BEHIND THE BOOK: Valerie Volk and her search for Anna

Posted on 15 July 2020 by Maddy Sexton

In a new series on the Wakefield Press blog, we’ve asked authors to write about the background, inspiration, research and work that goes into writing a book.

This week, Valerie Volk writes about her search for her distant relative Anna Werner, who in 1889 left the German town of Lewin to search for her son in the distant colonies of Australia. This search culminated in Valerie’s novel, In Search of Anna, a story that Valerie describes as a journey book, historical fiction, a study of motherhood, a detective novel, and a romantic tale all rolled into one.

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BEHIND THE BOOK: Anne Black on George Isaacs

Posted on 7 July 2020 by Maddy Sexton

In a new series on the Wakefield Press blog, we’ve asked authors to write about the background, inspiration, research and work that goes into writing a book.

This week features Anne Black, author of Pendragon: The life of George Isaacs, Colonial wordsmith. Anne writes about her first encounter with little-known literary icon George Isaacs, and the death certificate that sparked an obsession and a biography.

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GUEST POST: Ed Pegge on star power

Posted on 10 June 2020 by Maddy Sexton

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

Posted on 4 June 2020 by Maddy Sexton

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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AUTHOR GUEST POST: Wendy Scarfe on revisiting the past

Posted on 27 May 2020 by Poppy Nwosu

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

Posted on 19 May 2020 by Maddy Sexton

John 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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How to Work From Home: Lainie Anderson’s tips

Posted on 6 May 2020 by Maddy Sexton

How to Work from Home

Welcome to the week, and to a new blog series here at Wakefield Press! Introducing How to Work From Home: Authors talk about how they stay productive.

Like many others, we’ve recently begun the transition from office work to working from home. It’s a strange transition to make, and we need some help. We’ve interviewed a collection of our favourite authors to get their best tips, tricks and truths about working from home.

Next in the series is Lainie Anderson. Lainie has been a weekly columnist with Adelaide’s Sunday Mail since 2007, and previously worked at the Herald Sun in Melbourne and The Times in London. In 2017 she travelled to nine countries on a Churchill Fellowship to gauge the significance of the pioneering 1919 flight from England to Australia and the Vickers Vimy aircraft now housed at Adelaide Airport. Lainie was South Australia’s Epic Flight Centenary 2019 program ambassador.

Using war diaries, letters and Churchill Fellowship research from along the race route, Lainie’s Long Flight Home recreates one of the most important – and largely forgotten – chapters in world aviation history.

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How to Work from Home: Annette Marner’s tips

Posted on 27 April 2020 by Maddy Sexton

Welcome to the week, and to a new blog series here at Wakefield Press! Introducing How to Work From Home: Authors talk about how they stay productive.

Next in the series is Annette Marner, is an award-winning poet, novelist, fine art nature photographer and ABC radio broadcaster from South Australia’s Southern Flinders Ranges. In 2018, she won the Arts South Australia Wakefield Press Unpublished Manuscript Award at the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature for A New Name for the Colour Blue. Her first book, Women with Their Faces on Fire, won the Unpublished Manuscript Award for Poetry for Friendly Street/Wakefield Press and was on the reading list at Flinders University.

Annette is also an established fine art nature photographer, and has had her work featured in group and solo exhibitions, as well as having her images published internationally.

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How to Work from Home: Poppy Nwosu’s tips

Posted on 20 April 2020 by Maddy Sexton

Welcome to the week, and to a new blog series here at Wakefield Press! Introducing How to Work From Home: Authors talk about how they stay productive.

Next in the series is Poppy Nwosu, an Australian YA author. Her debut novel, Making Friends with Alice Dyson, was shortlisted for the 2018 Adelaide Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award, and for the 2019 Readings Young Adult Book Prize. It will be published by Walker US in 2020. Poppy’s latest novel, Taking Down Evelyn Tait, is a story about family, friends and embracing who you are. Even if that person is kind of weird.

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How to Work from Home: Lisa Walker’s Tips

Posted on 13 April 2020 by Maddy Sexton

Welcome to the week, and to a new blog series here at Wakefield Press! Introducing How to Work From Home: Authors talk about how they stay productive.

Next in the series is Lisa Walker, whose body-positive detective romp, The Girl with the Gold Bikini, features a hearty appreciation for the glitz and glamour of the Gold Coast. Lisa writes novels for adults and young adults, and has written an ABC Radio National play. She has worked in environmental communication and as a wilderness guide, and recently spent six months in a Kmart tent in outback Australia.

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