Monthly Archives: December 2011

December 20, 2011 · 8:57 pm

The New Writing Frontier

It is an exciting time to be a writer living in Queensland. Arts QLD are currently undertaking a number of consultation sessions with writing communities all over our vast state, with a view to developing a clear(er) map of the writing sector and to reshape how they currently support writers and writing. With our chief government funding body showing such a strong committment to engaging with authors, agents, publishers, editors and other creatives, it is vital that people lend their voice to the discussion.

In their initial document: Map of the QLD Writers Sector, Arts QLD have set out seven questions for people to respond to. The questions are:

1. What will success for the writing sector in QLD look like in five to ten years?

2. What kinds of products and services will writers be creating and providing in the next five to ten years?

3. How can the sector capitalise on the opportunities digital technologies are bringing about?

4. Can QLD provide leadership for the writing sector nationally and internationally?

5. What kind of investments in the writing sector will make the most difference in the next five to ten years?

6. What roles do individuals, organisations, businesses and government potentially have in leading development of the sector locally and beyond?

7. What can be achieved by the QLD writing sector working more collaboratively to leverage current and future investments?

And the discussion is already bubbling… Chris Meade, founder of if:Book UK, has lead the first round of consultations in Brisbane and Bundaberg and has posted a series of thought provoking blogs. Some of the ideas of how Arts QLD can better support writers that have already been discussed include: the establishment of a writers retreat similar to Varuna (in the Blue Mountains), setting up mentorships for emerging writers, and establishing a new McSweeney’s-esque journal in QLD.

To read more of the discussion, visit the Arts QLD Blog here and here.

And to continue the conversation in the regions, I will be heading off to Cairns, Townsville and Roma in the new year to meet with their writing communities. So don’t let this opportunity to be part of the discussion pass you by… you don’t have to be at one of the meetings to be involved. You can respond to the questions in the comments box below and I will be sure to collate them and forward them to Arts QLD so that your voice is heard. It would be great to hear from many of you.

3 Comments

Filed under discussions

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

December 19, 2011 · 2:30 pm

The Reindeer on the Lawn

is on fire. Our street
is blown with christmas
lights and sirens.

It is snowing in our neighbour’s
window. We are sweating.

Rather than sing we listen.
Below our feet, cicadas
are chanting prayers.

7 Comments

Filed under poetry

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 18, 2011 · 9:30 am

Poetry Books of the Year: 2011

It was great to pick up The Australian Review yesterday morning and discover plenty of poetry releases popping their heads up in their annual ‘Best Of’ picks for the year.

Literary giant, J.M. Coetzee’s selections included, Alice Oswald’s reimagining of The Iliad, Memorial and C.K. Williams’ seventeenth collection of poetry, Wait.

Australian poets, John Kinsella and Robert Gray both selected Gig Ryan’s New and Selected Poems. Individually they selected Kevin Hart’s latest work, Morning Knowledge, the multi award winning debut collection from Mark Tredinnick, Fire Diary and Collected Poems: Hope Mirrlees edited by Sandeep Parmar.

It’s always great scanning ‘Best Of’ lists for gems you may never have heard of, as let’s face it, poetry has such a limited distribution these days, some of the finest writing remains well under the radar. That said, No Tell Poetry is currently hosting a great series of ‘Best Poetry of 2011′ posts which are well worth checking out and I have also put the call out to a handful of poets to select their favourite release of the year, so keep an eye out here for that series in the next week or so… With the new year fast approaching, now is a great time to make that reading list a little longer.

2 Comments

Filed under discussions, poetry & publishing

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 17, 2011 · 6:56 pm

Mourning the loss of a cultural visionary

George Whitman, founder of one of the world’s most iconic bookstores ‘the rag and bone shop of the heart’, Shakespeare & Company has passed away aged 98.

What started as a bankrupt grocery store in 1951, became the home away from home for writers such as Henry Miller, Anais Nin, Samuel Beckett, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who himself, went on to found, the sister bookstore, City Lights. Over the course of more than 50 years, Whitman turned Shakespeare & Company into a cultural shrine, running the store as a little socialist republic pretending to be a bookshop, while many of the more commercially driven stores came and went around him. Whitman was a one of a kind, a cultural visionary who exuded generosity, the kind of man needed even more in today’s economic and publishing climate.

Here’s a clip from the film, Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man, which looks at the life of Whitman and his rag and bone shop of the heart:

And here’s a link to watch the full 52 min film (totally recommend it).

3 Comments

Filed under discussions

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 16, 2011 · 4:13 pm

The First 30: a postscript

Under the pepperina tree
he reaches out with desperate
hands, brings me a fist
of leaves and whips my cheek
to make himself known. The wind
is harassing us: a fierce heat
in her heart. I lift my face to
the sting, to a sky bankrupt
of clouds. There is nothing
to prepare you for the weight
that settles in your chest
the savage promise of this embrace.

4 Comments

Filed under poetry

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

· 1:36 pm

Sounds of 2011 #5: Sing High Gospel

Founding member of instrumental innovators, Godspeed You! Black Emperor & Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, Efrim Manuel Menuck released his debut solo album, Plays High Gospel, this year and while it may not have made a splash on the charts, it has remained on high rotation in my waters since picking up a copy at Amoeba Records in San Francisco. Efrim’s voice is an incredible instrument, a blast of anguish from the depths of the human well. His lyrics, explore the loneliness of the road, urban and physical decay and recently, fatherhood. For me, Heavy Calls & Hospitals Blues is the track of the year… in the blues tradition, listening to it fills the chest with the sweetest ache.

And for those looking for some other fine listening from the year, here’s another handful of (in my opinion) wonderful releases:

X: X-Spurts – the first official release of Australian rock’n'roll misfits 1977 recordings.

Explosions in the Sky: Take Care, Take Care, Take Care – Texan instrumentalists broaden their sonic landscape

Okkervil River: I Am Very Far – Lyrically, this is singer/songwriter Will Sheff’s crowning glory

William Elliot Whitmore: Field Songs – A farmer and an acoustic guitar… doesn’t get more real than this

Steve Kilbey & Ricky Maymi: The Wilderness Years – The creative minds of The Church and Brian Jones Town Massacre team up

1 Comment

Filed under who listens to the radio?

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 15, 2011 · 2:16 pm

Sounds of 2011 #4: Neverendlessness

Neverendless is the new album from Chicago based space rockers, Cave and it more than lives up to its name. The album is relentless in its urgency: synths slither and drone, guitars come in crashing waves, bass lines chug and the drums are unswervingly driven. This is hook laden, psyched out jamming at its reverb soaked best! Cave are air tight in their delivery, drilling a hole in any notion of stillness. So get ready to move… here’s the swirling, WUJ:

2 Comments

Filed under who listens to the radio?

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 14, 2011 · 5:30 pm

Sounds of 2011 #3: Frank Looks West

Frank Fairfield is a 26 year old Californian, who looks and sounds like he just walked out of the 1930′s. In fact, when his songs drift out of the speakers, you could easily close your eyes and imagine you are listening to a lost batch of songs by someone like Fiddlin’ John Carson, one of Fairfield’s heroes. Discovered busking on the streets of LA, Fairfield has now released two albums on the brilliant Tompkins Square record label, and this year’s Out On The Open West, is an almost perfect example of the modern primitive sound Fairfield and other artists like C.W. Stoneking have brought back to younger audiences. So get ready to wail along to this classic cut from Out On The Open West, Poor Old Lance… if you are in Brisbane, Frank’s playing at the Judith Wright Centre tomorrow night!

3 Comments

Filed under who listens to the radio?

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 13, 2011 · 2:31 pm

Sounds of 2011 #2: Juggling Wolves

Today’s sounds come from Dublin seven piece, 3epkano. The band have made it their business to steer clear of the music mainstream, and instead chart a path all their own, making film an equal driving force in their creative process. Their 2011 album, Hans the Reluctant Wolf Juggler, responds to a handful of old silent films, each track providing an undulating sonic landscape for the film to sail on. This is music to unravel to… grand cello flourishes, bass rumbles, raining guitars, electronic blips and lashings of violin. So dim the lights and let it happen… here’s track 3 from Hans, the gorgeously atmospheric, EP Ross.

5 Comments

Filed under who listens to the radio?

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 12, 2011 · 5:26 pm

Sounds of 2011 #1: Run the Opposite Way

It’s that time of year when the obligatory ‘best of’ lists start popping up all over the place, so I thought I would shed a little light on some of the sounds that have been filling my head in the best way possible this year. Rather than point to some of the bigger names who have released absolute gems – Bad As Me by Tom Waits and Reverie by Joe Henry to name but two - I am opting to showcase some of the best bands you may never have heard of. So let’s kick things off with Sydney art rockers, Charge Group.

Run - Charge Group

Dynamic riffing, violin plucking and pulsing rhythms drive this song deep into the gut, where it begs to be played on repeat, while the rest of your body finds movement irresistable. It needs to be piped into ‘christmas rush’ shopping centres to create a riot! And the film clip, well it’s up there with my all time favourites: men with sacks on their heads, synchronised dancing and elegantly gritty surrounds. So don’t, as the band say, ‘run the opposite way’, let the bolt of electricity that is Charge Group flow right through you:

6 Comments

Filed under who listens to the radio?

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,