GUEST POST: Ed Pegge on star power

Ed Pegge on Star Power

Hilarious, charming and self-effacing, meet Edmund Pegge, one of Australia’s most prolific supporting actors.

Travelling between England and Australia and working on stage, in film and on television for over fifty years, Ed Pegge knows all the tricks and all the trials of a working actor’s life.

In this guest post, Ed writes about the nuances of fame, and the benefits of taking a brief rest every now and again from being a star.

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POETRY SPOTLIGHT: ‘Sings Else’ by Jill Jones

Dark Bright Doors, Jill Jones

This week’s Poem of the Week comes from Jill Jones’ collection Dark Bright Doors, poetry that has been described as having ‘unsettling mystery and beauty’ by Barry Hill from the Australian. This book was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize in the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

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GUEST POST: Stephen Orr on Auschwitz, guilt, and responsibility

Stephen Orr on Auschwitz, guilt , and responsibility

What right do I have to talk about this place? What do I know about it? How much can I feel, can I see and smell and hear the suffering?

These are the questions author and teacher Stephen Orr asked himself after visiting the remains of the Auschwitz prison camp. In this guest post, Stephen writes of the importance of feeling pain that is not necessarily yours, and of remembering what has happened in the past as a way of improving the future.

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DEBUT AUTHOR JOURNAL: How I got a Literary Agent!

Poppy Nwosu, Debut Author Journal: Finding an agentAs we launch this new blog series in 2020, Poppy Nwosu is the published author of two young adult contemporary novels, Making Friends with Alice Dyson and Taking Down Evelyn Tait. Yet back in 2018, she had just signed her first publication contract for her debut book, and she really had no idea what the future might bring.

This collection of blog posts (originally written by Poppy between March 2018 and March 2019) chronicles her experience during that strange year of limbo between signing a contract and seeing her first book released into the world by Wakefield Press.

For today’s post, Poppy speaks about how she found a literary agent.

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POETRY SPOTLIGHT: ‘Television Flickers’ by Bel Schenk

 Bel Schenk, Every Time You Close Your EyesToday we are focusing on a different form of poetry, with a verse novel written by poet Bel Schenk. Our Poem of the Week is ‘Television Flickers’ from her book Every Time You Close Your Eyes. This verse novel features a series of short poems that, when strung together, paint a vivid picture of the North American blackouts of 1977 and 2003.

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AUTHOR GUEST POST: Wendy Scarfe on revisiting the past

Wendy Scarfe, A Mouthful of Petals and revisiting the past

In this special guest post, Wendy Scarfe talks about her experiences writing A Mouthful of Petals with her late husband, Allan Scarfe.

A Mouthful of Petals is a nonfiction account of three years working in an Indian village in the early 1960s. Previously published, it became a minor classic, and has since been re-released by Wakefield Press. This new edition includes an account of Wendy Scarfe’s return trip to Sokhodeora during a famine in the late 1960s, and how those who live in Bihar state fare in the early twenty-first century.

‘It describes with warmth, sympathy and occasional near-despair, the life of an Indian village from the inside’ – Nancy Cato

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DEBUT AUTHOR JOURNAL: Receiving a publishing contract!

Poppy Nwosu, Debut Author Journal: Receiving a contract!

As we launch this new blog series in 2020, Poppy Nwosu is the published author of two young adult contemporary novels, Making Friends with Alice Dyson and Taking Down Evelyn Tait. Yet back in 2018, she had just signed her first publication contract for her debut book, and she really had no idea what the future might bring.

This collection of blog posts (originally written by Poppy between March 2018 and March 2019) chronicles her experience during that strange year of limbo between signing a contract and seeing her first book released into the world by Wakefield Press.

For today’s post, Poppy speaks about how it feels to finally receive a publishing contract (and what you should do next).

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GUEST POST: John Read on the lessons lockdown has to offer

John Read on living remotely during a pandemicJohn Read is used to working remotely, and often in accidental isolation. An ecologist and author, John lives on South Australia’s largest privately managed nature reserve with his wife, children and endangered malleefowl and marsupials.

We asked John to write about his experiences living and working in the most remote parts of Australia, and how things have changed (if at all) as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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