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Obiter Publishing November 2018 - what we are doing, what we are reading...
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Just in time for Christmas
 
‘This collection is for everyone who wants their Christmas stories to mirror their Christmas location – with the heat on their backs, perhaps wondering if lowering clouds presage a storm or more extreme weather event. They will be best savoured as the barbecue sizzles or while dipping a toe in the water, enjoying fresh raspberries, cherries or apricots, or during lunch at the cricket.’ Read more...

Pre-order through the Obiter online store.
Raise a glass to our debut author
 
If you are in Melbourne on 11 December, please join us for the launch of debut author Sarah Madden’s magic realist memoir Blue in the Red House. We are very excited to mark this special occasion with Writers Victoria, where Sarah was a Write-ability Fellow. Sarah will be in conversation with writer and director Fiona Tuomy, who was also Write-ability’s founding Mentor-in-Residence. And there will be champagne of course! RSVP at the Writers Victoria website.
 
If you can’t join us Blue in the Red House is out now and available through the Obiter online store.
Literary getaways?
 
With holidays on our mind, the Guardian’s tips on ‘10 writers’ retreats for an inspirational break’ caught our eye. Montague Hall where George Orwell wrote, Greta Hall where the Romantic poets hung out, the cabin where Roald Dahl spent childhood Easter breaks – all added to our dream itineraries!
What we’ve been reading
 
There has been no overarching theme in Jane’s reading this last month. She continues to choose novels according to the recommendations of friends and has been amply rewarded for taking this approach. Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music (Orion, 1999) is beautiful, and she is reliably told is even more so if you understand music. The subject of suicide is not easy to approach, and yet Miriam Toews’s All My Puny Sorrows (Allen & Unwin, 2014) manages to be both real and funny, a remarkable achievement. Jane has also gone down the rabbit hole of recent Australian short stories in the latest issues of Visible Ink, Publish or Perish, Meniscus, TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, Pendulum Papers and The Last Word Anthology. The short story is alive and well in the twenty-first century.
 
Aidan has been thinking a great deal about good intentions and bad habits lately as the pile of ‘should reads’ grows increasingly large and unruly beside the couch. Instead of finishing one of those half-read books, Aidan recently picked up Andrew Hutchison’s 2007 debut Rohypnol (Penguin) which he devoured in 24 hours. What does it say about you when the only books you routinely finish are about disaffected young men struggling with the vices of sex, drugs, and crime?
 
Karen’s pick of her recent reading bunch is Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls (Hamish Hamilton, 2018). Greek mythology is fertile soil for writers (no exaggeration, goodreads lists 238 modern adaptations) and Barker’s latest novel reimagines Homer’s epic poem The Iliad from the point of view of the women enslaved by the male victors. This is a #MeToo take on the age-old horrors of women in war, visceral in its physical details, powerful in its portrayal of anger and hate, and totally memorable for its insight.
 
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All Obiter Dictums are archived on our website.
Copyright © 2018 Karen Downing, All rights reserved.


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