Oct 9, 2015 | Belonging, Interesting Ephemera
Hilary Mantel on the controversy around her short story ”The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher”: ”But is it the job of the writer to primarily consider questions of taste, or safety, or consensus, or being on the right side of the establishment? You...
Sep 15, 2015 | Belonging, Writing With Refugee Kids
I’m back from a social media-free week and boy was it wonderful. It was both freeing and humbling. This from the person who didn’t have a TV for years and who initially refused a mobile phone for work. How did I fall into the habit of checking email first thing in the...
Sep 10, 2015 | Belonging, Your Stories
It’s a wet and rainy Friday in Sydney and I’m late for my meeting with the director of Sweatshop, a literacy movement homed at Western Sydney University. When I arrive at the small cafe that opens onto Marrickville Road, Michael Mohammed is just finishing his fifth...
Aug 19, 2015 | Belonging, Writing With Refugee Kids
Is your creative soul feeling a bit blah? Do you want a boost? What you need is an infusion of the Verandah ChiX. Blah is exactly how I’d been feeling before I saw the seven-woman ensemble. Actually I’d been feeling more than blah. I felt burnt out. Creatively...
Aug 14, 2015 | Belonging, Writing With Refugee Kids
One of the things I often wonder is whether writers and artists burn out faster than, say, an engineer or an accountant or other types of less arty jobs? I don’t know because I’m definitely not engineering or accountant material. But still I wonder. When I’m working...
