I am a terrible diary-keeper, a fact which troubles me, mostly because every writing book I’ve ever read suggests the keeping of a diary as being fairly essential to one’s writing process. And I can see the point. If the aim of fiction writing is to capture a sense of emotional truth around made-up events, then surely it makes sense…
I was in a playground when I fell in love with this book. It was the second week of school holidays, a sunny day (one of few) and, for once, a playground that demanded very little parental supervision. I took full advantage. Surrounded by chatting mums and careering kids on scooters, I pulled out my copy of the brilliant yellow…
A great pleasure to welcome corporate communications guru, Simone Pregellio, as guest reviewer for the Marina Go memoir, Break Through. Like many Gen X women, I remember my very first Dolly magazine, bought and devoured on a holiday to the Gold Coast when I was 13 years old. The reason I remember ‘my first’, and the start of what would…
Last week I bought a new shirt. Made from flannel, it’s as comfy as a bed-sheet and if you match it with a leather jacket and boots, it’s a tiny bit ‘Westwood-meets-the-burbs’. That’s if you’re squinting. If you don’t squint, I could pass as a brickie. Win-win. Either way, I pretty much love everything about my new shirt, except the…
I was 19 when I traveled overseas, alone, for the first time. The only book I packed was The Lonely Planet Guide to the USA. It was my bible, telling me where to go, how to get there and where to stay. In those days, the internet was something you could only use in a cafe, and even then, it was just…
IN BRIEF:The harrowing, yet unsentimental account of a foreign correspondent’s four years on the beat in Asia for the ABC, juggling the coverage of disasters (man-made and natural) with domestic life as the mother of two young children.
Monica Dux wears many different hats. She is a columnist with The Age, a social commentator, speaker, and author of ‘Things I Didn’t Expect (when I was expecting)’, co-author of ‘The Great Feminist Denial’ and editor of the anthology ‘Mothermorphosis‘, which I read (and loved) earlier this year. It is the book I wished I read when I was pregnant, and I’m so thrilled…
I used to know Sal as the school friend who would read Mr Bain’s notes off the blackboard for me in economics (Thanks Sal. Without you I would never known my own blindness, or what GDP meant!) But these days, Sal is setting the world alight as a writer, with a special talent for coming up with funny, pithy slogans.…
IN BRIEF:You think being a published author is a dream come true? Read this collection of four, hilarious, memoir-style essays from Liam Pieper, and think again.
IN BRIEF:Australian story-tellers share their experiences of motherhood in a beautiful collection about love and loss, and all that it means when a woman becomes ‘mum’.