Love means you breathe in two countries—Naomi Shihab Nye In the first few weeks of my MA in Creative Writing, I showed a creative nonfiction piece I had written to a visiting writer-in-residence. It was about the Brixton riots of 2011, where looters set fire to a Foot Locker just down the road from where […]

When I was about six years old, an exotic older cousin from Mombasa taught me how to skip. She was sixteen, spoke several languages I couldn’t and treated me like a real person. I was in love within five minutes of meeting her. Before she taught me rope tricks, I was able to skip on […]

In my previous two blog posts, I’ve talked about my love affair with English literature, encouraged and nurtured by schoolteachers in India who did the best with what was available. Reading Milton, Byron, Wordsworth, Hardy, Lamb, Austen, Bronte, Woolf and a legion of writers from the 18th – 20th centuries started me on the career […]

The year I turned seventeen I fell in love with a cynical older man who was unaware of my existence; causing devastation in a heart that would never heal. I used this unusual experience and wrote a story about it. It was imaginatively titled ‘A Matter of Destiny,’ and published by an Indian women’s magazine […]

First, I’d like to thank Readings for having us here tonight. Independent booksellers, like Readings, are such an important supporter of new Australian writing. It’s great to be part of this Melbourne launch of the 2019 Margaret River Short Story anthology, We’ll Stand in That Place and Other Stories.  But first, I have a confession. […]

English novelist Thomas Hardy was an unlikely role model for a book-obsessed young girl growing up in India, but I credit Hardy, and the Romantic poets, with my initiation into writing. Something about Hardy’s grimness appealed enormously. I named the hero in my own novel after Hardy’s Gabriel, that laconic and patient farmer who knows, […]

Thank you Caroline for that introduction, thank you Margaret River Press and Bindy for allowing me to speak on behalf of your book, and thank you all for being here to celebrate with Bindy on the publication of this wonderful book called Fabulous Lives. I’m starting literally at the beginning. First lines. One of the […]

Today is my last post as the guest blogger for Margaret River Press for the month of July. In five weeks I’ve managed to meet one deadline (I think) and even then it was a few hours late (sorry!). It’s not just book stuff either. I’ve always struggled with deadlines. I’m that person who knows […]

I’ve never won a writing competition.  I used to enter all the creative writing comps as a kid. Growing up in regional New South Wales probably influenced my choices; the Dorothea Mackellar poetry competition, Banjo Patterson Writing Awards and The Henry Lawson Prize.  I used to enter the comps and fantasise about winning. It wasn’t […]

My name is Alicia, and I’m a Goodreads-aholic. It’s been about thirty days since I last checked Goodreads. I first started checking Goodreads a whole six months before my book was released. I created an author profile and as soon as If I Tell You was there, with its grey pre-cover art image, I claimed […]