Caroline Reid Writes

Independent publisher Spineless Wonders is part of this year's Melbourne Writer's Festival and doing something extraordinary with microfiction. Dedicated to diversity, Bronwyn Mehan is at the helm of Spineless Wonders. She is in tune to the many possibilities of 'reading' and getting literature visible in this new era of publishing and it shows in this latest offering. In print, audio and on the big screen in Federation Square,  Flashing the Square    is packed with micro-stories and prose poems.   Lucky me, my short piece 'One Blue Eye' is included and is the third time I've been published by Spineless Wonders. I keep sending my stuff to them because I love what they do and when I'm successful in being accepted (which is not always) I'm in the company of some wonderful Australian writers such as Ryan O'Neill, Shady Cosgrove, Angela Myer, Vivienne Plumb, Jude Bridge, Dael Allison, AS Patric, John Carey and many others. To celebrate the publicat...

Holly Myers to read Jennifer Mills I'm a little sad this month because I have decided to call it a day on the story readings I produce at Adelaide's Wheatsheaf Hotel. Begun in 2011 at The Jolly Miller Tavern, I've produced 10 of these events and have thoroughly enjoyed each and every one. The entire process, from reading a stack of stories to getting in front of the mic to introduce the writers and actors who read has been a blast, a terrific learning curve, great for building confidence and has led to other opportunities that wouldn't have come my way had I not produced these spoken word events. But while it's been brilliant, the amount of time I now spend producing these events has become a little demanding. I do it for the love of it, which was always my intention; never wanted to apply for grants or chase money to keep them going, it was more about creating a community, and providing exposure for contemporary Australian writers and Adelaide actors. And TH...

cut n weave What's the dirt?  I'm preparing the ground, soil, dirt to write my first novel. I could have done this a number of ways and  one of those ways is the NanNoWriMo way where you write hard and fast for 30 days and come up with some sort of rugged pre-draft novel. And redraft if you dare. Some people do. I didn't. But the process of NanNoWriMo was great in 2012 and taught me that I work well under pressure. Which I kinda knew already. As a commissioned playwright I always enjoy a deadline, and am [usually] only a couple of weeks late. The way I am currently working on this novel is not like WriMo - I'm taking my time and don't propose to have a draft written in a month or even a year.  Quite the opposite. I've been writing and researching for 6 months, on and off, working with a mentor who has been teaching me a lot about writing technique, building on what I already know as a playwright. I'm learning a lot about about writing narrative as oppo...

Yang Lian reading at the SA Writers Centre Adelaide in March is hectic and joyful. As part of the Adelaide Festival I spent 6 hours watching Roman Tragedies, which was sore on the back but brilliant for the spirit. I also got to hang out with some excellent Australian and International writers/poets when I chaired a forum as part of Adelaide Writers Week. We covered Presentation and Performance - how to captivate a room with your reading. The line up was impressive: Ali Cobby Eckermann, Omar Musa, Jeet Thayill and Yang Lian. I saw Omar perform last year so I was  familiar with his work but the other three, not so much. In my research I began to see what an incredible body of work they have and also the vastly different lives they have led. I was looking forward to meeting them. The problem with biographies is that they are such cold things, they act to hide rather than reveal the  flesh and blood people they are telling about; the living, breathing, graceful, warm, thoug...

Cut-ups: Eat Your Mind It's been almost two months since I've written a new blog post and I'm wondering why. Perhaps  because it feels like this blog is now only a record of what I'm doing, which feels a tad self indulgent and slightly boring (for me and for you). I spent part of the Xmas season thinking on what I would like to change and a small voice said - more creativity, less documentation. Uh-huh. Let's go with that, small voice, I said. The voice got bigger. I've been reading a lot. Inspired by writers like Angela Carter, Geraldine Brooks, Hannah Kent,  Kathy Acker, Maxine Hong Kingston to try different styles.  I love this quote from Kathy Acker:  "Get Rid of Meaning:  Your mind is a nightmare that has been eating you:  Now Eat Your Mind" I've been led to cutting up text, re-arranging it and using it as inspiration for more writing. I write quickly, with very little editing and I end up with things like this: Wh...