Part 2: On display After the birth, there is noise. Medical checks, maternal health nurse visits, emergency trips to hospital. Most of the women in my mothers group have taken their husband’s names except for one or two of us. I hadn’t seen the need until I arrive at the hospital one evening with my […]

When I looked up from her hospital cribTo see the wider world, could I help it,If I saw a war?—Katie Ford, From the Nursery Part 1: Being good We meet in the local café. Most of us in my new mothers group are still breastfeeding so we order decaf. Because we are trying to be […]

This is the last of my series with Margaret River Press online, so—if you’ve read the other blogs this month and find yourself here—thanks for making it. I feel like you deserve a bop (and if this is the first you’ve happened to click onto —you, too, deserve a bop):              (for your reading experience, you […]

At risk of cross-promotion, and perhaps at greater risk (considering the sentiments of my first blog for this series) of a touch of hypocrisy, I’ve recently engaged—and distracted—myself by curating a series of short ‘gestures towards performance’ from performance-makers in my various networks, both ‘here’ and ‘elsewhere’. This began on a sunrise after a typically […]

February, 2020 Late last September, I started going to Lake Monger (Galup) one morning each week. I would circumnavigate the path around the lake two or three times on each of these mornings, alternating between walking, running, and lingering to look at birds. I started this ritual at the tail-end of a difficult fortnight marked […]

Written March 24 In the past few weeks—as the global COVID-19 pandemic has blown up past being a ‘distant news item’ and into the everyday reactivity of Australia—I have seen many variations of a motivational, writerly ‘headline’ either shared amongst my circles or sponsored to me on social media. This revolves around making the most […]

This week I’m chatting to Emily Paull, author of the short story collection Well- behaved Women. This interview took place over email, but you might like to imagine us in a buzzing library on a Tuesday morning in the not-too-distant future: the Librarian’s Pick of the Week table resplendent, readers falling hungrily onto books they’ve had […]

What happened? And what happened next? These two questions, according to writer Tessa Hadley in a recent article, drive all of her short stories. I found them helpful as a way of thinking about this tricky form, and with lots of short story competitions coming up, including The Big Issue’s annual Fiction Edition, I’ve created a […]

My hands seize up. My legs are numb. My entire body feels disconnected from my head, where a brain scan would show some activity, but from outward appearance is just a blinking face and messy hair. The alternating tap tap tap of the keys and the backspace button are the only sounds. Writing is a silent […]

Two weeks have passed here in Berlin since the city more or less shut down. As with other places, there were warning signs. People wearing face masks in the supermarket. Bus drivers locking the front door as they were no longer handling coins. My son’s hands starting to peel from constant washing at school. And […]