Northerly HAYLEYKATZEN KIRLISAUNDERS CHLOEHIGGINS DAVIDROLAND - Byron Writers Festival Member Magazine | Winter 2020
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northerly Byron Writers Festival Member Magazine | Winter 2020 HAYLEY KATZEN KIRLI SAUNDERS CHLOE HIGGINS DAVID ROLAND
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progress a career as a writer, Southern Cross University
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Our Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing is designed
to develop your writing with specific feedback from
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and practical career opportunities. Southern Cross
University is an integral part of the thriving Northern
Rivers arts community and is the education partner of
the Byron Writers Festival.
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Contents northerly
northerly is the quarterly magazine of
Byron Writers Festival.
Autumn 2020 Byron Writers Festival is a non-profit
member organisation presenting
workshops and events year-round,
including the annual Festival.
LOCATION/CONTACT
P: 02 6685 5115 F: 02 6685 5166
E: info@byronwritersfestival.com
W: byronwritersfestival.com
Features
POSTAL ADDRESS
008 On debut PO Box 1846, Byron Bay NSW 2481
We meet the first-time authors who would have appeared at Byron EDITOR: Barnaby Smith,
Writers Festival 2020 northerlyeditor@gmail.com
CONTRIBUTORS: Emma Ashmere, Jenny
Bird, Mel Brigg, Kathy Gibbings, Graeme
014 The Horne Prize Gibson, Joel Hissink, Polly Jude, Lucinda Jurd,
Rachael Lebeter, David Roland, Kirli Saunders
Read the first half of the winning entry for 2019, ‘Diary of a Wildlife
PROOFREADER: Rebecca Ryall
Carer’ by Rachael Lebeter
BYRON WRITERS FESTIVAL BOARD
CHAIRPERSON Adam van Kempen
016 Short and sharp SECRETARY Hilarie Dunn
TREASURER Cheryl Bourne
Two works of flash fiction by local author Emma Ashmere MEMBERS Jesse Blackadder, Marele Day,
Lynda Dean, Lynda Hawryluk, Anneli Knight.
LIFE MEMBERS Jean Bedford, Jeni Caffin,
Gayle Cue, Robert Drewe, Jill Eddington,
018 Alone time Russell Eldridge, Chris Hanley, John
David Roland on a writer’s life in lockdown Hertzberg, Fay Knight, Irene O’Brien, Jennifer
Regan, Cherrie Sheldrick, Brenda Shero,
Heather Wearne
MAIL OUT DATES
Regulars Magazine is published in MARCH, JUNE,
SEPTEMBER and DECEMBER
002 Director’s note PRINTING
Summit Press
003 News & Events ADVERTISING
Local doctor Joel Hissink reflects on the pandemic, Festival moves We welcome advertising by members and
relevant organisations. A range of ad sizes are
online and more available. The ad booking deadline for each
issue is the first week of the month prior.
Email northerlyeditor@gmail.com
006 Feature poet
Two poems from Kirli Saunders DISCLAIMER
The Byron Writers Festival presents northerly
020 What YA Reading? in good faith and accepts no responsibility for
any misinformation or problems arising from
Polly Jude selects the YA books to offer hope in hard times any misinformation. The views expressed
by contributors and advertisers are not
necessarily the views of the management
022 SCU Showcase committee or staff. We reserve the right to edit
Poetry from Lucinda Jurd articles with regard to length. Copyright of
the contributed articles is maintained by the
named author and northerly.
023 Climate warrior
CONNECT WITH US
Steve Posselt’s Tough is Not Enough reviewed by Kathy Gibbings
Visit byronwritersfestival.com. Sign up for
a membership.
024 Worlds collide
twitter.com/bbwritersfest
Annee Lawrence’s The Colour of Things Unseen reviewed by Jenny Bird facebook.com/byronwritersfestival
instagram.com/byronwritersfestival
026 Workshops
027 Competitions
028 Writers Groups
Held on the land of the Arakwal Bumberbin
People of the Byron Shire.
We pay respect to the traditional owners
of this land and acknowledge them as the
original storytellers of this region.
northerly WINTER 2020 | 01
Director’s note
Warm greetings from the Festival team in Byron Bay where we are busy
reimagining the 2020 Byron Writers Festival.
As I sit to write the introduction to this Winter edition of northerly, which
would normally announce highlights of the year’s Festival, I can’t help but
reflect on the overwhelming encouragement we have received from our
community. So many positive and restorative moments, comments and
messages since we sadly announced the postponement of the Festival till
2021.
Meanwhile, we are keen to replicate that much-loved feeling of the
Festival fields and that sense of coming together that both our community
of writers and our audience cherish. You may already have spotted
our online workshops and weekly Postcards From Byron email series
connecting Festival writers with our Australia-wide audience. Make sure
you sign up to our e-newsletter (on our website) for news about our
forthcoming 2020 Conversations from Byron podcast series.
Shared stories have the power to unite and calm, to provide inspiration
and relaxation. Sitting in your favourite chair with an engaging book can
be a powerful antidote to the new uncertainty in our lives. Our friends at
The Book Room are generously providing free same-day delivery for book
purchases within the Byron Shire – see the back cover for more details.
We thank all our members, Festival friends, writers, publishers and
partners for your heartfelt support and look forward to welcoming you
back to Byron very soon.
Please keep a watchful eye on the Byron Writers Festival website and
social media for our latest news!
Stay well and safe,
Edwina Johnson
Director, Byron Writers Festival
02 | WINTER 2020 northerly
NEWS & EVENTS
A message from the frontline
As the Northern Rivers community joins the rest of the world in adjusting to new
lives, new routines and new values in the wake of COVID-19, we hear from Byron
Bay GP Dr Joel Hissink about how both his work life and home life have changed in
recent months.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes In Byron Bay, I have been inspired amongst the unimaginable horror
the disease COVID-19 continues by the resilience and perseverance of the Holocaust.
to wreak havoc and devastation of local business owners, and their
across the planet. As a general skill in adapting to severe duress. In the fascinating novel, The
practitioner in Byron Bay, the Yet still they have the generosity Overstory by Richard Powers,
terrifying scenes emerging from to show gratitude to healthcare one story concerns the infamous
China and Europe early this year workers despite their own chestnut blight in the United
filled me with dread. There was hardships. States, when a fungus was
every reason to think that the accidentally introduced from
same would happen here, with our Despite these challenges, my Asia around 1904. The infection
health system being overwhelmed wonderful community of patients resulted in the loss of four billion
and my patients suffering. have shown such heartfelt concern chestnut trees over forty years and
for me and my family. Many have the devastation of industries that
I found myself analysing the also shared with me the silver depended on them: it was one of
data every morning before work, linings of their time in isolation. the worst ecological and economic
trying to spot the first sign of These include the additional time disasters in American history.
even a minuscule flattening of spent with their children, slowing
the curve. Sometime in March I down from their usually busy Like most people, I have found
excitedly shared with colleagues routines, spending time walking that the changes to daily life have
an ever so tiny deviation from the together, and of course more time reinforced the importance of our
frighteningly steep climb that we to read. daily rituals. These are the anchors
all feared would continue. There that we create for ourselves and
was a glimmer of hope that the One of my favourite parts of the that secure us to familiar ground. I
changes that the people right day has always been reading to my have found solace standing outside
across Australia were making to children each night, and as SARS- at night, gazing at the stars, and
their daily lives were beginning to CoV-2 began to sweep across the in watching the continuity of wave
have an effect. globe I began seeing surprising swell and the tides.
parallels in the books that we were
Behind the scenes in hospitals reading together. We must find hope amid the
and medical centres all over anxiety and devastation that
the country, health workers For example, in the early chapters we see around the world. The
were scrambling to learn more of the wonderful novel that I’m sense of shared responsibility
about COVID-19, and establish currently reading to my nine-year- and togetherness that we
procedures to manage large old daughter, The Girl From Snowy have witnessed has been
numbers of seriously ill patients. River by Jackie French, the story heartening, and reminds me
In many areas, medical teams had plays out against the backdrop of of the immeasurable power of
to navigate their own way ahead the influenza pandemic of 1918. community and the inspiring
as best they could, and as a GP in beauty of human kindness.
a group practice, the imminence Later in the evening I’ve been
of the crisis strengthened our weeping to the confronting Once This is an abridged version of an article
series by Morris Gleitzman that I’ve published on the Byron Writers Festival
collaboration. blog. Visit byronwritersfestival.com/blog
been reading to my eleven-year-old for the full version.
son. Acts of great kindness shine
northerly WINTER 2020 | 03
NEWS & EVENTS
Margin Notes
News, events and announcements
from Byron Writers Festival
Festival 2020 reimagined we take the learning outside into
nature too. During quarantine,
During lockdown we have been
our usual modes of delivery have
busy reimagining how to connect
had to adapt quickly to the online
our Festival writers and thinkers
space.
with you. We have therefore recently
launched our Byron Writers Festival In term two, StoryBoard provided
Digital program (Byron WF Digital). pre-recorded author presentations
and workshops to students at
The program includes new
several local schools. Authors
conversations with 2020 Festival
also facilitated live interactive
guests, exclusive releases of
workshops with students in the
archived podcasts from previous
classroom and at home via Zoom.
Festivals and some special projects.
Everything will be online and ‘It was wonderful and the students
available on-demand. were unusually ready and willing Eldridge steps down
to take part in all writing tasks after
Byron WF Digital is being released Founding member and secretary
being so engaged in the videos,’
over the coming weeks, and is of Byron Writers Festival, Russell
said Julie Streader of Ballina Public
accessible via our website at Eldridge, has stepped down from
School.
byronwritersfestival.com/digital. his duties with the Festival after
We will announce new content a quarter of a century of service.
through our e-newsletters and 2020 Residential Fellow board member Marele Day
social media channels. Mentorship recipients paid tribute to Eldridge, a novelist
Of course, the importance of Congratulations to the four and former journalist.
gathering together again in Byron Northern Rivers writers who have ‘As a founding member of Byron
is much-anticipated, so we invite been selected to take part in Writers Festival, Russell was
you to save the date for next year’s the Byron Writers Festival 2020 instrumental in helping transform
Byron Writers Festival, 6-8 August, Residential Mentorship. Rachel the original vision into reality,’
2021. Faith, Meg Grace, Jacqueline said Day. ‘He brought to the
Mohr and Kimberley Lipschus organisation the same skills that
We would like to express our thanks
will spend five days in a glorious make him a great journalist and
to the Copyright Agency’s Cultural
hinterland location working on writer – an enquiring truth-seeking
Fund and The Australia Council for
their manuscripts under the expert mind, empathy, attention to detail
the Arts for supporting the Byron
guidance of Marele Day. Thank you and the ability to find the story
Writers Festival Digital program.
to all those who entered and to behind the facts.’
our judges, who had the difficult
Storyboard goes virtual decision of selecting just four
‘He will be remembered most
Under normal circumstances, fondly by fellow board members
manuscripts from a long, lovely
StoryBoard takes authors and in his role as secretary, whose
and diverse list of entries.
illustrators directly to schools minutes were not merely a
and libraries and, where possible, faithful record of proceedings but
peppered with puns and poetic
flourishes. Thank you Russell.’
04 | WINTER 2020 northerly
NEWS & EVENTS
Cover story Festival Friends
This issue’s cover image is Evening Passage (acrylic on canvas) by Byron Writers Festival is bringing a
the South African-born, Queensland-based artist Mel Brigg. Brigg is a surprise to our email subscribers
self-taught artist who started painting full-time in 1970. He has built this June, with our Festival
an impressive career over the past thirty years, with his art resonating Friends campaign. Thanks to our
with a wide cross-section of art buyers. His work has been collected incredible partners, a digital care
around the world by significant corporate, private and government package should by now have
institutions and individuals. Brigg was a finalist in the 2012 Doug landed in your inbox with some
Moran Portrait Prize. Evening Passage was part of his recent Distance exclusive offers and discounts just
exhibition at Gallery One on the Gold Coast. for you from Brookfarm, Earth
Bottles, Husk Distillers, Pukka
Herbs, Stone & Wood, The Book
LAUREL COHN Room, The Saturday Paper and
Zentveld’s. Whilst we won’t be
Editing and Manuscript Development gathering at the Festival this year,
we hope this digital care package
~ Manuscript assessment and ‘It’s been a bit of a connects you with these wonderful
development journey and I’d like to
~ Editorial and publishing
businesses that support and
thank you for being with
consultations me on it. Publishing value the arts, and brings you, our
~ Mentoring as you know is a very valued members, some joy. To
~ Structural and stylistic editing subjective business. see the full list of offers, head to
~ Copy editing and Your feedback made me
proofreading byronwritersfestival.com/blog/
believe in the concept
and take it to the next festival-friends
Congratulations to
Srinath Adiga on the level. I couldn’t have got here without your
forthcoming publication help. So big thank you! Feros Care Notes of
of his novel Dead Money Srinath Adiga www.centralavenuepublishing. Friendship
(Central Avenue, Canada). com/book/dead-money/
At the moment, there are
thousands of seniors who feel
www.laurelcohn.com.au info@laurelcohn.com.au 02 6680 3411 extremely lonely – and a message
to let them know they are cared
about can make the world of
Publishing deal for been five years in the making and is difference. Whether a simple note
Brugman set to be published in 2022. or a pen-pal friendship, the 1,000
The Byron Writers Festival staff In other news, congratulations Notes of Friendship program
team and board would like to also to Dr Emma Doolan, lecturer was created by Be Someone For
extend its warm congratulations at Southern Cross University (SCU) Someone (a Feros Care initiative),
to Emily Brugman, Festival in Lismore and the curator of and is one way we can tackle
Administrator, on securing a northerly’s SCU Showcase page (see loneliness in Australia together.
publishing deal with Allen & page 20). Dr Doolan’s YA manuscript Want to get involved? Send your
Unwin for her manuscript The At Devil’s Elbow was shortlisted for friendship note to: 1,000 Notes of
Islands. Brugman was also recently the Text Prize for Young Adult and Friendship Campaign,
shortlisted for the prestigious Vogel Children’s Writing, organised by
PO Box 585, Byron Bay NSW 2481.
Literary Award 2020. Text Publishing.
Include your address if you would
The Islands is a fictional collection And finally, northerly editor Barnaby like a reply. The Feros Care team
of interconnected short stories Smith’s debut album of original will personalise the card and
inspired by the life of her songs, Itch Factor, was named Pick send it out for you. Find further
grandfather and other fishers on of the Week by the Sydney Morning details at besomeoneforsomeone.
the Houtman Abrolhos, off the Herald and awarded a five-star org/programs/1000-notes-of-
coast of Western Australia, during review in May. friendship
the 1950s and 1960s. The book has
northerly WINTER 2020 | 05
POETRY
Feature Poet:
Kirli Saunders
Self-healers
It is time to attend to the aches
to shake the memory
from fascia
to breathe
into the trauma torrents
scattered about your being
to speak strength
into scars
carved by another’s harm
to regenerate self
where otherness lay
to reclaim reign
over realm
to write affirmation
everywhere
so that deep ancestral love
knows the way
love always knows the way.
06 | AUTUMN 2020 northerly
POETRY
Oneness
‘To be abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings’
— David Whyte
When I confess loneliness
I am taken
to the window
to press elbows to aluminium
and witness the trees
to see
rashed trunks | youth | old scars | deep roots | smooth leaves | earthy truths of infestation
and with deeper observation —
| spirits |
akin to mine
the divine returned in this lifetime
Proud Gunai Woman
as a guide
Kirli Saunders is an award-
to remind winning international
children’s author and poet.
that there is never a time She leads Poetry in First
Languages, delivered by Red
to feel alone — Room Poetry. Kirli’s Daisy
Utemorrah Award-winning
children’s verse novel,
oneness simply has Bindi, will be released in
late 2020. She is currently
many homes. working towards her first solo
exhibition with Verb Syndicate
Gallery. ‘Oneness’ was
originally published in
Going Down Swinging.
Kirli was scheduled to appear
at Byron Writers Festival 2020.
northerly WINTER 2020 | 07
FEATURE
On debut: Byron Writers
Festival’s first-time authors
Among the many sad consequences of the cancellation of Byron Writers Festival
2020, is the fact that a number of debut authors will miss out on the chance to
engage with their audience and gain new readers in the Festival setting. Here,
northerly meets four writers who would have appeared this year, and who have
recently accomplished the significant achievement of a first book.
Hayley Katzen of displacement and belonging.
The journey from then to Ventura’s
friends, in ideologies and political
movements, in landscapes and
offer to publish in July 2019 has communities, and ultimately
Local Northern Rivers writer
been a further lesson in craft and in ourselves. It’s about how
Hayley Katzen’s first book,
life. In mid-2018, the two agents experiences of displacement
Untethered, is a memoir of moving
I approached doubted the book unstitch us, and how places and
to a remote cattle property to live
was saleable. The editor kindly their people shape us. So too
with her farmer girlfriend, and
introduced the manuscript to it’s about how belonging, with a
of redefining the idea of home.
four publishers: the feedback was partner or new community, needs
Originally from South Africa, Katzen
fascinating and helpful but only to be cultivated. Expectations and
charts one migrant’s quest for
one was willing to publish – and preconceptions about difference
peace as well as adventure, against
only if I contributed to production need to be shed; relationships need
a backdrop of the unpredictable
costs. In February 2019 I began to be built over time. It’s also about
beauty of the Australian landscape.
reworking the manuscript – and on how solitude and isolation, natural
Can you tell the story of how 19 June, the day before I underwent disasters and manual work compel
Untethered came to be: its initial surgery for ovarian cancer, I sent it us to look and think anew.
idea, the writing process, the off to the same publishers and to
Ventura Press. Ventura had recently How has working in the legal field
journey to publication, and so on?
published the anthology Split, in informed your writing?
In 2012 I fell in love with the which I have an essay. The essay,
I came to learn, had resonated Apart from an obsession with
personal essay form – how it
with Jane Curry, the publisher, and structure and the precision of
gave me space to think through
three weeks after I submitted, as I language, my experience of law
experiences and find their
again sat in the chemo lounge, the and social justice still informs my
universality, and how it helped
delightful offer came. writing, partly because it is intrinsic
make sense of my life on a cattle
to the lens through which I view
farm in the Australian bush – a
What were the most important the world. As a legal researcher
life I, an urban academic migrant,
ideas or themes that you wanted and academic, my passion for
never expected. In September 2016
to convey? social justice was rooted in a
the wise editor, Nadine Davidoff,
hope that if I was able to really
advised me to rework a collection
The book explores our need for understand and tell the stories of
of these essays, some of which had
home and belonging and the women’s experiences of breaches of
won awards or been published, into
different forms in which we might apprehended violence orders in a
memoir with the unifying theme
find it – in love, in family and regional area, domestic violence
08 | WINTER 2020 northerlyFEATURE
laws and police policies would Jessie Cole’s Staying, along with away from me or are unwell – a
change and the world would be a Virginia Woolf, Janet Malcolm and virtual launch means they too
safer, fairer place for women and Helen Garner’s work reassured me can participate. Mostly, I’m still
children. I know – naïve and over- there was value in revealing one’s recovering from nine months of
ambitious. Twenty years later, the self and story – despite the risks and treatment for ovarian cancer and
issues and recommendations from ethical complexity. Writers, such so I’m relieved not to be going off
my report ‘How Do I Prove I Saw as Vivian Gornick and Olivia Laing, on the exciting promotional and
His Shadow?’ are still canvassed who contemplated aloneness, festival tour that was planned.
in research. This desire to ‘walk in and nature writers such as Robert The other side of that is that there
another’s shoes’ was what then Macfarlane, Ana Maria Spagna, are a whole host of new skills I’m
directed me to acting, writing for Emerson and Thoreau helped me learning and I’m working incredibly
the stage and then to fiction. But fathom this rural life – but I found hard: finding some balance, writing
in law and all those other writings, particular delight and resonance pieces for various outlets, doing
the ‘I’ – my I – was absent. I hid in David Gesner’s Sick of Nature. zoom interviews, filming clips of
my hopes and fears, feelings and Books about ‘home’, such as readings in their actual settings,
thoughts behind the ‘characters’ Marilynne Robinson’s Home and trying to get a handle on technology
until I finally leaped into the essay. Housekeeping, Eva Hoffman’s Lost and social media, and struggling
Here I found a place where I was in Translation, James Wood’s The with very slow satellite internet
able to authentically be myself, Nearest Thing to Life, and The Idea and limited downloads. Apart from
and a playground for self-inquiry, of Home, the title of both Geraldine my deep concern for others during
my analytical mind, curiosity and Brooks’ Boyer Lectures and John this time, last year’s drought and
research background. Hughes memoir. bushfire continue to have a far
greater impact on our personal lives
Which works of memoir were To what degree has your writing than lockdown. As for isolation: it’s
particular inspirations in the life been impacted by COVID-19? mostly life as normal for us on the
writing of Untethered? farm.
I’m loathe to sound like too much
Montaigne’s essays – with the help of a Pollyanna but launching a
of Sally Bakewell’s How to Live: debut memoir during a period
A life of Montaigne – along with of lockdown is perfect for me –
Joan Didion, Eula Biss and Robert and not because more people
Dessaix sealed my passion for the are supposedly reading. Many of
essay. Yiyun Li’s Dear Friend: From my much-loved people live far Untethered is published by Ventura Press.
My Life I Write to You in Your Life,
northerly WINTER 2020 | 09FEATURE
Sara El Sayed
Sara El Sayed’s forthcoming
memoir Muddy People is a lively
and clever exploration of growing
up as a Muslim Australian in
suburban Brisbane. Egypt-born El
Sayed developed the book out of
essays originally published in the
anthologies Growing Up African
in Australia and Arab, Australian,
Other. She is a sessional teacher
at Queensland University of
Technology (QUT), and is also
completing a Masters in Fine Arts.
Over what period was Muddy
People written, and what are its
key ideas and themes?
For the most part it covers my
years at school in Australia – from Can you tell us a bit about the hilarious and talented writer. I also
2002, when my family moved process of expanding your really love Vicki Laveau-Harvie’s
from Egypt, to about 2012. Some contributions to Growing Up The Erratics. I can read it over and
of the more obvious themes are African in Australia and Arab, over and still learn so much from
race, religion and being a minority Australian, Other, into a book- her style. Another is The Lebs by
in a white-majority community. length work? Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Even
However, this book is a lot to do though it’s not a work of memoir,
with the relationships between me The chapters I wrote for Growing I’ve learned a lot from Ahmad,
and my family members, and not Up African in Australia and Arab, stylistically and thematically, as he
necessarily always about outsider Australian, Other were snippets of explores an Arab youth experience.
influence. I really wanted to write my experience as an Egyptian kid
something that looks frankly at growing up here. In Growing Up Is Brisbane a fertile literary city in
intra-Arab-family relationships. African I talked about my hair. In 2020? How supportive has it been
Arab, Australian, Other I went one for you?
What does the title, Muddy step further and talked about my
People, refer to? back hair. I got to the point where I Absolutely. Brisbane is home to so
thought ‘hey, I have more stories to many fantastic writers. I’ve been
It has a couple of different really lucky to have a supportive
tell about my hairy existence, and
meanings. One is a crude reference group of friends and colleagues at
perhaps some other things too.’
to our brown skin. But primarily QUT, where I study and work, who
Long-form has given me the room
it refers to murk and ambiguity help encourage and inspire me.
to write more of these moments, as
I experienced as a kid trying to Writing is often a solitary activity,
well as present each family member
understand who I was, where I was so I find it really important to touch
of mine as a character in their own
from, and what I was supposed to base with others to give perspective
right.
do. I had rules I had to follow, as on my work and process. COVID-19
most do. As a kid you tend to see Which literature and authors has obviously changed the way we
your parents as all-knowing beings proved particularly inspiring in connect, but I’m grateful that we’re
and beacons of pure authority. As the writing of the book? still able to support each other
I grew up, they became fallible. I online.
often had trouble making sense of I am a big fan of Benjamin Law’s
their logic when it came to mixing The Family Law. Not just because You recently gave an online
traditional cultural expectations he’s also a Queenslander who wrote workshop on memoir writing with
with the realities of living where we about migrant family experience, Byron Writers Festival. What key
were. Things weren’t always crystal but because he’s an insanely things were addressed in this?
clear.
10 | WINTER 2020 northerlyFEATURE
We focused on the foundations of
memoir, and how to craft a short
piece for publication. Writing real
life is often tricky. You know what
they say: just because something
happened to you doesn’t mean it’s
interesting to others. So, writing
memoir becomes a process of
finding what matters to your story,
and how to tell it as a story. We
looked at the techniques good
writers use to create compelling
real-life characters, dialogue and
scenes.
Some people might see memoir
writing as the preserve of people
somewhat advanced in age,
yet you have proven that this is
not the case. Why is it true that
memoir can be written at any age?
Memoir is the exploration of
memory through writing, and
Chloe Higgins the ego stuff that I’m sure we all
experience. I think what really blows
everyone has memories. You don’t me away, though, is how people
Chloe Higgins’s award-winning
just wake up a certain age and start react to the book in the private
memoir The Girls is an unflinching
remembering things. You remember messages they send me via social
portrait of an individual negotiating
all the time. You reflect all the time. I media. At one point the number
life-changing grief, along with
agree that writing at different stages of messages was so great that I
love, sexuality and family. Higgins,
of life brings different perspective, started sending people red love
who is the Director of Wollongong
wisdom and retrospect, but that heart emoticons instead of writing
Writers Festival, is a casual lecturer
doesn’t mean there’s less value in back to them because I didn’t know
and tutor in creative writing at the
exploring memories at a younger how to properly hold the stories
University of Wollongong where she
age. I’m twenty-five this year. Sure, I they were sending me. In particular,
is also completing a PhD.
could wait another twenty-five years something I never saw coming was
and write this book then, but I don’t the mothers writing to me saying
Nearly a year on from the
want to. The memories are relatively the book helped them understand
publication of The Girls, what has
fresh now. I’m still naïve, in a lot of their introverted daughters. I love
surprised you about the way it has
ways, but I don’t think that takes those messages. Or the introverted
been received?
away from what this book is about. daughters writing to say how the
In fact, it’s a big part of what the So many things have surprised me. book made them want to be kinder
book is about. It’s about me – how I The reception to the book exceeded to their extroverted mothers. It’s
am right now. This is not an attempt all expectation: being shortlisted for crazy to me how often we don’t
at a didactic piece of work. I’m not the Prize for Non-Fiction at the 2020 realise what we’re writing about
trying to teach anyone anything. I’m Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, until other people read it. I think
not offering advice. I’m saying, ‘this winning the VPLA People’s Choice there’s something really beautiful
happened to me, and this is how I Award, being invited to speak at about that.
remember it.’ Byron Writers Festival. At other
Continued Page 12
times, the reception to the book felt
like crickets chirping: not making
different award short-listings;
receiving few other festival invites;
random people at random parties
Muddy People will be published by Black
asking what I write about, would
Inc. in 2021. they know my book, saying no they
haven’t heard of my book. All of
northerly WINTER 2020 | 11FEATURE
keep reading. They made me feel I went through the 2017 Hardcopy
that maybe the voice that wanted program run by the ACT Writers
to come through in my own work Centre where I spent another year
wasn’t so boring after all. I felt like, editing the manuscript, and then
if these writers could achieve that got lucky and met my agent – Jane
ultimate goal of making a reader Novak – during one of the final
both slow down and compulsively sessions in the program, and she
read on, then maybe I could too. took the book on. But the main
part of my publication journey was
What were the biggest creative trying to write on my own for four
challenges in writing The Girls? years (2007-2010), studying fiction
writing at university for five years
Editing. I’d been writing various (2011-2015), and then doing a PhD
versions of the book since 2007, but in creative writing (2016-onwards).
I started almost from scratch again Two hours a day of reading. Years of
in 2016 and when I did, it poured workshopping work with friends.
out with little control on my end.
But the editing was tough, I think What writing projects are you
because editing is ultimately a working on at the moment?
balance between knowing a writer
can never objectively see their I’m working on a commission from
own work, and trusting one’s own the Sydney Review of Books about
Which works of memoir and instincts. I still don’t have an answer ‘polite sex’. You know, the way
authors were particular to this, and it’s something I think people will have sex because they
inspirations for the writing of The about a lot. When do you listen to don’t want to be impolite, or they
Girls? yourself and when do you listen to imagine that is what’s expected of
others? In a way, that’s the central them. It’s confronting, exploring
I was a reader long before I was a question of The Girls, and editing how I contribute to this in my own
writer, and The Girls would not be is a physical manifestation of that. life, while simultaneously exploring
the same without so many other I had two incredible mentors – my the role of patriarchy in the mess of
voices. I remember sitting on a PhD supervisor Joshua Lobb and it all.
zebra-print armchair inside a small my editor and publisher at Picador
granny flat overlooking a tree and Mathilda Imlah – and I think over I’m also working on my second
clothesline, reading books such time I began to trust their eyes and book. I’m about four years in but I
as Fiona Wright’s Small Acts of so that helped a lot. recently started from scratch again.
Disappearance, Drusilla Modjeska’s It’s about Muay Thai (Thai boxing),
Second Half First, Patti Smith’s Just Can you briefly describe the gender, sexuality, non-monogamy,
Kids, Teju Cole’s Every day is For journey to publication with the body and emotional
the Thief, George Orwell’s Down Picador and how the editing consumption. I think the book
and Out in Paris and London. While process unfolded: how much is asking: how do I have healthy
writing the chapters about drugs, input does an editor give to such a and happy romantic relationships
sex and all that hoo-ha, the voice personal, raw book? with men within the context of
came out how it came out and patriarchy and sexual trauma, whilst
because of how long ago that stuff My friends joke about my editor also acknowledging my frequent
occurred it felt like there was little being like my therapist, which is inability to communicate well?
I could do to control the voice of highly amusing (and not untrue).
those scenes. But the chapters – My work often swings between
the real story of the book – about over-written and under-written
my parents and our relationship in and a large part of Mathilda’s
contemporary times, are the pieces work was threading questions
where I had this voice that wanted through the manuscript in bits that
to come out but which felt naff and needed more explanation, and
domestic and too mundane. The suggesting cuts where I’d already
books I mention above somehow said what I needed to say. The joy
slowed me down as I read, while of the editing process with her was The Girls is published by Picador
simultaneously compelling me to learning to balance that stuff out.
12 | WINTER 2020 northerlyFEATURE
Andrew Pippos
Andrew Pippos is a Sydney-based
writer whose work has appeared
in Meanjin, Sydney Review of
Books, Electric Literature and
others. His debut novel, Lucky’s, is
a story about the rise and fall of a
restaurant franchise. The narrative
spans seventy years, and explores
Greek-Australian culture, failure,
commerce and questions of multi-
culturalism.
Can you just briefly tell the story
of how Lucky’s came to be: its
initial idea, the writing process,
the journey to publication, and so
on?
I knew the thematic content from
the start. I knew Lucky’s would My search for a publisher is a happy Children’ also helped me to think
be about how people respond story: Mathilda Imlah, at Picador, more seriously about narrative non-
to failure and success. It would read Lucky’s within a week of fiction. My next book with Picador
be about the pursuit of love and submission and we met at a cafe, will be a work of non-fiction.
family. I also wanted to write about where it was soon obvious that
an obsolete Australian milieu: the Picador would be the perfect home How do you anticipate COVID-19
old art deco cafes run by first- or for my novel. aff ecting the promotion of the
second-generation Greek migrants, novel, and what ways can authors
which were once mainstays in city What was the biggest creative mitigate any problems in this way
shopping streets and in country challenge in writing the book? over the next year?
towns. It was a milieu I knew well.
My first experience of community From the outset I intended the I’m reluctant to attempt any
was my grandmother and uncle’s novel to span several decades forecasts because the pandemic
cafe. So at the outset I knew the and generations. I wanted to see is making fools of everyone who
thematic content, and I had in mind how people changed over the trades in predictions. I will say
two or three scenes that I needed to course of a life, and how a culture this: writers have a privileged and
write towards. That’s how I started. changed. The biggest challenge was central role in literary culture and
From draft to draft the narrative organising all that narrative time. now is the time to take that role
itself changed so much that I kept seriously and engage with readers
altering character names, until Apart from the forthcoming and booksellers and other writers
the plot began to cohere, and the novel, what is the most important about how we can best serve the
characters became themselves. publication you have had to date, health of our literary culture. Some
and why? writers are weird ‘lone ranger’ types
I don’t claim Lucky’s represents – and I confess to that type – but in
the Greek-Australian café milieu The most important, to me, is an 2020 we find ourselves in a situation
in its entirety: most fiction, mine essay I wrote in 2017 for Sydney that calls us to be more community
included, is concerned with the Review of Books [‘Brother to minded.
particulars of a setting and its Children’] about one of the case
characters. I’m not aiming to studies in the Royal Commission
represent universal experience. If into Institutional Responses to
I aimed at the universal I would Child Sexual Abuse. For many
surely miss. years, I’d intended to write about
child abuse, but for one reason or Lucky’s is published in November by
another I hadn’t done it. ‘Brother to Picador.
northerly WINTER 2020 | 13READ
The Horne Prize 2019
Aesop and The Saturday Paper have been cultural partners since 2014, and together
they nurture writers of long-form non-fiction through The Horne Prize, an annual
essay award. In 2019, writers were asked to address the theme ‘Australian life’ –
shining light on a particular aspect of who we are, from a contemporary perspective.
Here, northerly is proud to present the winning essay Diary of a Wildlife Carer by
Rachael Lebeter, an English teacher and volunteer wildlife carer in regional NSW.
Rachael’s essay will be published in two parts, with the second part appearing in our
Spring issue.
Diary of a Wildlife Carer
By Rachael Lebeter
October – I move into a one-room shack. In the The baby is so depleted that it dies within hours of my
morning, I sit on the verandah drinking coffee and touching it.
watching light filter through the gum trees on the ridge.
Reminded suddenly of Richard Morecroft, who read the I care for a buff-banded rail chick. I spend my days
Sydney news on the ABC with orphaned bats under his writing and searching for insects. Worms, beetles,
jacket, I join the local wildlife carers. I spend my time slaters and grubs. Being a mother bird is hard work.
writing in the morning sun; there is room for animals.
The rail hates me – true odium. Every time I go near, it
November – My first rescue. I hold the ladder while a throws itself at the walls and roof of its prison. A couple
baby tawny frogmouth is retrieved, no parents in sight. of times it escapes in the house, fleeing in circles. I am
It opens its tiny mouth, pink inside with opalesque afraid to hurt it, afraid it will hurt itself. I start spending
green mottling. ‘Stay away, I’m dangerous!’ or ‘Feed less time at home: I do my work at cafes or put the bird
me!’ It is light as air despite the puff of feathers. in the shower.
The bird is covered in big black flat flies. They sidle When I pass the rail on for release, I am told that I did a
sideways, like crabs, under the feathers. A few seek good job, it isn’t humanised. They need to hate us, just
shelter in my hair and I spin, trying to shake them off. not so much that it kills them.
Flat flies are hard to catch. When you finally squish
them between your nails like ticks, they pop a vibrant, January – My first release. A welcome swallow, so light
poisonous green. The last one stays under my clothes that it was caught in a spider’s web over the river. The
for hours, undiscovered. My skin creeps. bird owes its life to passing kayakers.
December – A baby platypus, curled in a ball, eyes I hold the swallow perched on my fingers. When I
closed. It is precious and I feel lucky; most carers have release my grip, it flutters a few metres to a nearby
never handled a platypus. fence and preens, removing the last gossamer vestige
of trauma. Then, it is gone, soaring in giant loops,
The platypus has been found on a creek bank, but speeding away from the river. I watch until it is out of
nothing is ever so simple. In truth, the baby has been sight.
without its mother’s milk for three days before we are
called. People want to do the right thing but there is February – A baby crow. We attempt a reunion but the
such a wealth of misinformation online. parents cannot be found. I never really liked birds, but
the crow has the most exquisite eyes, iridescent blue.
While it sleeps, I examine tiny downy blue and black
feathers on its eyelids, beautiful in their delicacy. By
14 | WINTER 2020 northerlyREAD
some wonder of evolution, it looks as though it sleeps brown bear fur. I name them: Flora, Blossom and Bear.
with its eyes open, the ultimate protection.
The possums are all orphans. Blossom is friendlier
The crow thinks I am its mother. I make the mistake than the others and crawls up my arm during feedings.
of eye contact. I should have fed it in a head covering. Initially, it takes a lot of deep breathing to let her
Instead, I looked at it, aiming tweezers of mince down climb – arm, shoulder, tickling the hairs on my neck.
its throat, and it looked at me. Something in me wants to fling her away. She likes to
ride on my head, as if I were a mother possum.
I have to start weaning the crow off eye contact. I have
been told that it is necessary. Every time I feed it or go The possums wake up about 5pm. They have possum
near its cage, it caws and looks at me. It is as distressed milk, and fruit and leaves, that I forage daily. My
by the loss of connection as I am. floor is carpeted in leaves and pellets of possum
poo. Sometimes I sweep, but there is no vacuuming.
I move the crow outside. How do I provide the training No music. I try not to acclimatise my house guests
of six months with parents? I give it whole food – to human sounds and smells. I cook nothing more
zucchini, eggs, chicken wings. I could teach it to open complicated than eggs. I eat a lot of wraps and salads.
bags and lunch boxes, like crows at schools. I consider
picking up roadkill but worry about imparting bad A paralysed currawong. Birds are growing on me. I hold
habits; I imagine the crow being hit by a car. this one so it can eat and drink; I clean its bottom with
baby wipes. We have an understanding. Every time the
My crow gets what we call a soft release: it is free but possums see it, they softly make their warning sound.
fed. For a few months it returns, waiting in a tall gum Chuck-chuck-chuck. The currawong seems to be
and gliding down to dinner when I am safely distant. improving, then one day it is dead.
Then, one day, it is gone.
May – The United Nations Intergovernmental Science-
I finish my lyssavirus vaccinations so that I can handle Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
flying foxes. The bats are smart, their eyes bright releases a Global Assessment which states that one
and watchful even when they have been caught on million species are at risk of extinction in our lifetime.
a barbed wire fence all night. I transport one to the ‘Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in
wildlife hospital. Even with my small experience, I human history.’
can see that its eyes are glazed. When I return for my
cage, I ask about the bat. ‘I’m sorry,’ says the vet nurse, The report backs up what wildlife carers already
‘It was dead when you got here.’ I vacillate between know: last year we saw 2,500 rescues in our area; each
embarrassed and horrified. month sees more rescues than in previous years.
About fifty per cent of the animals we rescue die or are
March – I release a barn owl. We try to get her to euthanised.
perch but it is awkward, two of us in the dark with a
poorly closed cardboard box. The owl pushes out and The UN report captures news and social media
clumsily flutters onto the road. Her eyes mirror my attention for a few weeks. We get twenty new members
torchlight. No cars. A few seconds later she is gone, at the next wildlife carers’ orientation, but after that
silent. Sometimes I see her – I think it is her – hovering it is business as usual. I care for my possums, grow
above the cane fields in the late afternoon, hunting. vegetables, write, teach. When I can’t sleep, I wonder
what else I can do. I worry: Are my possums normal?
I catch my first bird, a corella. I see it sitting on the Do they sleep too much? Is Flora losing fur? Are they
fence, puffed up, on my way to work. It could be supposed to eat bark?
normal behaviour. Three hours later, the bird is still
there. Okay. To my own surprise, it is an easy catch. I
am unprepared; I have to hold the struggling parrot
against my hip with one hand while I fight with keys,
boot, cage. Coracoid fracture. The bone, essential to
flight, is unlikely to heal – the bird is euthanised.
April – A cageful of possums makes my one-room
house seem even smaller. Juvenile ringtails, they
spend the day curled up together in their flannelette
pouch. They are more rat-like than I’d expected, with
northerly WINTER 2020 | 15READ
Flash fiction from
Emma Ashmere
After the Storm
Headlights flashed across her mother’s beehive and her father’s
towelling hat. Her mother stopped knitting. He father was talking about
UFOs again, how they tailed his Wirraway over New Guinea during the
war.
They drove all night, slept all day, woke to egg-and-bacon pie, grey
paddocks, yellow hills, dry creeks, stop-watch timed pisses, dogs on
tuckerboxes, pink salt lakes, until they reached her stranger-cousins’
house on stilts, swaying over leech-laced ferns: a jungle world of
pointed mountains and pillared clouds, where birds walked and foxes
flew.
She lay in a bunk, squinting at the swollen stars hanging close. Frogs
croaked. Geckoes skittered. Spiders embroidered mosquito nets. Her
father and uncle were up, drinking away the night.
That first morning, she floated in a soupy swimming pool. There was a
flash of light in the green-black sky.
‘Look, dad. They’ve followed us.’
‘Get inside,’ her uncle shouted.
And when the storm had passed and her mother and uncle were
sweeping up the broken glass, and her cousins were making snowmen
with piles of steaming hail, she waded after her father through the
shredded trees towards the sunken shimmer of the tennis court.
She watched the sky as he knelt and wept.
16 | AUTUMN 2020 northerlyREAD
Satellite (of love)
On the first hot morning the farmer throws down a rope. He says
pretend it’s a snake. His three children watch as he hands me the gun.
Every day I cook beef and mutton for breakfast, smoko, lunch, smoko
and dinner. Every evening I sit with the farmer and his wife in the hum
of the generator.
Last night the farmers’ three children floated along the hall, a trio of
pyjamaed ghosts. I called them back, but ghosts can’t always hear the
living.
The farmer’s wife no longer gets out of bed. I cook the children’s
breakfast, wash them, dress them, walk them to the yellow school bus.
Three times a week I wait for the postie van.
Nothing for you says the postie’s wife.
I sit by the amber-coloured creek where the horses bend their necks
and corellas shriek in hollow trees. I think of you in the city, the orange
streetlights burnishing your window, the basement clubs where we
used to dance, you singing on the balcony. Emma Ashmere’s short stories
have been widely published,
Tomorrow there’ll be sackfuls of your letters in the postie van, telling including in The Age, Review
me to hurry back. of Australian Fiction, Griffith
Review, the Commonwealth
Writers magazine adda;
No stars or satellites in the sky tonight. and shortlisted for the
Commonwealth Writers
Award 2019, Newcastle
Short Story Award 2019, and
Overland/NUW Fair Australia
Prize 2018. Her debut novel
The Floating Garden was
shortlisted for the 2016 Small
Press Network MUBA prize.
Her new short story collection
Dreams They Forgot will be
published in September by
Wakefield Press. ‘After the
Storm’ will appear in Dreams
They Forgot, and was first
published in Landmarks,
the 2017 anthology of flash
fiction and prose poetry
from publishers Spineless
Wonders. Emma was
scheduled to appear at Byron
Writers Festival 2020.
northerly WINTER 2020 | 17FEATURE
New ways forward:
David Roland’s life in lockdown
Local psychologist and author David Roland had the promotion
and momentum for his new book, The Power of Suffering,
stopped in its tracks by COVID-19. Here, he reflects on the new
literary landscape and his writing process over the past year.
‘Suffering in its simplest form is ill at ease After two months on the road it was time to turn
with what is, wanting it to be some other way around and head north. I bought a vintage caravan
when it cannot be.’ envisioning stays in camping grounds surrounded by
trees, enveloped in nature sounds, my ideal working
- David Roland, The Power of Suffering environment. The caravan would become my cosy
office on wheels.
In early 2019 I downsized my possessions, selling
and giving away years of accumulated stuff; things
But it didn’t always work out this way. On one occasion
I now felt burdened by. I wanted to shake loose the
I thought I had landed in writing paradise, an idyllic
twenty-plus years of routines and responsibilities that
caravan park by the beach with expansive lawns,
had bound me while working and raising my three
paperbark trees, shaded campsites. On the first day,
daughters. I wanted to feel the freedom of insecurity
however, the groundsmen brought out every piece
again, and to welcome the unexpected.
of gardening machinery known and began to mow,
snip, blow and round up any foliage that stuck its head
All the research for the new book had been done,
above ground. I skedaddled to different locations
the collation of personal stories of people I came to
within the park until I was caught out by a leaf blower
know and who had survived intense suffering and
or a returning holidaymaker whose cabin deck I had
grown, the experts I’d spoken with and my gathering
been sitting on thinking there was no-one staying
reflections. The first three chapters were written and I
there. It felt hopeless.
had a publication contract in my pocket. With ten more
chapters to write I headed off on a writing road trip,
The next morning, I awakened to quiet with a sigh
leaving my base in northern New South Wales, taking
of relief, but then a public address system cranked
my tools of trade: a laptop, phone and reference books.
up. It was the schools zone cross-country carnival
With a publication date of 1 March, 2020, I had plenty
and competitors would be running around the
of time.
campground roads till 3pm, I was told. Not only that,
but the sausage sizzle and drink stall was being set up
First stop was an artist’s residency at Bundanon Trust,
in the barbecue area right by my camp spot.
near Nowra, then onto the Mornington Peninsula
in Victoria for a month where a friend had offered a
‘Is there ANYWHERE quiet I could go to work?’ I
writing space in the quiet of the hills.
pleaded with the woman at reception. There was, she
said, a picnic area a short drive away. ‘Hardly anyone
My editor at Simon and Schuster invited me to send
goes there,’ she said. And indeed she was right. For
him work in progress, so I did. The draft of each new
the next three days I took my writing tools and lunch
chapter was teleported to him and in a week or so he
and set up by the picnic table encircled by the stately
responded with a telephone call and tracked changes
presence of tall rainforest trees and birdsong. The only
on the manuscript. I felt like a wayfaring explorer, but
other regular visitors were the garbage truck collector
one who had the end in mind.
18 | WINTER 2020 northerlyFEATURE
who came by at 11am for his morning tea, giving me a to my posts, offering praise and validation. I have
wave like I was a regular, before he settled down on the attended online writers’ salons, networked with writers
other side of the picnic ground, and two curious (read and felt a sense of camaraderie I haven’t experienced
hungry) kookaburras, who liked to prop themselves on before.
the picnic table.
Until this article, I have been unable to write anything
2020 was to be the year of the book for me: promotion, new. I poke around each day networking and
public appearances, meeting readers, running promoting the book online. It’s been hard to find a
workshops and responding to new opportunities. I sense of purpose. Should I write short articles or put
gave myself this year to determine if I could continue as it all aside for now until we return to the ‘new normal’,
a writer and presenter with the new book my talisman. when things might make more sense?
I envisioned the book being embraced by an ardent
and grateful audience. But, instead, someone shut the The road trip had shown me multiple times that
doors. disruption and the unexpected is inevitable and the
way forward is to accept what is and then find the best
The book, a three-year project in all, has descended alternative.
into a black hole. All book events, interviews, speaking
gigs and festival attendances have been cancelled or But I haven’t been able to dodge the pandemic like I
postponed. The arts pages have shrunk in mainstream could a noisy camping ground; this is much bigger than
media publications, taking with them the book reviews me.
and features that would have once peopled them. Only
well-known authors seem to be getting the usual kind I know from my investigation into human suffering that
of publicity. All news is trumped by ‘the virus’. following a major life upheaval there is the initial shock
and distress, the sense of displacement, but clarity
I was able to get two local book launches and one does come, and with that, new ways forward.
bookstore event at Avid Reader in Brisbane before the
lockdown. At the Avid Reader event a strange new thing This pandemic is showing us what we don’t need as
called ‘social distancing’ was practised with a reduced well as what we do, and it is clear that a society without
audience sitting 1.5 metres apart and a moat-sized writers, books and the creative arts is a weakened
space between them and me. I am very grateful for society, a much less resilient one.
these live events, it gave me the sense that the book,
which had been for so long in my head, is real and that
real people want to have conversations about it.
The Power of Suffering is published by Simon and
What has proved sustaining for me since, are the Schuster. This article originally published as a blog post at
readers who comment via social media and respond moniquemulligan.com
northerly WINTER 2020 | 19You can also read
