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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Corrie was first to read who shared an excerpt from her next work as yet unpublished and being the inaugural winner of the Adelaide Festival Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2002.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Next up was Molly, who shared a collection of poems also unpublished that focused on place and the liminal spaces in between.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 Continuing the theme of unpublished work, Pip shared the same and having read The Dictionary of Lost Words, one of those books I didn’t want to end, I’ll buy her next, The Bookbinder of Jericho,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.
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 