Angela Meyer's Blog, page 5
October 21, 2014
Captives reviewed in Cordite
Jo Langdon has written a beautiful and perceptive review ofCaptivesforCordite Poetry Review.
‘The space beyond the stories is essential, and the words themselves appear with an illusory ease and simplicity.’
Read the rest here.
Captivesis widely available, includingfrom the publisher,Readings,Booktopia,Avid Reader,Fishpond(free worldwide shipping),or your local bookstore. The ebook is available onKindle,Google Play, iBooks, Kobo& more.
October 9, 2014
Blog narrative
‘Yet the clock is time, and time is lost, is bankrupt before it begins’—fromOwls do Cry, Janet Frame.
Recently I made two early blog posts private.
Many times I have gone to do this but never have. When I taught blogging I would tell my students that the blog itself formed an overall narrative. Mine certainly does. From 22-year-old bookseller living in Coffs Harbour to Dr Meyer the published author, a Melburnian and a frequent traveller, now 30.
Baby blogger, 2008, in Tiergarten, Berlin.
There wa...
October 1, 2014
Review of The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion in The Australian
I reviewed The Rosie Effect, Graeme Simsion’s follow-up toThe Rosie Project for theWeekend Australian.It’s a warm read, and a successful sequel. Following is an extract from the review.
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As with the first book, these incidents are humorous and cause cringing; the reader observes the miscommunication, the unravelling, and longs to step in as an interpreter. This is enhanced by the first-person point of view: we experience each incident through Don’s eyes and can only imagine what the other char...
September 27, 2014
September 25, 2014
Bodies, effort, straws: The Special by David Stavanger
David Stavanger, myself, Jennifer Compton.
I had the pleasure last night of launchingThe Specialby David Stavanger, winner of the 2013 Thomas Shapcott Prize. The book is published by UQP and available now. David and I didn’t know each other beforehand, but connected through words (in emails, but mainly through our work) and it was a wonderful night, with much warmth. David asked me to read a few pieces from Captivesbefore launching his book, which was kind.The legendary Jennifer Compton read a...
August 24, 2014
MWF 2014, Flashing the Square, Memory Makes Us
Melbourne Writers Festival has been fantastic so far. Stimulating keynotes from Helen Garner and Chris Hadfield, and I really enjoyed yesterday’s panel ‘Crossing Cultures’, about cultural hybridisation. There were some great insights into contemporary China from Zhang Tianpan: contemporary China is very complex, but also very simple. There are many commonalities with the West—’we all love beauty and freedom’. The Chinese are ‘so clever they can make simple things complex’, and there are two C...
August 20, 2014
Appearance on Jennifer Byrne Presents: Envy
I was honoured to be a guest onJennifer Byrne Presents, an offshoot of theFirstTuesday Book Club, to discussone of the seven deadly sins, envy, along with Greg Sheridan, Lyndon Terracini and Kate McClymont. The show aired on 19 August on ABC, and will be available for a limited time on iview. There’s also an outtake up on YouTube, where I discuss Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
What was it like? It was a surreal and wonderful experience. I always suffer from nerves, a terror that I will say somet...
August 11, 2014
Whisky Literature: I’m playing with video again
This is the first in a series called Whisky Literature(combining two loves), where I will muse on literature, discuss recent reads, or read aloud over a dram of whisky.
This episode features Ardbeg Uigeadail and the books Deeper Water by Jessie Cole, The Empress Lover by Linda Jaivin, and Tampa by Alissa Nutting, with mention of The Fictional Woman by Tara Moss and Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke.
Expect a mix of passion, enthusiasm,absurdity, and tipsiness.
August 6, 2014
Review: Slush Pile by Ian Shadwell, for The Australian
Sometimes an author will have one big hit and then … nothing. When we meet Michael Ardenne, the antihero of Ian Shadwell’sSlush Pile, it has been more than a decade since he won the Man Booker Prize for his debut novel Ephesus. Now, he is ‘as dry as an old dog turd’. Instead of writing, he pseudonymously occupies message boards about his own book, watches porn, drinks his cellar dry and leers at the teenage girl next door.
Read the rest of the review here.
July 28, 2014
#555writers: Grafton to Lennox Head
This’ll be a short one. It’s the fifth day of the five writers, five towns tour. We were all heartened to see Sam looking perkier this morning, after a good rest at the Quality Inn in Grafton. As for the rest of us…
I think by the time we separate we will be both relieved and terrified to navigate the world on our own. When Nick tells his anecdote about the smartphone and the clicking hip for the 80th time tonight I will think, simultaneously: thank god I never have to hear that again, and I’m...
