Published 6 November 2009 · Main Posts Out in the Field Alec Patric 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. Alec Patric AS Patric is the award-winning author of The Rattler & other stories (Spineless Wonders, 2011), Las Vegas for Vegans (Transit Lounge, 2012) and Bruno Kramzer (Finlay Lloyd, 2013). More by Alec Patric › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 28 March 20249 April 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body. 5 March 2024 · Main Posts Andrew Charlton’s school assignment Alex McKinnon Australia's Pivot to India exists for three reasons: so that when Andrew Charlton is interviewed on the radio or introduced on Q+A, his bio includes the phrase "he has written a book about Indian-Australian relations"; to fend off accusations that he is another Kristina Keneally engaging in electoral colonialism in western Sydney; and to help the Albanese government strengthen economic and military ties with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.