The Journal

253 Summer 2023/4

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Dženana Vucic on the subtle and not-so-subtle Marxist symbolism in Sailor Moon, John Docker, a "non-theatre person" by his own admission on The New Theatre, Sarah Schwartz on prison healthcare as punishment and the killing of Veronica Nelson, a poignant short story on memory and displacement from Nasrin Mahoutchi-Hosaini, Jeanine Leane's prize-winning poem, "Water under the bridge", and more.

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Overland literary journal > Articles by: Trish Bolton

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Trish Bolton

Trish Bolton’s unpublished novel, Stuck, was the recipient of a 2018 Varuna PIP Fellowship and a 2015 Varuna Residential Fellowship. In 2017, Stuck was longlisted for the Mslexia Women’s Novel Competition (UK) and Flash 500 Novel Competition (UK), and in 2016, was the joint-winner of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW) Unpublished Manuscript Award. Her novel, Whenever You're Ready, will be published by Allen&Unwin in 2024.

Articles by Trish Bolton:

Published in Overland Issue 234.5: an autumn fiction edition with 16 editors! ·

From the editorial collective

Zoë Meager, Hannah Macauley-Gierhart, Chloe Wilson, Caitlin Lawless, Amanda Niehaus, Linda Godfrey, Katelin Farnsworth, SJ Finn, Bronwyn Xavier, Trish Bolton, Kerrie McCure, Anna Spargo-Ryan, Jarryd Luke, Karen Whitelaw, Eloise Oxer and Oliver Driscoll

We need new voices and unconventional narratives to guard against rigidity. Plots that are distinct and lucid and sometimes boiling hot.

14 December 201126 March 2012 · Reviews

A gobsmacker of a book

Trish Bolton

The Cook Wayne Macauley Text Publishing The Cook is a gobsmacker of a book. Written by the much-lauded Australian writer Wayne Macauley, The Cook’s themes of capitalism-gone-mad, excessive consumption, untrammelled growth and rampant exploitation of humans, animals and natural resources is timely. Macauley explores a number of issues recently highlighted by the Occupy Movement, animal […]

26 July 20112 April 2012 · Main Posts

Melbourne Green School

Trish Bolton

The Green Institute, a non-profit organisation based in Australia, is grounded in the principles of ecology, social justice, democracy and non-violence. As part of its commitment to building the capacity of like-minded people, the institute is holding a two-day Green School on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 July at Fitzroy High School, Falconer Road, North […]

17 May 20111 June 2012 · Main Posts

Strutting the slut

Trish Bolton

Most women have at one time in their lives being called a slut for the way they dress or for not conforming to some saintly code of conduct that applies only to women. Dictionaries are filled with words used to insult women: whore, tart and tramp, for starters. But no word equals slut for its […]

24 February 20111 June 2012 · Main Posts

The day the lights went out in Overland

Trish Bolton

Imagine my shock, horror and dismay when I went online to get my Overland fix and got absolutely, wtf, nothing. That’s if you don’t count a message, repeating ad infinitum, that my connection had timed out. Quick to self-blame for technology stuff-ups, I gave myself over to a number of scenarios: had I clicked something […]

29 November 201020 July 2012 · Main Posts

Writing without fear or favour

Trish Bolton

A few years ago I was doing some analysis of blogging as part of a PhD examining different forms of alternative media amid claims that the internet would lead to a reinvigorated public sphere. In that analysis I was critical of blogs, arguing they were spaces where like people had like conversations that usually ended […]

21 November 2010 · Main Posts

In conversation with Toni Jordan

Trish Bolton

In the second of Westgarth Book’s Emerging Writers’ Events, Toni Jordan, author of international bestseller Addition, will be discussing her new novel Fall Girl. Toni will also share with us her tips on how to write memorable characters, who, like Grace Vandenburg and Ella Canfield, stay with us long after we’ve read the last line. […]

11 October 201011 October 2010 · Main Posts

Beginnings – a literary event

Trish Bolton

Where does a writer begin writing their novel? Is the first sentence they put on the page the first sentence the reader will read? Where do novels come from? And what does first inspiration look like? In Westgarth Books first emerging writers’ event, Steven Amsterdam, Chris Womersley, Matt Hooper and Maryrose Cuskelly will join Sydney […]

22 September 2010 · Main Posts

Raining cats and dogs and rubbish, too

Trish Bolton

It’s been raining cats and dogs in Victoria. We’re leaping puddles, keeping an eye on overflowing water tanks and sighing with relief as Melbourne’s parks and trees slurp up the huge soaking. But the rain that tumbles into creeks and rivers also floods our waterways with enough rubbish to fill the MCG. In Melbourne alone, […]

30 June 20103 July 2010 · Main Posts

Shafting Kevin – not such a great day for feminists

Trish Bolton

The ascendancy of Julia Gillard to the office of PM has feminists going gaga. ‘OMG! A female PM’, has been the uncritical response I’ve been hearing of Julia Gillard’s slaying of Kevin Rudd from feminists everywhere. We’ve all heard reports of women rushing to screens to watch Julia’s first speech, feminist workplaces ringing with tears […]

7 June 2010 · Main Posts

A celebration of words and writers

Trish Bolton

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 […]

7 April 20107 April 2010 · Main Posts

Sex not so sexy in The Slap

Trish Bolton

James Frey says: fictional characters – homo fictus – are not identical to flesh-and-blood human beings – homo sapiens. One reason for this is that readers wish to read about the exceptional rather than the mundane. Readers demand that homo fictus be more handsome or ugly, ruthless or noble, vengeful or giving, brave or cowardly, […]

8 March 2010 · Main Posts

Feminism is more than a memory

Trish Bolton

In case you missed it, it’s International Women’s Day (IWD) this week. There’ll be the usual celebrations, most not that well attended, and a few feminists getting together to look back on past victories. But the feminist agenda, which in simple terms seeks equality for women, appears to have stalled. Feminists have never been part […]

19 February 201024 February 2010 · Main Posts

Why does the ABC continue to insult us with Bolt?

Trish Bolton

It seems the ABC can’t get enough of Andrew even though his extreme views on everything, from white settlement to climate change, are as dangerous as they are unpalatable. He has co-hosted Jon Faine’s conversation hour, appeared on Lateline, been a panellist on Q&A, and is a regular commentator on the current affairs show the […]