Author Archives:
Column: Books and Writing
‘Objectifying objects’: pre-emptive nostalgia and books
Here we are in the middle of one of the most significant communication technology revolutions since the development of the printing press – and it seems we are enchanted with the past. I’m not talking about Downton Abbey or Mad Men, although they do evince the trend. … Read more
Column: Film and TV
Glamour over grit at the AACTA Awards Ceremony
On Tuesday 31 January 2012 the first Samsung Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) award ceremony was broadcast on Channel 9 from the Sydney Opera House. The AACTA Awards have replaced the Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards in an admirable attempt by the AFI to … Read more
Column: Art / Music / Theatre
Living a Pop Life: The rise and fall of Smash Hits Australia
Eighteen months ago, while I was clearing out old boxes at my parents’ house, I came across a relic from my childhood: two Smash Hits sticker sheets, intact, covered with my favourite pop artists and TV stars. Mariah Carey, the Backstreet Boys, Hanson, Jonathan Taylor Thomas … Read more
Column: Books and Writing
The stories that numbers tell: Jane Gleeson-White’s Double Entry
Jane Gleeson-White is a doyenne of the Australian literary scene. She is the author of two books on literature (Classics and Australian Classics), the fiction editor at Overland magazine and the blogger behind Bookish Girl. It is only natural, therefore, that her new book should be about … Read more
Classics
‘They have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing’: Catch-22
In our new ‘Classics’ series, we ask writers to read – or reread – literary classics. In this first instalment, Claire Corbett discovers the military horrors of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. For a new reader, a novel’s status as a classic can obscure its true achievements because its … Read more
News
Announcing the Kill Your Darlings columnists
As part of Kill Your Darlings’ commitment to in-depth arts coverage, we have selected nine regular Killings columnists to cover Australian books and writing; film and television; and music, theatre and visual arts throughout 2012. We’re delighted to announce that the Killings Australian books and writing columnists … Read more
Comment
Ethnic diversity on Australian television
When I wrote my piece on memory, migration and MasterChef for Issue Seven of Kill Your Darlings, I mentioned that Poh Ling Yeow (Adelaide-based visual artist and cook of Malaysian-Chinese origin) had become a role model of sorts. Not only was she the runner-up in the first … Read more
Books
Hanging out with television stars: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
I generally try to avoid the US version of The Office, as I do any US remake of a television show, as I often find them too in-your-face and more contrived than the original. The comedic memoir and collection of essays by Mindy Kaling – a writer … Read more
Literary Links
Amusements and distractions
Killings brings you our fortnightly selection of posts that have amused, enlightened and generally distracted us. ‘The common view is that the Scottish English adjective wee means little.’ Or is it a vehicle for conventional implicature? ‘Authors beware’: at Liticism, Bethanie Blanchard’s interview with Steve Rossiter on … Read more
Books
Review: A plot thickened? Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot
It has been a long wait between books for fans of Jeffrey Eugenides: his door-stopper of a novel Middlesex won the Pulitzer Prize back in 2002. However, readers hoping for a similar multi-generational epic will be surprised by The Marriage Plot. Middlesex was a clever queering of … Read more
Books
Review: A plot thickened? Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot
It has been a long wait between books for fans of Jeffrey Eugenides: his door-stopper of a novel Middlesex won the Pulitzer Prize back in 2002. However, readers hoping for a similar multi-generational epic will be surprised by The Marriage Plot. Middlesex was a clever queering of … Read more
From the Trenches
From the Trenches: Submission Beach
Writing is a battlefield. Our new column, ‘From the Trenches’, brings you tales from the front line. In this instalment, Kent MacCarter ponders the necessary evil of submissions. I am stuck in a birth canal. Our birth canal: the passage that guides its subjects into some semblance … Read more
Podcast
Podcast: Steven Amsterdam’s What the Family Needed
Steven Amsterdam is the author of acclaimed novel Things We Didn’t See Coming, and his new book, What the Family Needed, has been called ‘a wonderfully fresh perspective on families’, as well as ‘a probing exploration of familial love and forbearance’. In What the Family Needed, members … Read more
Podcast
Podcast: Steven Amsterdam’s What the Family Needed
Steven Amsterdam is the author of acclaimed novel Things We Didn’t See Coming, and his new book, What the Family Needed, has been called ‘a wonderfully fresh perspective on families’, as well as ‘a probing exploration of familial love and forbearance’. In What the Family Needed, members … Read more
From the Editors
‘What did you think?’: How e-readers will affect bookish conversations
I’ve finally bitten the bullet: I now have a digital reading device. The latest metal-and-plastic addition to my life has given me a few interesting days (heavenly: bookshop browsing from my bed; hellish: e-store account proliferation and administration). I haven’t had the chance yet to be very … Read more
On Writing
On writing: Kate Holden
I always imagined writers worked in sunny, airy offices, green leaves waving beyond the window, a ray of golden light striking the writer’s unfurrowed brow, a teapot and a bunch of jonquils beside them on the desk, a little light Mozart on the stereo, thoughts beaming from … Read more
Recommended Reading
Recommended reading: Charlotte Wood’s touchstone books
I always baulk when asked about my favourite book – even my favourite books – of all time. How can I possibly have favourites? The books I seek out change all the time, according to the weather, my mood, what I’m writing and what I’ve just read. … Read more
Literary Links
Amusements and distractions
Killings brings you our fortnightly selection of posts that have amused, enlightened and generally distracted us. Beyond Angry Birds: seriously, what’s next? Australian translator Chris Andrews on a new César Aira translation. Why is Keira Knightley in all the film adaptations of books? Fun Middlesex book club … Read more
Reviews
Encouraging disbelief: Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84
People talk of ‘high concept’ fiction, but I’ll confess I’ve never understood what altitude has to do with it. Wouldn’t ‘narrow concept’ be closer to the truth? A high-concept novel takes one ingenious notion and bends everything else – character, narrative, style – around it. The result … Read more
Reviews
Encouraging disbelief: Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84
People talk of ‘high concept’ fiction, but I’ll confess I’ve never understood what altitude has to do with it. Wouldn’t ‘narrow concept’ be closer to the truth? A high-concept novel takes one ingenious notion and bends everything else – character, narrative, style – around it. The result … Read more
Film
What do you want to do for the rest of your life? Miranda July’s The Future
In her various incarnations as screenwriter, fiction writer and artist, Miranda July has demonstrated a preoccupation with the less-trodden paths of human connection. Take her debut film, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which saw a middle-aged man kick off a sexual relationship with two … Read more
Film
What do you want to do for the rest of your life? Miranda July’s The Future
In her various incarnations as screenwriter, fiction writer and artist, Miranda July has demonstrated a preoccupation with the less-trodden paths of human connection. Take her debut film, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which saw a middle-aged man kick off a sexual relationship with two … Read more
Books
The Ampersand Project: Unearthing the secret lives of teenagers
Like most editors, my colleagues and I get people pitching us book ideas wherever we go. When a certain kind of someone discovers that you have the power to grant a book deal, it turns out they’ve written a story about their cat or have an unfinished … Read more
Books
I, Vandal
Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. Only with a pencil, but still, I’m incurable. Every book I read, I scribble in the margins. With library books I do it lightly and always erase after the event – promise. With books I own, the doodles lie wantonly … Read more
Comment
Does the fate of bookshops rest on the fate of books?
Recently, I went to Berwick St in Soho with a DJ friend of mine who was in London for a few days. Once hailed as having the greatest concentration of record shops in Britain – back in the 1990s, Berwick St had more than 20 independent stores … Read more
Books
A subjective sport: The Meanjin Tournament of Books
Two months ago I went to an event at the Wheeler Centre and found myself taking part in both a feminist discussion and a social reading quest: the Meanjin Tournament of Books has been an excellent literary adventure. First, the confession: I didn’t end up reading all … Read more
From the Editors
Back issues of Kill Your Darlings all $10!
In the lead-up to Christmas, in addition to our subscription special, all back issues of Kill Your Darlings are just $10 each! This means that any issue of KYD except the current one will cost a mere tenner. Snap up KYD at this special price here, for … Read more
Literary Links
Amusements and distractions
Killings brings you our fortnightly selection of posts that have amused, enlightened and generally distracted us. Phew: rumours of Hunger Games nail polish are untrue. (Cleanse the bad feeling from your mouth with the full-length trailer of the forthcoming film.) Lewis Lapham’s revolutionary reading list. Diablo Cody … Read more
Reviews
Bittersweet tale of loss and hope: Vendela Vida’s The Lovers
In spite of its title, The Lovers is not a romance story in any conventional sense. Instead, it functions as a kind of anti-romance, exploring themes of grief, perception, self-awareness, and ultimately hope and the possibility for redemption. Yvonne has been widowed for two years. Her life … Read more
Notes from
Notes from Athens
1. In September this year, Nella Themelios and I curated an exhibition at ReMap3 for BUS Projects entitled Kerameikou 32. ReMap is a contemporary art festival that started in 2007 and runs alongside the Athens Biennale. The festival takes place in the Kerameikos-Metaxourgeio (KM) area of downtown … Read more
