Tag Archive

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poems from her latest collection, In the Room with the She Wolf from Wakefield Press, that won the Adelaide Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2019.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.