A beautiful oak carving of Saint Barbara was purchased by the NGV in 1945, the last year of the war. She was first put on display in the Buvelot Gallery in February, 1946. In the National Gallery of Victoria’s quarterly bulletin (Volume II, No I, 1946) Daryl Lindsay* writes: The French saint … … Continue reading
There are an enormous number of general empirical propositions that count as certain for us. One such is that if someone’s arm is cut off it will not grow again (L Wittgenstein, On Certainty) There were nine of them to begin with. Children, that is. Ten, if you count poor Dora, dead … Continue reading
I have the most amazing news! Next year, in May*, my new book, Dying in the First Person, will be released by Transit Lounge. I received the edits yesterday, and they confirm everything I believe about the enormous benefits of a good editor. They make the work better; they work … Continue reading
I know, I’ve been decidedly absent from my blog for a while. Things got busy, and messy, and real, and I felt that I didn’t have things to say, or perhaps it’s just that I wasn’t sure I would ever find the right words to say the things I most … Continue reading
A little over a week ago, the rather fabulous Nicola Griffith posted some interesting statistics about gender and literary awards. In particular, she looked not just at the gender of award-winners, but the gender of the subjects of their books. As she writes: When women win literary awards for fiction it’s … Continue reading
And one more. This is a draft abstract for a paper I hope to deliver at the annual conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP), in Melbourne this November. The conference title is: Writing the Ghost Train: Rewriting, Remaking, Rediscovering. Abstract: Uchronic, or queer in no time: wilful … Continue reading
The following is the abstract for a paper I’m hoping to deliver at the upcoming inaugural conference of the Australasian Death Studies Network: Death, Dying, and the Undead: Contemporary Approaches and Practice. The conference (which I’ll be attending either way!) will be held at UCQ’s Noosa Campus on October 25 … Continue reading
Those of you who know me, will know I have a bit of a celebrity chef crush on the lovely Miss Rachel Khoo. It all started with her cooking show, The Little Paris Kitchen. There are many things that I enjoyed about Rachel’s program, but perhaps one the key things was … Continue reading
Last year, my life got shaken, rattled and stirred. It was one of those years that changed the very foundations of my life. One of the amazing things that happened was that I won the 2013 James Tiptree, Jr Award for my novel, Rupetta. This award is presented annually by a panel … Continue reading
Gillian Polack, a historian and writer (can you be one and not the other?) has recently been celebrating Women’s History Month over at her blog/livejournal by inviting an impressive number of women writers to provide guest blogs about overcoming obstacles. My contribution is one of the last to go … Continue reading