Review by Stacey O’Carroll
Author: Various
Publisher: Black. Inc
RRP: $22.99
Release Date: Out Now
Writers on Writers is an intriguing series of tiny but mighty essay books written by prominent Australian authors on an Australian author who has inspired the writing. Published by Black. Inc in association with Melbourne University and the State Library of Victoria, the series has been going since 2017. Writers on Writers covers well-known authors from the Australian literary canon, as well as some who should be more widely known in the digital age. Each book provides captivating information about the author and will more than likely have them searching out both authors’ works if they are not familiar with their novels. There is a fantastic range of authors (both for the essays and the topics) to choose from. But for this review, I cover Geraldine Brooks on Tim Winton, Josephine Rowe on Beverley Farmer, Sarah Krasnostein on Peter Carey and Tony Birch on Kim Scott.
Geraldine Brooks on Tim Winton
“Browsing my local bookstore, I came across Cloudstreet. They didn’t have a lot of Australian books in the Hampstead Waterstones. An occasional Keneally; a Carey, perhaps. Winton? The name was new to me. I took the book home.”
In Geraldine Brooks on Tim Winton, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Books writes about the first time she discovered Cloudstreet by Tim Winton and how she was instantly taken by his “poetic, prayerful” style and language choice. So began the start of her admiration of Winton. Brooks reflects on how, since discovering Winton’s books, his style has inspired her to challenge her writing. In her essay, Brooks analyses Winton’s characters, descriptions of the Western Australian landscape, and the similarities that appear in his books. Lecturers in university creative writing courses often tell aspiring writers to read widely and analyse the writing, structure and style of our favourite books. It is through this analysis that the reader can dissect why they enjoy the book and the choices the author has made. These choices can then be used as inspiration in their own writing; as is the case with Brooks. One of the aspects that Brooks notes that stood out is “the way he uses words to convey the inner lives of characters who don’t have access to an extensive vocabulary.” The approach Winton has to dialogue and characterisation is one I have heard discussed before. Winton’s characters are snapshots of real people, and his characterisation encapsulates more than a conversation; they provide socioeconomic and family background. Of the four books in the Writers on Writers, Brooks’s essay on Winton was a favourite.
Tony Birch on Kim Scott
“My first impression of Kim [Scott] in person was that he was warm and friendly, and just a little bit cheeky in a generous way, which didn’t surprise me at all. He is a person with a quick sense of humour, delivered with laconic ease.”
In Tony Birch on Kim Scott, award-winning Australian author and activist Birch illuminates how Miles Franklin award-winning author Scott “uses fiction as a pathway to truth.” Birch has previously used Scott’s writing in his academic speeches, sometimes to polarising effect. But to Birch, the fiction of Scott is more than a throw-away quote added for emphasis, his writing sparks a fire in his own writing. As Birch explores Scott’s notable texts, the intricacies and power of his style are revealed. Scott is a man of many masks, from writer and researcher to “a conduit working within the Noongar community to recover and retell stories from an Aboriginal perspective.” In his storytelling, Scott is not just entertaining his readers, he is making them confront the past, present and question our future selves. The reader learns that Scott’s works are a means for truth-telling. As Birch states, although Scott could convey such truths through a non-fiction article or essay, there is something about immersing your readers in a fictional world that allows them to see such truths and the real world in a different way. The fictional world replicates the real world and, most likely, will reach a wider audience. Birch’s essay is an interesting read, shows why Kim Scott inspires him and demonstrates the power of fictional storytelling.
Josephine Rowe on Beverley Farmer
“All that washes up or crumbles away, or latches on tenaciously and thrives.”
Beverley Farmer is an Australian writer who perhaps should be better known. In Josephine Rowe on Beverley Farmer, Elizabeth Jolley Prize-winning novelist Rowe celebrates and puts this well-deserving author back in the spotlight. Farmer, author of The House in the Light and The Seal Woman, also wrote short stories and essays, with many of her stories set near water. Rowe dives into a reflection on her own travels, writing, and loneliness, and the connection she feels with Farmer through her writing. Farmer wrote about her “restlessness, desire and homecoming,” themes Rowe relates to in her essay. When news of Farmer’s death from Parkinson’s disease reaches Rowe, she experiences “a surreal plunge of loneliness, loss. A sensation like that of phantom stair—the vertiginous pitch that comes from planting a foot down somewhere you’d imagined was solid, continuous.” Such can be the connection readers feel with an author’s words that profoundly impact their lives. For Rowe, Farmer lived through her writing. Through her essay, Rowe takes the reader on a journey through a brilliant and inspiring author’s life and writing.
Sarah Krasnostein on Peter Carey
“‘I have the good fortune,’ Carey told The Paris Review in 2006, ‘that my own personal trauma matches my country’s great historical trauma.’”
In Sarah Krasnostein on Peter Carey, multi-award-winning author Sarah Krasnostein charges into the brilliant Peter Carey’s history and his Booker Prize-winning novel, The True History of the Kelly Gang. Krasnostein’s engrossing essay is fascinating in the details she reveals and the wild similarities between herself and Carey. Was she always meant to discover Carey’s tale? Krasnostein unpacks the character and real person behind the name Ned Kelly and the themes of home, history, distance and identity in a way that somehow brings deeper depth to an already nuanced author and book. For Carey, the inspiration for The True History of the Kelly Gang was sparked by the quirky Ned Kelly paintings of Sidney Nolan. A reminder of the layered inspiration of creative arts, and when you push aside the gum leaves, there’s a story waiting to be told. Alongside her The True History of The Kelly Gang exploration, Krasonstein discusses writing craft and how Carey’s style has inspired her own. She states, “there is deep pleasure in executing ‘weird sentences and nice images and all those sorts of things,’ as Carey once put it.” For Any writer who has enjoyed discovering Peter Carey’s drafting process of Oscar & Lucinda, Krasnostein’s stroll through his prose is a wonderful exploration. Not only is the Writers on Writers series a must-have for any aspiring and established writer, these little books are, like Sidney Nolan’s paintings to Peter Carey, bright sparks of inspiration.