The kids are busy at the river mouth. … There’s one black dog right in there with them, a mad barker, lolling and lollopping. Another dog, black-and-white, more serious, is hanging back, watching, crouched up the beach on its haunches, front paws out, ears up, attentive, as if it’s watching skittish sheep. The dog glances … Read more…
About Tracy Farr
Writing workshop at 2016 WORD Christchurch Festival
The programme has just been launched for WORD Christchurch 2016 Writers & Readers Festival, which runs from 26 to 28 August. I’ll be teaching a writing workshop on the Friday of the festival. Teaching the monster to speak: Writing believable fictional characters Writing fiction is a licence to invent and transform. When we write, we might choose to … Read more…
Aardvarks + Aussies + BUST, oh my!
In a fortnight I’ll be in Christchurch for WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival 2016 (24–28 August). There’s a hashtag, of course; trust @kebabette to wear it with style. The last #WORDCHCH, in 2014, was fabulous (I wrote about it here and here, and here‘s the PechaKucha talk I gave there), and this year the festival promises (less scary than lions and tigers … Read more…
Portland Book Review – The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt
Dick Weissman gave The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt 4.5 stars in his review this month for Portland Book Review. …a complex and lyrical novel about the life of an Australian musician who becomes an early exponent of the theremin. ★★★★1/2 — @PDXBookReview Read the review online Follow Portland Book Review on Twitter or Facebook
‘Tracy Farr, inaugural Mildura Writer in Residence’ interview
In Mildura Living Magazine‘s Winter 2016 issue, Rebecca Butterworth’s interview with Tracy Farr touches on food, writing, family history, and inspiration from landscape and people. …the striking intimacy and sense of community of the festival itself; delightful and surprising resonances, and support not just from everyone there for the weekend of the festival, but from the Mildura arts and wider … Read more…
New York Times reviews The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt
On its US release, Alison McCulloch reviewed The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt for the New York Times Book Review, Sunday 26 June 2016 (in print 26 June, online 24 June). What’s immediately intriguing about Lena Gaunt isn’t Lena Gaunt but the fact that she plays a theremin…And Lena Gaunt isn’t just any theremin player. She’s … Read more…
Lena Gaunt by any other name
Names are funny things, important things, and they fascinate me; indeed, my second novel, The Hope Fault, is at least partly about names and naming. I spend a lot of (aka too much) time mulling over character names in my writing. I love to name my chapters, too, title them rather than just giving them numbers … Read more…
The merry month of May
O, the month of May, the merry month of May, So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green! ‘The Merry Month of May’ by Thomas Dekker (1599) The month just past (So frolic. Much gay. Many green. Wow.) would’ve warranted a celebratory skip around the maypole, if it hadn’t been a bit chilly … Read more…
Foreword reviews The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt
On its US release, Stephanie Bucklin reviewed The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt for the Summer 2016 issue of Foreword Reviews, a quarterly magazine featuring reviews of books from independent and university presses. From reflections on technology and art, to questions of addiction and control, the novel moves expertly from a portrait of Lena’s life to … Read more…
‘The Undercover Soundtrack – Tracy Farr’ guest post
Writer, editor and writing blogger and teacher Roz Morris hosts The Undercover Soundtrack series, where she invites writers who use music as part of their creative environment, ‘perhaps to connect with a character, populate a mysterious place, or hold a moment still to explore its depths’. In a post for The Undercover Soundtrack (27 April 2016), I write about some of the music that helped … Read more…