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This month’s Dog-Eared Readings took place in the elegant Stirling Hotel up in the Adelaide Hills and featured Corrie Hosking, Molly Murn and Rebekah Clarkson in conversation with Pip Williams, hosted by the brilliant Rachael Mead and equally brilliant Heather Taylor-Johnson.
Corrie was first to read who shared an excerpt from her next work as yet unpublished and being the inaugural winner of the Adelaide Festival Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2002. Accompanied by drawings of insects and birds, Corrie took us back to our roots where nature is something to be mindful about.
Next up was Molly, who shared a collection of poems also unpublished that focused on place and the liminal spaces in between. Molly works at the Matilda Bookshop in Stirling, a gorgeous store with beautiful books and I’ve heard Molly read before at a literary festival, so it was good to see and hear her again.
After the break, Rebekah chatted to Pip about her thoughts on various quotes by other writers, her writing practice and the thinking behind her books. I’m always fascinated to hear how other writers work and Pip’s goal setting of one word a day means she never fails! Continuing the theme of unpublished work, Pip shared the same and having read The Dictionary of Lost Words, one of those books I didn’t want to end, I’ll buy her next, The Bookbinder of Jericho, when she reads at Writers Week starting shortly.
Being up in the hills brought a different audience and it was wonderful to celebrate the incredible local writers who generously shared a blend of prose and poetry that we’ll no doubt see in print soon. The next readings include one of my favourite poets, Andy Jackson, so absolutely not one to be missed.
A spectacular line-up graced this month’s Dog-Eared Readings – Lisa Hannett, Jelena Dinić and J.M. Coetzee in conversation with Shannon Burns – at the Howling Owl in Adelaide.
Facilitated by the effervescent Heather Taylor Johnson and Rachael Mead, the crowd was at capacity unsurprisingly, eagerly awaiting an evening of prose, poetry and memoir.
First up was Canadian-born Australian writer Lisa, who shared a visceral short story called ‘The Honey Stomach’ from her new collection The Fortunate Isles just published by Egaeus Press. Lisa writes speculative dark fiction and this prose showcased all the hallmarks of the genre, set in the fantastical world of Barradoon. With myths and folklore the focus, it bristled with tension, not unlike the bees frequenting it, the nectar-collecting an almost sated violence, culminating in the mother showing her children how it’s done.
Next up was Jelena, who began by asking the audience what inclusion means to them, stemming from her work with the CALD community and leading a multidisciplinary team. Jelena read poems from her latest collection, In the Room with the She Wolf from Wakefield Press, that won the Adelaide Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2019. This work speaks of how family, culture and place intertwine but also of fractures, where countries no longer exist and post is ‘snatched from the dangerous man on the motorbike’.
After the break came John chatting to Shannon about his memoir Childhood (Text Publishing), continuing the disconnect where Shannon’s most formative years were spent being passed between his fractured parents – a mother who loved violently and a father not at all. They touched on ethics, discussed truth-telling versus storytelling with Shannon of the firm belief his work is the latter, and what you lose moving from working class to middle, a rather thought-provoking and poignant perspective on that inevitable social divide.
So I’ve read Jelena’s collection, am two-thirds through Shannon’s book, have yet to read John’s Booker Prize winning one and must order Lisa’s, which looks to be a gift in itself with its hardbacked intricate design. While my kindle was good for emigrating here and I am mindful of the trees it takes, give me a physical book any day.
J V Birch 