Some people like the way babies and young children grapple with language, working hard to make sense of the collision between the world of experience and the world of their limited vocabularies and grasp of grammar. I also love the unexpected beauty of things people say: overheard at bus stops, mispelled in emails, and elsewhere….
Author: nike sulway
Grammar on TV
I don’t watch much TV, but when I do, I watch some glorious trash, including Brothers & Sisters. The show has lost traction lately, but there are still some great flashes of dialogue. One this week to add to my collection of scenes in which TV characters talk grammar: Holly: You wanted to Nora Walker…
Lost and Found
I have an abiding fascination for found writing. It features in my last published novel (an obsession I gave over to a character); something I thought I might write about, and then be done with. As it turns out, the addiction is appeased, but not eradicated. It’s true, at least, that I no longer pick…
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards/Rupetta
This year, I entered my draft novel, Rupetta, in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. This is a novel I’ve been working on for a while. In fact, she grew from a short story I wrote while I was at Clarion South in 2005 (The short story was called ‘A Feather on the Breath of God’,…
April Means … Porridge
This morning, it was cool enough – after a weekend of drizzling rain, including a blissful Sunday afternoon by the fire – to break out the oats. There’s something wonderfully satisfying about the first bowl of porridge for the year. The winter veges are planted, the grass has stopped growing at a speed of knots,…
On visiting the Library
Lots of people love and adore the new SLQ site, with its wide open architecture and friendly flow-through, open-air spaces full of light and air, but I have to admit that I am a luddite, a retrophile, and it has taken me a while to learn to appreciate its clean, modern lines. All that concrete,…
The Fringe Benefits of Failure
Three years ago, J K Rowling gave the commencement address at Harvard. In it, she addresses the young graduands, and speaks about the value of overcoming difficult times. It’s a wonderful, inspiring speech. One which – for perhaps the first time – led me to admire Ms Rowling as a thinker, and as a speaker….
Gender and the Australian Literary Scene
I’ve started doing some number crunching on gender in the Australian literary scene, starting with a breakdown of who’s reviewed, who’s reviewing, etc in some key Australian magazines and newspapers. I’ve spent many a Saturday morning griping about the gender bias I perceived in the literary pages, and saying I would do some number crunching…
John Birmingham Stands Up
Last night, we went to see John Birmingham do a gig at the Maleny Community Centre. Part of a series of ‘in conversations’ with writers, organised by the local author Steven Lang, supported by Arts Queensland, and run under the title ‘Outspoken’. Birmo is an engaging, funny and relaxed speaker: easy to like, easy to…
On Finishing and Funambules
I, like everybody else, have a certain fear of heights and I have to be very careful when I am in the clouds but it is also what I love, it is my domain, so when you love something you don’t have fear. Philippe Petit (1949–) Recently, I completed a novel I had been working…