It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We asked some of our favourite writers what they’re looking forward to reading over the holidays. Holden Sheppard I’m hoping to tackle some of my towering TBR pile over the Christmas break—ideally while laying in the sun at the beach or flopped on the lounge room couch […]

Can you tell us a little about what you’ve been up to since your short story was published in the collection Pigface and Other Stories? My digital novel Little Emperor Syndrome was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards’ QUT Digital Literature Prize (www.qldliteraryawards.org.au/about?a=408403#digital), the outcome of which will be announced in late October. In August, […]

Can you tell us a little about what you’ve been up to since your short story was published in the collection Ways of Being Here? I have commenced my PhD Candidature in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Western Australia, where I am examining the causes of peacebuilding policy failures in the […]

Can you tell us a little about what you’ve been up to since your short story was published in the collection Pigface and Other Stories? I’ve done some story readings for charity groups and for the 21st anniversary of Harry Potter (as Harry). My 10-minute play Binge has been shortlisted for the Hollywood Short and Sweet […]

My most sustained attempt to quit writing forever was in the mid-nineties. I’d completed a novel that was greeted with indifference by publishers and was courting self-pity. I’d been writing for two decades, experimenting with scripts, comedy skits and short stories for adults and children, but had met with little success. The sensible course of […]

Writers love to evoke music when eulogising their work. They talk of the “rhythm of language.” They want their prose to “sing”. They crave musical fluidity. Compiling a comprehensive bibliography of fiction influenced by music would be daunting. It would range from the breathless descriptions of jazz in Kerouac to the turgid treatises on classical […]

After deciding my novel, Earworm, would be a tale told by a love song, I set about conceiving the voice of my narrator. I wanted something urgent, funny and non-human. The language needed to be rhythmical and awash with musical allusion and imagery. The vocabulary should reference sounds and musical jargon. My narrator would indulge […]

It’s Love Your Bookshop Day this Saturday 11 August and we thought we’d ask some of our authors about their favourite bookshops? What’s yours? H.C. Gildfind The Sun Bookshop, in Yarraville, Victoria, manages to pack a huge variety of books into a small space, including loads from Aussie writers and small publishers. Their staff are […]

1. Space is required to judge a competition To start the process of sorting through a pile of competition entries, I generally start with a ‘yes’ pile and a ‘no’ pile, alongside the unread pile of course. Pretty soon, the ‘yes’ pile is bigger than the ‘no’ pile and I need to lay out a […]

1. There are many types of editors People often assume that ALL editors perform the same role, but there is an abundance of roles that editors take on that require different skill sets and experience. The most common types of editors that you may come across are structural editors, copyeditors and proofreaders. As a general […]