Aurealis
I'm a bit tired, but very amused. A bunch of my friends (mostly interstate visitors for the Aurealis awards) are at an advanced stage of drunkenness in someone's hotel room. Me, I had to come home straight after the ceremony, partly to prepare for tomorrow, partly to avoid too much pain, but mostly to file some reports I promised. I still have to finish some small things, but I will be asleep within the hour. And all my Aurealis promises are, I think, completed.
I have no idea how good I was in presenting the award I was asked to present. I do know that I apparently made suitably funny jokes at mostly-appropriate moments, for people laughed and David Dufty became worried about not having prepared any jokes, not long after. I hadn't actually prepared any jokes, but I wasn't going to tell him that. What I did was lose one of my shoes when I left my seat. I went back to retrieve it and found my nerves had quite evaporated. I said nice things about children's literature (because it really was an honour to present that award and the best children's writers are the ones that really do create our future readers: they are our bedrock) and I read the script I was given, but wry asides bubbled out because of that shoe. And the audience laughed. Four times, for I counted. Three proper laughs and one rippling chuckle.
What else do you need to know? Not much, for I must sleep, but there's just one thing I've been sitting on. It's a book, and I was sworn to secrecy.
There was a tie for the YA novel award. It couldn't have been any other way, for they're impossible to compare and they're both very, very prizeworthy. One of the books is wonderful and traditional and the other is something quite extraordinary and different and I love it with a passion. Allyse Near's Fairytales for Wilde Girls. I plan to look at it quite closely, quite soon (but not here). I'm pretty sure it won't be to everyone's taste, but it's so very special.
Australia is doing some extraordinary things in spec fic literature right now. And one thing I couldn't help but noticing tonight is that we're doing it without ignoring women. Near writes a very female tale. It's from the point of view of a teenage girl, and it totally and absolutely could not be written any other way. So tonight included 2 moments (for Near's book won 2 awards) of teenage emotion and changes and Gothgirl sensibilities simply because of the quality of the writing and the story and its exuberance and its pain and all the other right reasons for celebrating a book of this kind of high originality. Near's gender is irrelevant: her character's gender is at the heart of the story. This is so very important.
In fact, the writing of women dominated the awards tonight. Why is this night different from all other nights?* Because it's Australian and we might not have a lot of stuff right, but we do seem to have the knack of not looking past or over or around most writing by women. At least, not in the Aurealis awards.
Not all writers are noticed, and every year there are some who ought to be but aren't, and outside this rarefied atmosphere many shops and journals and bloggers still give significant preference to male writing. Tonight, though, women were noticed. Not as women, but as outstanding writers who have produced work that is important, that must be read.
The Aurealis list is all about "Read this!" And it's just as good a list as last year and, like last year, the quality of the story trumps some of our usual prejudgements. A good moment in a difficult year.
*A seasonal joke!
I have no idea how good I was in presenting the award I was asked to present. I do know that I apparently made suitably funny jokes at mostly-appropriate moments, for people laughed and David Dufty became worried about not having prepared any jokes, not long after. I hadn't actually prepared any jokes, but I wasn't going to tell him that. What I did was lose one of my shoes when I left my seat. I went back to retrieve it and found my nerves had quite evaporated. I said nice things about children's literature (because it really was an honour to present that award and the best children's writers are the ones that really do create our future readers: they are our bedrock) and I read the script I was given, but wry asides bubbled out because of that shoe. And the audience laughed. Four times, for I counted. Three proper laughs and one rippling chuckle.
What else do you need to know? Not much, for I must sleep, but there's just one thing I've been sitting on. It's a book, and I was sworn to secrecy.
There was a tie for the YA novel award. It couldn't have been any other way, for they're impossible to compare and they're both very, very prizeworthy. One of the books is wonderful and traditional and the other is something quite extraordinary and different and I love it with a passion. Allyse Near's Fairytales for Wilde Girls. I plan to look at it quite closely, quite soon (but not here). I'm pretty sure it won't be to everyone's taste, but it's so very special.
Australia is doing some extraordinary things in spec fic literature right now. And one thing I couldn't help but noticing tonight is that we're doing it without ignoring women. Near writes a very female tale. It's from the point of view of a teenage girl, and it totally and absolutely could not be written any other way. So tonight included 2 moments (for Near's book won 2 awards) of teenage emotion and changes and Gothgirl sensibilities simply because of the quality of the writing and the story and its exuberance and its pain and all the other right reasons for celebrating a book of this kind of high originality. Near's gender is irrelevant: her character's gender is at the heart of the story. This is so very important.
In fact, the writing of women dominated the awards tonight. Why is this night different from all other nights?* Because it's Australian and we might not have a lot of stuff right, but we do seem to have the knack of not looking past or over or around most writing by women. At least, not in the Aurealis awards.
Not all writers are noticed, and every year there are some who ought to be but aren't, and outside this rarefied atmosphere many shops and journals and bloggers still give significant preference to male writing. Tonight, though, women were noticed. Not as women, but as outstanding writers who have produced work that is important, that must be read.
The Aurealis list is all about "Read this!" And it's just as good a list as last year and, like last year, the quality of the story trumps some of our usual prejudgements. A good moment in a difficult year.
*A seasonal joke!
No comments have been added yet.
