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Sam van Zweden

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Sam van Zweden

Awards They Are A-Happenin’

We are well and truly in awards season, and it’s a fantastic place to be! I’m having my attention called to a heap of books that I probably wouldn’t otherwise pick up or consider. I’m swelling with pride and happiness for all the writers who are getting the recognition that they deserve.

In this “pride” category, I’m particularly thinking about yesterday’s Miles Franklin shortlist announcement. I’m proud because it’s made up entirely of women, and I’m proud because I feel like it represents a real breadth of writing – the Miles Franklin has been criticised in the past for over-representing rural, historical narratives. I’m proud because three of the women on this shortlist are debut novelists. Sometimes awards come round, and get given, and I think “NO! That doesn’t represent my feelings at all!”. This year’s Miles Franklin shortlist does represent my feelings. It’s in line with what I think is important, and the stories that I think should be appreciated. The winner of the 2013 Miles Franklin award will be announced on the 19th June.

In other award news, for the second time ever in history (ever), there is no winner for the 2013 Vogel Award. The Vogel Award is for an unpublished work by a writer under 35. It’s a brilliant prize, because it helps to foster promising young writers. The judges have said that they just couldn’t find anything among this year’s entries that deserved the prize. I’ve been thinking about what this decision (or lack of…) means for writers, and the state of the industry – what are the causes of being in this position?

Does no Vogel award mean that all the good books have been published? Does it mean that the really gutsy, complex stuff is being written by people over the age of 35? I suspect that the Vogel this year has simply suffered from what I like to call “The Scholarship Effect”. You know how schools offer scholarships (or any organization, really, and anything that appears to be hard to get), but you don’t bother applying for them, because you imagine all these other, far more worthy applicants waiting in the wings? And then you do apply, and you get it, because you were wrong. I think that might be what’s happened with the Vogel. Maybe there were people worthy of the award that just didn’t know about, or have the confidence to enter the Vogel Award this year.

Also, there are thin years and there are fat years. In keeping with Geordie Williamson’s comments on B+P, maybe it’s just a lean year.

Either way, just because the Vogel judges didn’t think anything contained the “special quality” they’re looking for, doesn’t mean there’s not still stacks of great books to read – as evidenced by all the amazing prizes recently awarded, and about to be awarded soon. There’s still time to read the whole Miles Franklin shortlist before the announcement in June – GO!

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Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

gone girl“It is our third wedding anniversary and I am alone in our apartment, my face all mask-tight from tears because, well, because: Just this afternoon I get a voice mail from Nick, and I already know it’s going to be bad, I know the second the voice mail begins because I can tell he’s calling from his cell and I can hear men’s voices in the background and a big, roomy gap, like he’s trying to decide what to say, and then I hear his taxi-blurred voice, a voice that is already wet and lazy with booze, and I know I am going to be angry – that quick inhale, the lips going tight, the shoulders up, the I so don’t want to be mad but I’m going to feeling. Do men not know that feeling?”

– from Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, p72

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The Lifted Brow Mix Tapes

I love a good mix tape. I still have the mix tape that one of my oldest friends dropped off to me on my sixteenth birthday. He decorated the cover with stars, and wrote Descendents lyrics on it; the ones about making a mix tape and decorating it with stars. There’s something about the process of making a mix tape – especially in the nineties. Sitting down, and playing all your favourite songs, and pressing the play button. You’d have to sit with it for the whole duration of the tape. It’s a real-time act of love and dedication. And it tells you a lot about a person, and the relationship they have with whoever the music’s dedicated to.

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Image courtesy of Sophia Bendz

In the lead up to the next issue of The Lifted Brow (The Music Issue), they’ve started a MixCloud space, where all these amazing writers have been making mix tapes. It’s a good idea, yeah, but it’s made a billion times better by all the rad people who’ve contributed. While the physical process of making a mix tape is different now, most of these tapes really speak volumes about the people who made them. Some seem to speak about their writing process, and others about the cheeky indulgences they hide from the world.

Here’s a few of my favourites:

Monica Dux outs her love of musical theatre, and I tell ya what, she’s a lady after my own heart. Into The Woods! West Side Story!

Sean M Whelan‘s given his mix tape the best theme ever: “Songs That Do Me In, In The Dead Of Night”. We all have those songs, and this mix is a doozy.

David Shields‘ mix tape is nothing like I would’ve expected, and that’s somehow endearing. I don’t know what I expected him to listen to… Something a bit more dad-ish, I guess.

Hannah Kent and I appear to share our music taste. I’ve spent some time writing to this one, and it’s perfect.

Tom Cho‘s tape is beautifully eclectic and broad, just like his writing.

And look! It’s Tang Time! Estelle Tang’s mix tape‘s themed “She’s Always Been Your Lover”. You can tell these tapes belong to writers. Nobody else would theme them so wonderfully.

Enjoy.

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Update

There’s been a bit happening here, so I thought a general update post might be in order.

First, my good news: I’m a program intern at the Melbourne Writers Festival! I’m there one day a week, and while I’ve only been there for two weeks, I’m having a great time. So far it’s involved lots of research, looking at writers and their work so that the festival can sort out who should talk about what, and when, and with whom. It helps the festival, but it also helps me: I’ve got the down-low on all the guests, so I know who to swoon over when the festival comes ’round. (Confidentiality agreements have been signed, so sorry folks, but it’s all under wraps!) I’m really lucky to be working on such an amazing festival, and with such a great team. I’ll be with the festival until September, and I couldn’t be more chuffed.

Thanks, BookWorld!
Thanks, BookWorld!

A big thanks has to go out to BookWorld, who kindly awarded me a signed copy of Charlaine Harris’s Deadlocked – a Sookie Stackhouse novel. They gave this book away on Twitter, and I won just for RTing. The Sookie Stackhouse novels are a big indulgence for me, so I’m feeling pretty lucky right about now.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been gaining a ridiculous amount of new followers via WordPress – hello! Welcome to LGWABP, I hope we have a long and happy relationship. Your presence here is so very welcome, but something of a mystery – WordPress stats haven’t seemed to track the reason for the spike. If you have time and inclination to comment, I’d love to know how you found me!

In other, non-wordy news, I’m getting right back into training in preparation for Run Melbourne in July – mental health is something close to my heart, as I’m sure it is for many people, so if you’d like to donate to the cause and make me feel more guilty about training to run this 5km, please do!

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Emerging Writers’ Festival Program Highlights

ImageIt’s here! Last Wednesday night the Wheeler Centre packed out for the launch of the 2013 Emerging Writers’ Festival. This is the festival’s 10th birthday, and its first year under the direction of Sam Twyford-Moore. The program is freakin’ huge, and I’m excited!

Of course, the EWF holds a special place in my heart, as they’ve been immensely supportive toward me, and I interned with them last year. Melbourne’s great for festivals, and EWF is one of the many fantastic literary events happening right through the year. For two weeks in June, the EWF runs panels, workshops, performance events and networking opportunities for emerging writers. It’s a unique opportunity for us baby writers to get a foot in the door, and to meet people fighting the same good fight.

I had to hold off on this post for a few days, just because the program really is so big. I needed to sit down with some tea and a marker, and highlight what I want to attend, and then identify any clashing events, and make tough decisions which might very well change a few times before the actual events.

At this stage, it looks like I’ll be out and about for most of the two weeks of the festival. I won’t go through my entire itinerary, but here’s the things I found particularly exciting, and that I think you shouldn’t miss:

Festival Hub: Thousand Pound Bend. This might sound silly, but since the beloved Rue Bebelons shut down, I was eager to find out where the new watering hole would be. I like the choice of Thousand Pound Bend – it’s cosy, with couches and dim lighting. It’s significantly larger than Rue’s, which probably works in its favour, with EWF crowds no doubt swelling this year as it has each consecutive year since its start. They’ll also be running Late Night Live With Literary Magazines, which could be a great way to discover stuff you didn’t know about before, but also a talking point, and a way to connect with other people (like, strangers, friends you haven’t met yet) at the Festival Hub.

Pop Up Page Parlour. Usually, Page Parlour has been a one-day event in the Atrium at Fed Square. If you miss that one day, you miss out. The pop up idea is great – not only does it give me more opportunities to check out the merch, it also gives those who are selling things there far more exposure. Win-win.

Town Hall Writers’ Conference. This is where writers get together to impart all their secrets. The timetabling gods have looked kindly on this weekend, and I’ve got something highlighted in most blocks, with no clashes. Particularly exciting: The Control Room with Melinda Harvey and Connor Tomas O’Brien; Cutting it Short on short stories; Writing The Personal; and Critical Conditions on the culture of criticism.

Emerging Q & A. An insane panel line-up and an awesome event, I can’t wait to Tweet my way through this bad boy.

And really, really exciting is this year’s addition of The Writers’ Retreat program at the very beautiful Abbotsford Convent. This beautiful setting will be overrun by writers for the weekend, and a lot of the program is free. I’m most excited about seeing Kate Richards on the panel for Symposium: Writing and Health on Sunday, and Saturday’s panel on Writing About Food, which will include the tiny and loveable Romy Ash – who at last week’s Erotic Fan Fiction night at Wheeler, shared a story about stuffing a food critic like a chicken.

The word is that tickets are already selling fast, as EWF seems to be very much on the radar of Melbourne’s cultural calendar. Happy Birthday EWF, happy first festival STM, and a massive congratulations to the whole dedicated and hardworking EWF team for putting together such a brilliant program!

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Kill Your Darlings 13 Is Here

I’ve been poor, and skipped the last few issues of the beautiful Melbourne lit journal Kill Your Darlings. Last Thursday saw the annual KYD Trivia Night in Carlton, which launched issue 13, and I’m pretty excited to have purchased a copy. It’s an (*ahem*) killer issue, which ticks all the boxes for things that seem cool to me: Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites is chalked up as the Next Big Thing, and she’s written an article about her experience writing it. Game of Thrones has me, like most of the world, under its spell, and Brad Nguyen has contributed a pretty fantastic piece of criticism about it to KYD. And I’ve been admiring Jo Case’s work forever, and am totally chuffed that her book Boomer & Me has been doing so well since its recent publication – there’s an extract from the memoir in this KYD issue. I’m loving it.

And, of course, the trivia! This trivia night is one of my favourite nights of the year – there’s writer, critic, and bookseller spot-o, an opportunity to confirm or deny that I am exactly as bookish as I hope, money-raising for a great publication, and sweet prizes. Our Dream Team has been a winner and a second-placer, as well as a door-prize winner. Our luck continued this round, as we placed second to Team Croggers’ very respectable bookish smarts, and my raffle over-purchasing paid off with a door prize. Can I put KYD Triv accolades on my CV? As if any respectable employer wouldn’t swoon over that.

Thanks for a great night, KYD, we’ll be back for more next year!

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The Inaugural Stella Prize

Last night the inaugural Stella Prize for women’s writing was awarded to Carrie Tiffany, for her novel Mateship With Birds.

ImageThe prize awards $50,000 to recognize fantastic writing by Australian women. The name of the prize comes from one of the most celebrated Australian women writers of all time – Miles Franklin. As mentioned at last night’s ceremony, the prize gives Miles Franklin back her name – Franklin felt the need to publish under a man’s name in order for her writing to be successful. What a long way we’ve come, to now be recognizing women’s writing, and awarding such a bucket load of cash in order to give them the time and space they need to create their work. 

Carrie Tiffany graciously returned $10,000 of the prize money to the Stella Prize to be divided amongst the other shortlisted authors: Courtney Collins, Michelle de Kretser, Lisa Jacobson, Cate Kennedy, and Margo Lanagan. As she made the gesture, she talked about how money equals time for writers. Tiffany’s generosity and goodwill are a representation of the good feeling, positivity, and realistic nature of the whole Stella ethos.

I missed the awards ceremony, but followed along on Twitter via the #stellaprize hashtag. The Stella team, as well as all the writers, readers, booksellers, festival people, and groupies in attendance did a fabulous job of making those of us at home feel like we were actually there. Quotes from speakers, selfies and group photos, virtual drinks with other proxy attendees… Even from the comfort of a tram and my desk at home, it was a fun night.

Mateship with Birds‘ winning status has pushed it further up the reading pile, along with Zadie Smith’s NW, which is shortlisted for the UK’s “Women’s Prize for Fiction” (formerly the Orange Prize). In the middle of awards season as we are, there’s no shortage of things to read, but the hours in a day are sadly lacking.

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Trivialising

It’s that time again! For the last few years, Melbourne lit journal Kill Your Darlings have done an annual launch and trivia night in Carlton. The competition’s always fierce, and the questions are hard and literature-themed, and the prizes are fantastic. The vino does flow, the grandest of times is had.

In previous years, I’ve been on the winning team, the door prize team, the second-placing team. This year, with one of our membership absent on a European Trip Of A Lifetime, we’ve got a pretty different Dream Team. We won’t need to cross our fingers though, because we’re all pretty brilliant anyway.

You should come to the stoush. 

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Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

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“A wave of nausea drove a sour, bitter liquid up from her stomach into her throat, and at that moment, she understood everything. The colt’s severed leg showed her what death was all about, and a sense of horror made her quake, made her teeth chatter.”

– from Big Breasts and Wide Hips, by Mo Yan.

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