Archive for the ‘Latest news’ Category
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Clifden Arts Week
Arrived in the bus from Galway – a mesmerising trip through the countryside – to be whisked by Australian/Irish poet, Robyn Rowland straight to a reading by Tom McCarthy, who was a last-minute replacement for Paul Durcan. It was a fascinating reading, not the least because McCarthy placed himself in opposition to Durcan politically in ...
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Yeats and an Airbnb disaster in Dublin
The highlight of Dublin for me was seeing the amazing Yeats exhibition at the National Library. It was to be mounted for a year only. Already it’s been up eight – and no wonder! It’s superbly curated, with a wealth of information presented in enough different forms to appeal to the casual tourist, the informed ...
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A Night with John le Carré, George Smiley and Ms Hospitality.
I planned all these different blogposts while I was sitting on the long-haul flight from Melbourne to Edinburgh. I thought I might do something on surviving the flight, for starters. A reader and writer’s ‘capsule survival kit’ – and I think I will. Hint: it’s won’t be about colour coordination, cashmere or uncrushables. I half ...
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Secondary Worlds and Cityscapes – Continuum Convention, Part 3
Weird fiction is a term that traditionally referred to macabre fiction of the 1930s. This fiction was not strictly horror or gothic fiction, but added a supernatural other – sometimes using ghost stories, sometimes using mythic tropes – to everyday reality. Weird fiction sets out to make the reader uneasy – it’s related to Freud’s ...
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From Ballads to Gaslight
In terms of sheer value for money, Continuum Convention is one of the most information-packed opportunities for writers and readers, providing you’re interested in genre fiction. From Friday evening until Monday morning there are panels exploring different topics – not all writing topics. There are also panel sessions on Dr. Who and other t.v. series, ...
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Continuum Convention 13 – the first course.
I attended the very first Continuum held in Melbourne and loved the immersion into a completely different world. I went because I was writing a dystopian novel at the time, The Airdancer of Glass, and it was professional development for me. I thought. Instead it was this wild ride into different worlds – some familiar ...
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Nostaligia
I was thinking the other day it would be fun to teach a class that explored the fiction of nostalgia. It’s because I’m reading Sophie Hannah’s latest Poirot book, The Closed Casket. It’s taking me an inordinate amount of time to read – not because of the book, I hasten to add – but because ...
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Me and John Berryman
At my regular Exploring Poetry gig at The Avenue Neighbourhood House in South Blackburn we’ve been looking at the work of John Berryman – beginning with his ambitious work ‘Homage to Mistress Bradstreet’. In preparation for this dive into Berryman’s work, I read Paul Mariani’s biography of the poet. I was intrigued to learn that ...
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Beautiful Failures.
What can I say? I’m deep in revision. I’m in over my head and often I feel disorientated by the shifts and changes I’m making. Is it working? If I change that, what happens to the next bit? I find it harder to trust aspects of revision. Or, I think I do. But perhaps I’ve ...
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2017 – Resolutions
I’m a sucker for resolutions. I love making lists. I love the idea that I get to start all over again in the bright new shiny year and leave last year’s faltering steps behind. I love assessing what went right, what went wrong and what just went as usual. I love the promise of a ...