4 user comments

This dirty word

This morning I stood in my sun-drenched garden thick with the perfume of jonquils. Everywhere around me was new life. The apple trees full of tight little buds, grass thick and bright from recent rain, the birch tree trailing bushy new growth. And on this day filled with lushness my baby was due to be born.

Except that he or she won’t be, because at 12 weeks I miscarried. But there in my diary, written in bold blue pen next to today’s date, is my happy exclamation: Baby due! I didn’t cross it out, liquid paper over it, try to wipe it from sight. I left it, as a kind of memorial I suppose. And today, reading those swooping words leaves me with a slow sifting sadness. ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 10-09-2010, 15 user comments

Almost (not) famous – or published

Here are ten reasons why you shouldn’t despair if you have an unpublished manuscript. These famous rejections are sure to cheer you up:

1. Can you imagine a world without Possum Magic? Apparently many publishers could. Mem Fox's classic was rejected nine times over five years. Little Hush would have remained invisible were it not for Omnibus Books in Adelaide. Originally called Hugh, the Invisible Mouse, Omnibus suggested changing the mice to possums, and the rest, as they say, is history. Since 1983 Possum Magic has sold 3.5 million copies, making it the bestselling Aussie kids’ book of all time. Speaking of magic leads me to … ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 2-08-2010, 6 user comments

Journal review – indigo, vol 5

There have been several reviews of literary journals on the Overland blog of late. I reviewed the newest kid on the block, Kill Your Darlings, and others have reviewed the latest issues of harvest and Wet Ink. I now find myself in the rather strange position of reviewing a journal that is about to fold. I have been handed volume 5 of indigo rather late as it was released in February, and it’s next – and at this stage last – issue will be published in December. The decision has kicked up a storm of controversy. ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 22-07-2010, 1 user comment

This is my confession

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

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

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

Review – Known Unknowns

Known Unknowns
Emmett Stinson
Affirm Press

Known Unknowns is Emmett Stinson’s debut collection of short fiction. His work first came to my attention when I reviewed Issue One of Kill Your Darlings, in which Stinson’s stand-out story ‘Clinching’ was published. That story is included here along with 13 others of varying length.

As any writer will tell you, beginnings are everything. The opening line is the story’s bait. It must entice you, get you caught on that hook. And Stinson is a master at this. After putting this collection down I found that many of the opening lines had made such an impact that they were still dancing through my thoughts. Here’s an example: ‘I never wanted to be a murderer. You see, my mother drove me to it.’ The clever beauty of these lines is loaded with more meaning than we initially understand. ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 27-05-2010, 3 user comments

Read, read, read

If you have never said ‘Excuse me’ to a parking meter or bashed your shins on a fireplug, you are probably wasting too much valuable reading time.
– Sherri Chasin Calvo

Are you regularly bashing your shins and talking to fire hydrants? I wish I was. Jacinda Woodhead’s recent Meanland post about not having enough time to read everything she aspires to struck a chord. For me, though, it relates most potently to novels. When I first got hooked on Estelle Tang’s blog, 3000 books, I experienced a moment of panic. She has estimated that with 60 reading years left (based on the average age of death) if she reads a book a week she’ll fit in 3000 books. Does 3000 sound like a lot to you? It doesn’t to me. And I don’t always find the time to read a novel a week on top of everything else I’m reading. Plus I’m more than a decade older, so my ‘quota’ is much lower. It made me think about how I need to choose judiciously, and somehow cram more in. ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 4-05-2010, 19 user comments

Review – Kill Your Darlings |
Issue One

Kill Your Darlings has a lot to live up to. In its inaugural issue its editor, Affirm Press’ Rebecca Starford, says the journal’s mission is to ‘reinvigorate and re-energise’ Australia’s literary scene. She quotes editor Rob Spillman as saying that most journals are ‘good for you, but they taste awful’. KYD intends to redress this – to shake up the medium and ‘publish literature that bites back’. A big, bold statement.

Written by Irma Gold on 19-04-2010, 2 user comments