It was my delight and honour to launch Jenny Ackland’s second novel, Little Gods, at Readings Carlton tonight. Here’s my launch speech, which says it all. Update, February 2019: So thrilled that Little Gods has been longlisted for the 2019 Stella Prize. Read more here. Update, March 2019: She’s only gone and made the Stella Prize … Read more…
Australian
The Book Podcast, Ep. 41: Tracy Farr, The Hope Fault
Rosemary Puddy presents and produces The Book Podcast, in which she talks to Australian women writers of fiction and non-fiction about their books and their writing process. As Rosemary puts it on her website: The Book Podcast is inspired by the The Stella Prize … a major literary award that celebrates Australian women’s writing and … champions cultural change Kicking off … Read more…
‘7 Australian novels you should read’ by Lucy Treloar
Australian novelist Lucy Treloar, author of the wonderful Miles Franklin and Walter Scott shortlisted Salt Creek (published this year in hardback in the UK and US by Aardvark Bureau), recently listed ‘some of her favourite Australian novels’ for Reader’s Digest UK. Here are a few books that I’ve read and loved; their styles, genres, and settings as rich … Read more…
Liz Byrski: In Love and War, and Lena
Liz Byrski was interviewed recently on WritingWA‘s Cover to Cover, about her most recent book, In Love and War: Nursing Heroes. Cover to Cover host Meri Fatin described the process of writing In Love and War as “as almost like a piece of plastic surgery in itself”. In this short excerpt from the 40-minute interview, Liz talks about what she learned from … Read more…
Mildura Writers Festival and Residency
Next month’s going to be all about Mildura, so I’m going to keep this post short and sweet, as a taste of what’s to come. I’ve been lucky enough to be awarded the inaugural Mildura Writers Festival Residency. The residency is an initiative of Arts Mildura and the Mildura Writers Festival. During the month (July 2015) … Read more…
‘Loss and Love’ at 2015 Auckland Writers Festival
I’m looking forward to heading up to Auckland next month for Auckland Writers Festival. This’ll be my third time heading up to Auckland for the writers festival (I wrote about the 2014 festival here and here), but my first time on the programme. The festival has got bigger and better each year that I’ve been, … Read more…
The hissing swan in the manuscript drawer
I spent the first two weeks of March at Varuna, the Writers House in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, a two-hour train ride from Sydney. I was lucky enough during my Second Book Residential Fellowship to work in Eleanor Dark’s garden studio, a short enough walk from the back door of the main house that … Read more…
‘Meet a kiwi author: Tracy Farr’ interview, ANZ LitLovers
I answered 10 questions for Lisa Hill, for the Meet an Aussie/Kiwi author feature on her excellent ANZ LitLovers blog. Read the interview online: ‘Meet a kiwi author: Tracy Farr’
ANZ LitLovers reviews The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt
Lisa Hill has posted a lovely review of The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt this week on the ANZ LitLovers blog. Here are a few lines from the review. This is an absorbing book that held my interest throughout. Farr captures rapture and tragedy with consummate skill to create so remarkable a portrait, that it’s hard to believe that … Read more…