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Sam van Zweden

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Teaser … Wednesday.

I realise I’ve missed Teaser Tuesday for the last few weeks. And now it’s a Wednesday… Sorry, folks!
But here’s one anyway.

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!

 “I had known ever since the previous evening that I should be the first to arrive. But the order of our arrival no longer had any importance”

                                                                               From Dostoyevsky’s “Notes from Underground”

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Poetry to Pages

I’m not sure why this event was called “Poetry to Pages“… It should have been called “Poetry to Ears, Heart-Strings and Tear Ducts”, cuz that’s where it was going.

Whatever it was called, last night at Readings in Carlton, some lovely poetry reading went down.

The readers in question: Jordie Albiston, Josephine Rowe and Jennifer Harrison.

All of these ladies are quite accomplished Melbourne poets, but up until last night I’d only heard Josephine Rowe’s poetry.

Jordie Albiston read five sonnets from her The Sonnet According To ‘M’. Her poetry on a page is a lovely thing, and she herself has identified many of her “works as works for the voice”. However, listening to Jordie’s reading, I had to wonder if perhaps they were a little too much for the voice? Her poems are lovely-sounding and rhythmic, but Jordie’s performance of her pieces focussed so heavily on rhythm that I was unable to hear any words after a while, and only rhythm. Whether this is what Jordie intends is a question I’d love answered.

Josephine Rowe shared some short pieces of prose from her forthcoming novel, which feels a little like verse but I imagine will work well as an extended piece. She also shared some of her “love poems”, which she told the audience she’s trying to steer clear of lately… I wish she wouldn’t though; she does them so well! Josephine uses simple language in highly condensed, precise and confessional type pieces. It’s tight. Really tight. And she reads magnificently – it feels like she’s telling secrets meant only for your ears.

Last up was Jennifer Harrison. This lady has an absolutely impeccable ear for language. Usually I don’t like writing that talks about the land and connecting with it. I can appreciate a connection with the Earth, but so much of the writing on this subject is dry and trope-y. Jennifer Harrison does it masterfully though. She’s written about Uluru, about New Zealand, about being with nature and the outback and becoming one with it. And she’s done it in a really immediate way that puts you there. I’d never realised the lyrical possibilities of Maori words until last night. Jennifer’s poems also look at motherhood; another kind of ancient and essential connection, and she does this lyrically but not in an overly-flowery way.

Readings managed to bring together a really fantastic lineup of poets last night. This “Poetry to Pages” event will be happening on the second Monday of every month.

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Reading Anxiety

Am I reading enough? I constantly ask myself.

Jacinda Woodhead at Meanland says no.

Jacinda talks about the guilt she feels when she does other things instead of reading. I get this. Somehow in my mind, reading has a privileged place which nothing else quite lives up to, meaning that anything else I do with my time creates guilt – apart from writing. That’s worthy. But the two should certainly be balanced and in much higher quantities that they are right now.

This last week I’ve had the flu, completed (to genuine satisfaction, too) three out of four assessment pieces that are due next week, organized a great many overdue things and put things in order… All of these things, including the homework, made me feel guilty for not reading. Somehow homework reading doesn’t feel like it counts. Most of it, anyway.

So Jacinda talks about all the different sources of reading she has, and it’s no wonder she hasn’t got enough time to keep up with it all. I know this feeling, and I’m sure you do too.

Jacinda talks about Google Reader – are any of you guys onto this? I’m not, but I know I have a few readers who are. I check back to a LOT of different blogs daily, so I think this would really help … but it has the potential to be very crap. So tell me, bloggosphere – to Google-Read, or not?

And Twitter – I’m well and truly into it now. I never knew I could get so much amazing independent news from one place! Honestly, there’s always something great offered to me via Twitter. I love it!
…but I also hate it. I follow 57 people on Twitter. and that adds up to a LOT of extra reading every day.

One problematic reading-source that Jacinda skips over pretty quickly is blogrolls.
You read someone’s post and they blow you away, and you wonder, “What does this person read?”  Enter the Blogroll… Some are so extensive that they take multiple visits to work through.

“I have so many books within arm’s reach waiting for my attention,” says Jacinda… Oh yes. The To-Be-Read Pile…
I thought I got smart on mine, I put many of them on my shelf. Not in a pile at all! Haha! Outsmarted, Reading Pile!
…but no. I took four of those books and put them next to my bed in a micro-TBR. I thought this would make it easier. Now when I go to bed I pick one until my eyelids won’t prop themselves open any longer. I don’t know if this has helped it or not though…

Jacinda also nods to awards lists and literary journals as incoming reading.

Besides these, I also have Classics (a very big pile and growing), books recommended by respected friends (friends who don’t read yet recommend things are ignored), review books for Yartz , and the supplementary stuff for school.

The world of literature is not shrinking. Does it scare the shit out of you?!

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Too perfect = blank pages.

I’ve had this problem for a long time, and I suspect that for a lot of writers this is the root of the “terror of the blank page” problem.

This morning I came across a post by Fiona Gregory of “Bootcampers 101” blog. While the writers who contribute to this blog are all romance writers, they often have something to say that applies to the rest of us literary folk.

In this post, Fiona talks about how her perfectionism often holds her back from writing at all, or at least following through on anything because what’s in her head struggles to match what ends up on the page.

Thankfully, this post isn’t just a whine about how hard it is to get the cogs moving.

Some of the more helpful solutions Fiona suggests include:
– Writing to a timer. Set a timer for anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or two, and don’t move until it goes off. Just write. Don’t edit either – that’s for later.
– Scheduling a time for editing so that it doesn’t creep into your writing time. I certainly find that the more I allow myself to edit while I write, the more that filter gets in the way of my getting anything at all onto the page.

While these are small tips, and almost a bit obvious, I found them helpful. Especially as I sit in front of an impending deadline or five, banging my head against a brick wall.

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She promised to be free…

…and she was.

I watch her sketching whatnots in class, there’s snippets of life that she likes to pin to the edges of lecture pads.

That’s just what I’ve witnessed.

Much of what I haven’t witnessed has recently been brought into the loving arms of the interweb.

Her name is Jorja Kelly, I go to uni with her. I’m impressed and inspired by her work – particularly her drawings, they make me want to create things.

Her blog,  “A Bisonicorn Cluster Vomiting Rainbows” is a rapidly growing collection of her drawing, snippets of writing, images she’s found and liked. A very inspiring archive – keep checking back and keep your ear to the ground for this lady, she’ll get far.

She also presents a literary segment on SYN radio’s show “Arts Mitten” from 3-4.30pm on a Sunday afternoon.

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Literary crushes and excitement

I have had one particular literary crush for a long time.

On a writer, and on everything that comes out of her pen. Her laptop… Her mind.

Her name is Josephine Rowe. I saw her reading at the Emerging Writer’s festival 2009… She opened something up to me that I’d never known was there. Some writers are amazing readers, and Ms Rowe has it down pat.

She’s an amazing Melbournian poet. She writes small moments, she writes life-changing moments, she writes her own and she writes other people’s. And when you read them, you almost believe they’re yours.

So this evening when I came across a Readings event involving Josephine Rowe, I got very excited. The write-up is very vague, and indicates little to nothing about what the event actually is… But I’ll be there anyway.

If you want to discover the literary lovin’ that is Josephine Rowe, you should come along also.

Readings Carlton, 6.30pm on the 12th April.

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Teaser Tuesday #6

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!

(My google doesn’t want to work, so no picture today)

“All of this, she saw now – and actually knew even then – borne of loss. Made possible by their parents’ moving off separately into their lives, by Pierce’s retreat from her during those years, by her own feelings of failure and the resultant wish to live once again with a sense of possibility.”
                                                                                                                         -from “The Lake Shore Limited” by Sue Miller (p7)

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Taking to the Streats

It’s a few days late, I’ve been busy. Coming up to the first round of uni assessments.

On Friday, I took to the streets to meet the people from Streat , an opportunity offered thanks to RMIT.

These guys are pretty amazing (Streat…RMIT are too though). Streat is an endeavour to give disadvantaged and homeless young people access to training they would otherwise have a hell of a lot of trouble getting, fees being what they are.

Streat trainees gain a Cert II in Hospitality, with on-the-job training at Streat’s food cart at Federation Square, as well as “ensuring holistic care and well‐being to trainees within its programs.”
…and their food is amaaaaaazing. Healthy, filling, and genuinely interesting.

We spent the day exploring the city and responding to it in our own ways. I got my pen on it, and what came out actually really surprised me. I didn’t get a chance to spend time with one of the Streat trainees apart from the initial meet-and-greet and the debriefing afterwards. From what other people bought back, they really had some stories to tell, and sometimes those stories weren’t that far from our own.

Throughout the day, we text-messaged our bite-sized stories back to a central Streat number. There were about 25 people participating, and they got 87 texts by the end of the day.

They’ve already posted a few of these on the Streat Blog. One of mine is there; the one about the alley.

What I thought was really nice was how spontaneous all these little stories feel, and how they’re absolutely anonymous – you can’t tell an RMIT student’s story from a Streat trainee’s story.

I also found it refreshing to realise that I can pull satisfying images out of memories.

Streat are in discussions with Fed Square as to the final presentation of these stories, will keep you updated on what happens with them.

In the mean time, get down and eat some of Streat’s food, support an awesome cause!

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Torpedo pioneering for Australian journals

I’ve just been listening to a great interview between Estelle Tang and Chris Flynn.

Estelle Tang is creator of book blog 3000 Books, and online editor for literary journal Kill Your Darlings.

Chris Flynn is the great mind behind literary journal Torpedo. His writing appears everywhere. Really. Everywhere.

And now he’s being interviewed everywhere. One case of this is Estelle Tang’s interview (linked above) for Kill Your Darlings.

Prior to listening to this, I knew Chris Flynn was not an Aussie boy, so the accent wasn’t a shock. But my goodness, hasn’t Estelle Tang just got a beautiful voice!? I feel like Ursula the Sea Witch out of Disney’s The Little Mermaid… I want her voice!***

Chris Flynn is hot stuff right now – more than usual – because his love-child Torpedo is the first Australian literary journal to make the leap to being available exclusively on eReaders.

In their interview, Chris and Estelle discuss what this change means for publishers and writers, and why this move was the best for Torpedo.

Will this move be the big one for other journals to follow? Goodness knows we’ve got so many of them in Australia, particularly Melbourne, and all the reasons Chris Flynn outlines above are pretty great reasons for everyone to make this jump to eReaders. I know the next Sleepers Almanac will be published online, but I’m not sure if that means they’re going as far as cutting out the print copies altogether.

I’m a lover of my book collection. And other people’s book collections. I love the section of my bookshelf that has lit journals on it, all lined up in their groups and numbered accordingly. At the moment, money is a massive consideration for me, and while I can afford to buy a journal or two every now and then, I cannot afford an eReader.

I’m upset that Torpedo are abandoning people like myself, and really hope that if other journals follow suit, they keep their print copies in existence also.

*** NB: The sea witch out of Disney’s version, who harmlessly “spells” away Ariel’s lovely voice and keeps it. NOT the sea witch out of the Hans Christian Anderson version who cuts out her tongue. Not that one. No.

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