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I managed to get to a few sessions at this year’s Writers’ Week in between work and the heat to hear Charlotte Wood, Madison Godfrey, Pip Williams and a stellar poetry line-up.
I’ve read a few of Charlotte’s books and heard good things about her latest, Stone Yard Devotional, that she describes as one of her deepest and most personal ones she’s written to date. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, along with two of her sisters in a bizarre twist of fate, Charlotte explores the psychological collapse of the protagonist that was somewhat synonymous with her own and without giving too much away, introduced the mouse plague after hearing about a friend who heard their piano playing one night during an infestation. Charlotte stressed the importance of readers to writers like her and explained how she learnt to write by looking at other writers.
I brought Madison’s latest collection, Dress Rehearsals, from the book tent before I went along to hear her speak about it as I recalled reading some of her poems in an issue of Jacaranda Journal and loving their vividness. This stunning collection is split into three parts that explore love, desire and gender, with Madison explaining how her poetry was born in the mosh pit, the merch girl a prominent figure throughout, and how she grew into queerness through a constant negotiation of self. Madison teaches at Curtain University in Perth and likes to disrupt classical poetry for her students, always having a poem of her own on the stove in the back of her head.
After falling in love with her first book, The Dictionary of Lost Words, I felt compelled to hear Pip talk about her second, The Bookbinder of Jericho, and was not disappointed. These companion books explore the women’s perspective of the publishing industry when it was dominated by men, with the second evolving while she researched the first after seeing a 20-minute film of which ten seconds showed a woman gathering papers that made Pip imagine her boss saying, ‘your job is to bind the books, not read them.’ Pip spoke of books being artefacts, but that she’d never considered how they’re made and actually learnt this skill at the State Library to bind seven of her own.
A Revolution in Poetic Language was the final session I went to, a panel discussion with amazing poets Evelyn Araluen, Madison (again), Ellen Van Neerven and Jill Jones, facilitated by Jessica Alice, former head of Writers SA. Challenging the role that words can play in a climate of change and conflict, each poet shared a reading, some new work, others from existing, but all with a sense of place, belonging and the continuous struggle to.
I also managed to squeeze in a workshop, Writing Place in Poetry, with another fantastic poet Sara M Saleh that explored where we come from, losing, finding, beginning again, combined with some great prompts and time to free-write that I really must do more of because it produces some interesting results. Unfortunately, Sara’s collection, The Flirtation of Girls, was sold out at the book tent so naturally I consoled myself with others.
Port Adelaide hosted its inaugural writers’ festival this weekend themed ‘Living Landscapes‘ in the historic Hart Mill Precinct, with an impressive line up and books courtesy of Matilda Bookshop.
Hosted in conjunction with Writers SA, the program comprised talks and readings examining our relationship with the environment and the role it plays in art, followed by a series of workshops to learn the craft of nature writing. The venue was perfect, set beside the beautiful Port River, home to a variety of life, including dolphins.
I attended the afternoon sessions, the first a panel discussion on ‘Writing the Changing Landscape’ with Ali Cobby Eckermann, Inga Simpson and Jill Jones, facilitated by Writers SA Director, Jessica Alice. It was fascinating to learn about their connection with country, the living world around them and how they capture and express this in their work, often giving voice to the damage we’re doing. Ali spoke about healthy moments and how childhood homes become unrecognisable. Inga grew up on a farm and sought solitude to develop her work. Jill shared examples of mindful suburban walking without distraction. There was talk of the creature’s we’re responsible for, how nature is giving us the solutions and a request for us to be curious again. But the most profound words for me were these when discussing those in power:
Just because you have the money, doesn’t mean you hold the riches.
Ali Cobby Eckermann
The next session was a conversation between Molly Munro and Hannah Kent exploring ‘Nature as Character’. Molly echoed attendance to country and explained how Kangaroo Island, the setting for her latest work, is the last spiritual stopping place for indigenous cultures in South Australia. Hannah referred to the ‘livingness of things’ and shared her intimate connection with the landscape of Iceland where her first novel was set. Both stressed the importance of place in their work, how it must be more than a backdrop to a story to engage not just their readers, but themselves too. They also shared writers who have influenced their writing and that’s one of many things I love about these events, the reading recommendations you leave with, where you discover new writers and work, thought and theory.
I had booked Rachael Mead’s workshop – ‘Writing the Landscape anew through Poetry’ – today, but a deadline snuck up on me so unfortunately I had to cancel. Yesterday was a memorable afternoon, which left me deeply thoughtful, reminding me again how glad I am that I grew up when I did, with a childhood outside exploring nature, back when seasons were sure of themselves.
J V Birch 