Launch of 'Vulpi' by Kate Gordon

A few weeks ago I launched Kate Gordon's new novel, 'Vulpi,' which follows on from 'Thyla'. They are both set in Tasmania, both tell of shapeshifting-time-morphing creatures and are both YA (young adult) novels. The launch happened in the macabre Female Factory, the prison for convict women and 'nursery' for their children.  I don't read a lot of YA and it is a pleasant surprise when I do. Kate is about to do a little shapeshifting herself (she is veeeerrry pregnant). This is beautiful and exciting news. Here's what I said at the launch;

There are three things that I know about Kate Gordon:

1 – that she has a quirky elegance in her dress style

2 – that she has deep, loving, meaningful – and reciprocated relationships around her

And

3) that the woman can write.

And as we stand here to celebrate the launch of Kate’s latest book, Vulpi, this is obviously a widely recognised fact – and that all of the hard work and tenacious effort that Kate –and her muse Mephy ‘Danger’ Gordon –who may be a cat, have put into the writing has paid off.

I say ‘may be a cat’ – because having read Thyla, the predecessor to Vulpi – and of course Vulpi – I have entered a secret – and local underground world of shapeshifting and timewarping creatures – Thylas, Sarcos, Vulpis and the well and truly baddies – the Diemens .

'Far out' – the reader might think – a big jump from reality – a whole lot to suspend in terms of disbelief – but the trickery and wit of Kate, her writerly skill has eased me there through the familiar, accurate and harsh rendering of teenage girl existence.

In Thyla we are introduced to Tessa, who arrives at Cascade Falls, an exclusive private girls school located somewhere up the mountain. Tessa has lost her memory – and she has scars seared deep and wide across her back. In Thyla we are also introduced to Cat, who is told in the negative – she is ‘gone’ – Cat is the daughter of local copper, Rachel Connelly – and she had been a student at Cascade Falls until she disappeared on a bushwalk with the school.

Luckily for the reader, Cat is ‘found’ – and revealed to be a thyla herself – a shapeshifter from human to thylacine form – one who shared Tessa’s experience of the female factory many years before– as child inmates before they discovered their true shapeshifting colours.

I learnt a lot from reading these books – and one of those things is that they resided there after the female factory had its curious first incarnation as Lowe’s rum distillery.

  It’s not a simple story told in black and white, subtleties and nuance are present, the characters are fleshed – or furred out –with a sharp yet delicate pen. Vulpi is a wonderful reminder for me- a reader of mainly adult and mainly the  ‘literature’ end of the spectrum, that rich, entertaining and challenging work is found in the broad category ‘YA’ – young adult.

  Kate takes this one step further – into genre YA – oh – and maybe even further genre Tasmanian YA and my goodness she does it well. Yes, we Tasmanians do have a particular penchant for reading about ourselves – our histories, (herstories) – our landscapes and our mythologies – and Vulpi takes us around the state. We travel on four legs, two legs and by boat (deftly borrowed from Kingston beach) by one of our eponymous Vulpis, Archie – who is wonderfully described as having a rather Nigella Lawson tone to his accent – he is the vulpine yet strangely friendly character with whom Cat works ‘very closely.’ And a wonderfully topical inclusion as a fox like creature in the Tasmanian wilderness. Wait until the fox taskforce get their hands on this book!

  This book is a tribute to Kate’s hard work – and deeply enquiring mind. She takes YA one step further – and doesn’t shy from the complicated layers of human – and vulpi, thyla and sarco lives. She affords her characters growth and transformation – and in doing so gently reminds the reader of this in our own lives. This is layered and intelligent fiction and I feel privileged to be launching this. I wish Kate and Leigh – and of course the shapeshifting muse/cat Mephy all the very very best for the future. Kate – I want more of your words.

Kate's website is here
She tweets here


Vulpi 
by Kate Gordon
Random House Australia
9781742752365

South From Alaska - an interview with Mike Litzow

I have a penchant for nautica extrema - which, in all likelihood is a made up expression. It essentially translates as 'excellent sailing stories' - so when I saw South From Alaska; Sailing to Australia with a baby for crew - I was pretty impressed.   Then the publicist from New South Books emailed me to advise that the author, Mike wasn't just 'somewhere' in Australia, he was in fact in Hobart with Alisa his wife and their 'baby' Elias, who was ten months old when they left Kodiak in Alaska for Australia. Elias is now five years old - and has been joined by another seafaring baby, Eric, who is one year old.
     The book is great, it has the wonderful multi layered flow that I think a good travel narrative should have; story of the journey itself, story of the inner journey - or what the experience of the travel means to those travelling it - and how it transforms and changes them. It also tells of the places visited - and these storylines meld with ease.
   In our conversation - which first went to air on Edge Radio's Book Show on February 21st, Mike and I discuss some of his and his family's trials and joys, their visit to the mythic Marquesas, a group of islands in the Pacific who lived under ritualised warfare between valleys for centuries and is now shot through with (stereo?)typical Polynesian friendliness. We discussed some of the friendships that can develop in the intensive environment of the boat and I learnt a  wonderfully self explanatory Alaskan expression "end of the roaders," - a lot of whom can be found on sailing boats and in remote regions of the world.  Oh - and we talked about new translations of Tolstoy's War and Peace.And of course we talked about what makes traveling with a child - and traveling with a child on a boat different from traveling alone.
You can listen to the full interview here and read Mike and Alisa's blog Twice in a Lifetime here.

South From Alaska
by Mike Litzow
New South Books
9781742233017

Regular?

Tonight I became a little flustered preparing some lentil soup. I've had it in my head that I would like to post here more regularly - podcasts, interviews and reviews yes! absolutely - but I've been slowly turning in my mind the notion of linking to some of the fantastic essays and short(ish) works that, beyond a retweet or a splash on the transitory facebook timeline I feel I don't pay enough respect to. The fluster arose from the fact that I have been procrastinating writing the first post in what now will come a regular (weekly, mostly) project - because I couldn't decide which piece to link to first. Pfffft. Procrastination?
  Cut to: spicy, spicy soup smell drifing through the house, laptop perched on knees, cat asleep on a copy of (unread at this point) The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach and to my left a stubby of Cascade Draught.
  I considered Gillian Mear's eloquent essay 'Fairy Death,' originally published in Heat from The Best Australian Essays 2011 (edited by Ramona Koval, Black Inc), also an article I read about Lord Byron and the birth of celebrity that was published in The Independent - but the one piece that rocked my mildly bruised heart last week was an essay about reading Joan Didion that was published and tweeted by The Rumpus and retweeted by Readings Bookshop - and read by me on the Gagebrook bus I sometimes catch home.
  People often create a spray of white noise around them, an energy of static that inhibits any closeness, any appearance of secret thoughts and feelings, rawness hidden behind hand gestures, chat, or the propensity to gently probe others with questions. I have my own tricks for diverting people away; it is simpler to keep the carapace intact.
   But when I read I discard the shell, there is no need to be protected or closed. It is just me and the text - yeah?  And this is the wisest way I think we can read - raw, open - and awake. Except when you are on the Gagebrook bus - and as I slowly read this incredibly moving essay about a mother and a daughter's shared reading of Joan Didion, penned by the daughter, Abby Mims, I felt exposed and I had to fight back tears. I have sisters and, of course, I have a mother. The relationships that Abby describe aren't the same that I have with my family, but the nuance echoed clearly.
  I've read Joan Didion only intermitently; the occasion essay. One of my best friends, a journalist, talks about how important Didion has been for her writing life. I read the reviews of Didion's most recent book Blue Nights, in which she tells the story of the death of her daughter, Quintana at age 39. The reviews have generally not been good - though the admiration and respect for what she had written before has not dimmed for those who read her, excitedly and diligently. The essay is truthful and sad; an exploration of both Abby's family and Didion's writing.
  The fluster which is so wrong for my newly discovered Sunday evenings, has abated, I'm glad I have commited to more regulary posts - and I truly hope you enjoy the well written, honest-to-raw essay from Abby Mims about Didion 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Joan Didion'.
  

Interview with Rosie Dub about 'Flight'

It has been four years between the publication of Rosie Dub's first novel Gathering Storm and her latest, Flight which was launched by the director of the Tasmanian Writers' Centre, Chris Gallagher to an audience of more than 100 people last week in Hobart. Flight tells the story of Fern who we first meet, depressed and in an attic - and then we travel with her as she tumbles down and down into both her psyche and the depths of love - and despair - to the heart of darkness, if you like. More prosaically, we journey with her from the attic in Sydney to the mythic heart of Tasmania's forests.
    I really enjoyed chatting to Rosie live to air on Edge Radio last Tuesday. She has just finished her PhD - of which Flight is a major component. We talked about the importance of story, how they are told to recalibrate and heal. We talked the magical links between shamanism and madness and  Rosie's personal numinous experience  - and how growing up with a fear of life allowed her to  walk hand in hand with her protagonist Fern  as she heals and begins to soar.
You can listen to the whole interview here

Flight
by Rosie Dub
Fourth Estate
9780732294144

Snow Petrel - to Antarctica in a 34 foot yacht

The journey that Snow Petrel, a 34 foot yacht made deep into the Southern Ocean, all the way to the mythical landmass of Antarctica one Summer makes for a textured, intriguing, exhilarating story. Yes, I admit I have a passion for all things nautical and I love the way how, so often in our everyday speech, we find ourselves out to sea; we set course, we change tack, we don't like the cut of someone's jib, we make things shipshape.
   'Snow Petrel' is riddled with nauticalia - but it also a well constructed travel narrative of an amazing adventure that has a good dollop of both history and geography. The author Jon Tucker, the  "cabin boy," and father of the skipper Ben and other crewmate Matt, narrates the story with a gentle and interested tone. He cuts from his version of a log, to a personal history of 40 years on the water - and a greater historical narrative of 95 years of Antarctic exploration.
   The trip across the Southern Ocean was immaculately researched and planned for - and the story takes us through some of these preparations through fields of ice, the Roaring Forties, Furious Fifties - to I don't even know what the winds that surge through the latitudes of the Sixties are called to the windiest place on earth, Commonwealth Bay, landmass Antactica, Mawson's hut - and all the way back to Southern Tasmania.
 "Just lucky I had two sons who were prepared to take their old man along," says Jon, author, father, sailor, as he recounts some of the story of the trip. These recollections include the most beautiful sights these men have ever seen, colours shining through fields of seemingly unnavigable ice. There are stories of being incarcerated by winds of 80-110 knots, held captive by sea-ice, tales of the introverted stage of an ocean passage when everything contracts, a world devoid of colour outside of white and grey - and empty of sound, outside of Penguin noises and the tones of the yacht. Jon tells of the onboard library as vital, the books as "sanity savers," and he tells of a knock down and the loss of the best bolognaise of the journey.  Listen to the full interview by clicking here. Seriously; please do, it's an amazing story - oh! and read the book too.

Snow Petrel
by Jon Tucker
40 Degrees South
9780980533262

Charlotte Wood discusses 'Animal People'

Animal People was one of my favourite reads last year - and also an introduction to the writing of Charlotte Wood. It is a mature and insightful book and it is beautifully written I spoke to Charlotte late last year about this book and Stephen, the returned protagonist from her earlier novel The Children. You can listen to the interview here.
The book opens oppresively with Stephen on a sweltering morning, Sydney high summer and a sense of forboding  is apparent from the first page. We learn that today is the day that Stephen is going to break up with his girlfriend, for reasons that seem to be beyond even his own comprehension.
  Stephen is a man who chooses to reject things, in some instances simply to be a contrarian says Charlotte. She admires this in people, those who "step away from the wheel of aspiration or status."  Stephen has no career ambitions, a risky state for contemporary man to inhabit.
  The story is condensed in to a single day in his life- and is laden with detail, it builds  in rich layers as the sticky, humid day progresses. The prism of the day forces the detail to be tightly wrought - indeed, it is observation, paying attention and a knack for getting detail right that Wood talks about here on her post on Damon Young's blog darkly wise, rudely great. She mentions how Iris Murdoch said "that paying attention is in itself a moral act," a notion which resonates for me; a gentle yet insistent chime.
  The animals - and the animal people of the title are a recurring motif. Charlotte discusses this in our interview -"a fear of animals is a fear of chaos, a fear of life."
Animal People
by Charlotte Wood
Allen and Unwin 2010

9781742376851
.

The Tastey Recyclibrary

The Inaugural Recyclibary

The Recyclibrary launched on P(ark)ing Day last year in a parking space outside the wonderful Hobart bakery Jackman and McCross. There were shelves packed with books, a date stamped dialled up and ready to go, and Miss Wimple, the head library was accompanied by many of her assistants including Mr (Dr?) Dewey Decimal, Josie, the Aquarian Librarian and myself, Miss Paige Turner.
    You can find more information here and here and here.
   Since the inaugural Recyclibrary, there have been a number of incarnations including a pre Christmas Elizabeth Street Mall appearance where the shelves were stripped bare. Today, fully restocked with a new and innovative catalogue we will be arriving at the Taste of Tasmania at around 1pm to set up to lend and accept returns.

Watch this space as the afternoon progresses to hear (nearly) live vox pops from new and old Recyclibrarian patrons:

First up this afternoon I chatted with Laura who borrowed four books. You can listen to her chat a little bit more about her borrowing choices here

Next up I had a bit of a yarn with Calvin. he was a young chap and he was checking out a copy of the latest Percy Jackson book (by Rick Riordan). He was a very articulate young fellow and you will enjoy listening to him explain his reading choice here.


Next up were Katy and Frazer from the UK via Sydney. We chatted about E books and our desire in the future to lend Ebooks. Listen to the full conversation here

Top - Katy and Frazer from Sydney
Bottom - Young Calvin with the latest in the Percy Jackson series.

Rod Howard's 'A Forger's Tale' Podcast.

A Forger's Tale, the extraordinary story of Australia's first novelist
by Rod Howard
Arcade Publications


To begin with this book held a rather parochial appeal for me. "Again," I thought, "Van Diemen's Land (aka Tasmania) ahead of the zeitgeist, setting the tone, leading the nation. Again, this small, still chilly and isolated island spawns a first." And I settled in to read it with a grin on my self satisfied convict-heritaged face. The book does tell the story of Australia's first novel but it also tells of a strange man living in stranger times. My grin faded as my astonishment at the story unfolded.
    Henry Savery, now known as Australia's first novelist, was convicted for forgery in 1825 and, after a gruelling series of negotiations and a trial, was sentenced to transportation to the newly established penal colony of Van Diemen's Land. The son of a well to do family with sway, Henry was a charismatic entrepreneur and on sentencing, his tale becomes even more captivating.
    Henry attempted to abscond with his wife and child to America, and when faced with impending re-capture he jumped overboard and tried to do away with himself by smashing his head on the hull of the boat - tragic and tragi-comic events like this are spliced through the tale. The tribulations normally expected on passage to Van Diemen's Land were assuaged, his landfall and subsequent employment (as indentured labour) were, to begin with, comfortable. He wrote an anonymous column (as 'The Hermit of Van Diemen's Land') which included assiduous and cutting summations of what was going on under Governor Arthur's increasingly neurotic rule. He fell into and out of favour with various power brokers - and he sent for his wife and child to whom he could be assigned as convict labour. They arrived, she broke his heart - and he attempted to take his own life again.
    Quintus Servinton was published in 1830 and from all accounts is a stodgy and tedious, semi-autobiographical novel, which varied most signifigantly from his life in its happy ending. It preceeded Woman's Love by another Van Diemonian, Mary Grimstone by 2 years and For the Term of His Natural Life, generally presumed to be the first Australian novel, by 44 years. For more academic detail about both Savery and Grimstone here is a PDF of E. Morris Miller's 1958 paper 'Australia's First Two Novels; origins and background'.
    A Forger's Tale was launched in Tasmania last week by the irrepressible Lindsay Tuffin, editor of Tasmanian Times. Here is his introduction speech - where he articulates the paradox and intrigue surrounding Savery's life and times.
    And here is a most enjoyable interview I did with the author Rod Howard, who came to know Henry and his nuanced existence intimately - and has written about him most beautifully. Listen to the podcast here.