On Monday, an interview with me was published in the Herald Sun newspaper - apparently on the cover of the 'Learn' supplement! As I'm in WA at the moment, I had to get one of my kids to save a copy for me. I've been too busy doing workshops with creative young WA writers to track down a Fremantle newsagency that carries Melbourne newspapers. The interview and the accompanying photo were taken in the State Library of Victoria - very topical as we were talking about Melbourne as a Unesco City of Literature.
The Herald Sun is running a City of Literature Junior Writing Competition and have invited me to be one of the judges along with Herald Sun editor-in-chief Bruce Guthrie and
journalist/author Les Carlyon. There's $10,000 up for grabs for the school of the winning entry as well as other perks for young writers in Grade 3 to Year 10.
I can't wait to see how the kids interpret the theme and what are their visions of Melbourne. Living in a City of Literature means celebrating a culture of books and stories and I can't think of a better way of doing that than encouraging young Victorian writers to share their stories.
Entry forms will be in this Sunday's Herald-Sun.
My Melbourne
The Wild West
I’m bunkered down in the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre and loving the energy of the place. I flew over to Western Australia on Sunday night and met up with the dynamic director of the Centre, Lesley Reece, before traveling on to Albany for a day of workshopping with young writers. Then we flew back to Perth so I could start my residency here in Fremantle.
I've always loved WA. It has a distinctive spirit that always lifts my mood. Something about the quality of the light and vivacity of the people. Fremantle, in particular, seems to capture so much of what I like about the west.
I've stayed at the FCLC a couple of times in the past few years but this visit is especially fun because at the end of a day of workshopping, I've got great company as Matt Ottley and Boori Pryor are also in residence. When I've stayed here in the past, I've always had the run of the place to myself but as the Centre is inside the old Fremantle Prison, it's much nicer to have someone other than the ghosts to hang out with in the evenings. Between Boori's brilliant story telling and Matt's music and deep conversation, I suspect I'm going to suffer a bout of 'un-homesickness' when I finally head back to Melbourne. (Unhomesickness is what you get when you're homesick for the home that's not your home - or so my kids used to tell me when I dragged them around Europe).
Next week Lesley Reece and I will head down to Bunbury for two more Youth Literature days working with young WA writers. It's no surprise that WA produce a disproportionate number of talented young writers with all the innovative programmes that FCLC organises.
Loving Ethan Frome
In the end, after much agonising, I decided to take Ethan Frome to Tasmania.
When we arrived in Hobart, Mount Wellington had a tiny smidge of snow on its peak. Maybe it was the anticipation of snow that made me slip Ethan Frome into my bag. Not that Tassie ever gets snow like the sort that features so strongly in Edith Wharton's American classic.
I first read it back in the late 1970s, when I was living in Canada, where snow was a big feature of every winter. So much of the story had slipped from memory but I had never forgotten how well it conjured winter. Once I was inside the story, so much of it came flooding back, especially the poignancy of young Mattie Silver's predicament. Reading it as an adult, I can understand why it's so widely studied in American secondary schools. The language is beautiful and the central characters are young. It's a complex book, despite its brevity. There are so many ideas embedded in this short novel. I'm sure it's been pulled to pieces again and again by thousand of American kids - and I suspect, sadly, that its dissection would destroy much of the pleasure of the book. Lucky Australian kids, who are never forced to read the amazing work of Edith Wharton. Does that mean we win or lose?
