Clare Valley writers festival 2013
Rural scene, Clare Valley, South Australia
Clare Valley Writers’ week: bringing readers and writers together.
November 25th – December 1st 2013.
In recent days I have written about several other writers ‘festivals here in South Australia. Late in the year there is another one scheduled to be held in the Clare Valley in the mid-north of South Australia. This was my home town until we moved to Murray Bridge some 30 years ago. My daughter now lives in Clare, just around the corner from where she lived as a young girl.
This is the inaugural writers’ festival in the Clare area. It has much to offer and a great deal of potential. Here is another example of reading, writing, fine food and wine coming together to celebrate not only our finest writers – the line up of speakers is impressive – but also our great food and wine heritage.
I plan to be there. I may even enter several of the writing competitions which are now open.
For further information click here.
For the curious and discerning reader you can read some of my writing on this site: just go to the contents section on the sidebar.
Rural scene, Clare Valley, South Australia
Review: In Due Season by Valerie Volk
1 Comment »7th June, 2011; Category: Authors, Awards, Books, Christian, Master of Arts course, Poetry, Reviews, Writers
In due season: poems of love and loss by Valerie Volk is a very special book. It is beautifully presented with delightful photographs illustrating many of the poems.
While it it is a slim book physically, one cannot say that about the poems. All the poems have an impact on the reader. One is taken on a journey through her life – of joys, delights, deep emotions, frustrations, fears and faith. It is a journey from first love to deep loss, from deep contentment to the emptiness of death.
Valerie’s poems poignantly trace the roller coaster ride she encounters in 2008 when her husband is diagnosed with cancer. Some poems hark back to the early days, from their first meeting, first passions of love and the demands of young family life. Other poems are filled with agony as she sketches in verse form the deterioration of Noel’s condition. And the final poems highlight her response to his death, the experience of feeling numb at the time of his funeral, the emptiness of their home without her love and the slow and sometimes painful climb up the mountain of normality.
‘How am I?
Hard to say. I veer between
a stoic resignation – “Wonderful,” I hear them say –
and silent screams of anguish.
Somewhere in me there’s a deep gaping hole
as if a vital part has been ripped out.’from ‘A Kindness of Strangers’ p.59
I met Valerie during the time we were both completing our Master of Arts course. She has become a respected writing colleague and encouraging friend, one I deeply admire and whose comments on my own poems are highly valued.
Some of the poems in this volume I have a personal connection with, because Valerie presented them in writing workshops for critiquing during our studies for our degrees. One couldn’t help but be touched deeply by the grief she was enduring at the time but still she pressed on professionally.
Highly recommended reading.
Order the book on Valerie’s web site:
- Valerie Volk – you can order any of Valerie’s books on her website. You can also read about Valerie’s academic achievements as well as writing awards she has gained.
The photo (above right) is from the cover of her book. It has deep significance to Valerie – but you’ll have to read the book to find out why.
Reference:
Volk, Valerie, 2009. In due season: poems of love and loss. Pantaenus Press, Adelaide.
Further reading:
- Review: ‘Bystanders’ by Valerie Volk
- Review: ‘A Promise of Peaches’ by Valerie Volk
Book review: The Secret River by Kate Grenville
The Secret River
I’ve recently read Kate Grenville‘s novel The Secret River on the recommendation of a friend. I can’t recall if I’ve ever read any other works by this prominent Australian author, but will certainly be looking at her other books in the future.
The story begins in London and follows the story of William Thornhill, a boatman on the Thames. He is involved in a misadventure which lands him in jail and sentenced to hang. Fortunately his wife’s family has connections, and his sentence is commuted to transportation to Australia as a convict ‘for the term of his natural life.’ His wife and young family are allowed to travel on the same convict ship, but as free settlers in the new penal colony at Sydney.
The story grabs the reader as Thornhill and his family struggle to survive. After some years he gains his freedom. Through hard work and many setbacks they eventually establish a farm they think of as their own. The indigenous population see things much differently and the inevitable conflict arises. This is a dark and often tragic part of recent Australian history, the ramifications of which we are still attempting to work through.
Grenville has drawn some memorable characters, especially in Thornhill, his wife Sal and her longing to some day return home to London, and some of the minor characters living near them. Their daily endeavours are well documented, set against the ever present strangeness of the unfamiliar landscape. Grenville also carefully plots the growing problem they had with the local Darug people who had lived here at one with the environment for millennia.
Interestingly, this story was inspired by the author’s family history. Her great-great-great grandfather was Solomon Wiseman after whom Wisemans Ferry, near modern Sydney, is named. While the novel is fiction, the author has drawn heavily upon historical records of the day, including those of her family. Thus we have in the novel a blurring of the line between historical fact and an author’s imagination as expressed in the fiction of the story.
This blurring resonates with what I am attempting to do with my own work in progress, a children’s novel set in Nepal which draws on actual historical events.
The Secret River is an important work by a highly acclaimed Australian author. It has rightly won many awards, including:
- Winner, Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2006
- Winner, NSW Premier’s Literary award 2006
- Shortlisted, Man Booker Prize, 2006.
Reference:
Grenville, K 2005. The Secret River. Text, Melbourne.