AustLit

‘Show, don't tell’ is a common axiom in creative writing classes but the short-short story form complicates this idea. Often, in micro- and flash fiction it is through telling and implication that showing occurs. Taking that into account, I will argue that in the micro- and flash context, where brevity defines the narrative parameters, the relationship between showing and telling is one connected to pacing and the narrative construction of time. That is, what the author chooses to show and tell often impacts on the representation of temporality. This will be explored critically and creatively via case studies ‘Insect Wisdom’ and ‘Note to Self’.' (Publication abstract)

'With heightened funding pressures on Australian universities, academics are being placed under more pressure to increase class sizes. Creative writing workshops, where students provide feedback on each other’s creative work, can be rigorous and demanding sites for teachers in ways that differ from ‘traditional’ classroom settings. This article surveys critical research on class sizes and the workshop model, as well as third-year University of Wollongong creative writing student perspectives, arguing that the in-person workshop model, while imperfect, remains vital to the discipline of creative writing. When successful, it can teach students the technical elements of craft as well as the skills to build workshop communities, consider process and develop a sense of who their audiences are. However, increasing class sizes make it difficult, if not impossible, to fulfil these potentials, and put the workshop at risk. If creative writing academics don’t fight for manageable workshop student numbers, our very discipline will be at risk with the rise of the information economy, as outlined by Paul Mason (2015).'  (Publication abstract)

'Fear is an overlooked aspect of the PhD experience, both for the creative writing doctoral candidate and the supervisor. The exegesis can be a source of fear precisely because of questions around what it is and what it should look like. Drawing on experiences on both sides of the supervisory relationship, this article proposes that clear structural models for the exegesis allow students to focus their efforts on the substance of the academic component of their research project. We also argue for the rewarding nature of a research project that engages both in practice-led research and critical scholarship. We propose that alternating between the exegesis and the creative project can yield surprising results for creative writers attempting a large-scale academic work for the first time.' (Publication abstract)

Research background :

'While many author interviews address fiction writers and their experiences with research in passing, there are few substantial meditations on the subject. This nonfiction creative research piece ‘Getting my hands dirty: research and writing’ dissects the author’s experience of research through a non-fiction narrative and discussion piece that examines how experiential research can impact both the text and author of contemporary fiction. '

'Two Americans are presumed dead and nine people are trapped in a cabin after an avalanche falls in the remote Andes...

Told from five points of view, What the Ground Can't Hold follows:

Emma, an Australian faced with an impossible decision that could see her parents jailed.

Jack, a teenager obsessed with Jack Kerouac, anti-globalism and sex.

Carmen, a tango dancer whose estranged father is dying of cancer.

Pedro, the cabin manager, who's in hiding from his ex-wife.

And Wolfe, an American on a deadly family quest.

With food supplies dwindling, these unlikely companions are forced to extremes and discover they are bound by more than their surroundings – each has a secret that links them to Argentina's Dirty War.

What the Ground Can't Hold is a mesmerising debut about the ways the past closes in on the present, and shatters the foundations upon which we build our lives.' (Publisher's blurb)

'She Played Elvis is the story of a trip that Shady, a young American immigrant to Australia, undertakes with her Australian boyfriend to rediscover her homeland - which, after several years in Australia, doesn't necessarily feel like "home" anymore. As part of the journey, the pair decide to make a pilgrimage across America, travelling on Greyhound buses, to get to Graceland for the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, with Shady busking and singing Elvis songs at cities and towns along the way.

'As they travel across America, memories of her past begin to surface and Shady realises that while she is coming to understand the meaning of "home", she is also untangling the knotted threads of her difficult relationship with her estranged, erratic, unreliable and often violent father.

'A moving, witty and original meditation on the idea of pilgrimage, family, home and loss, She Played Elvis is a classic road story and a journey of self-discovery set to an Elvis soundtrack; a story told with a clear-eyed, intelligent, unforgettable grace.' (From the publisher's website.)