Author Archives:
From the Editors
From the editors: Hannah Kent’s culture picks for 2011
With 2011 now hurtling to a close, I’m finding myself increasingly thinking back on the year that was. All the New Year’s resolutions I didn’t keep (write a diary, wear less black, look up ‘pulchritude’), the various skills acquired (baking kanelbullar, learning how to pronounce Colm Tóibín, … Read more
Books
‘I saw a deal of blood’: The Roving Party by Rohan Wilson
The Roving Party is the poised debut of Rohan Wilson, and the deserving winner of the 2011 Australian/Vogel award. Set in 1829, the novel is a re-imagining of the ‘Black War’ that saw the indigenous population of Tasmania hunted, killed and corralled by British Colonialists. Read more
From the Editors
Northern Lights, Madness and Mayonnaise: The Truth about Writers’ Retreats (Part 2)
A few months after I met Peter Bishop of Varuna Writers’ House, I received an email inviting applications for residency at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre in Western Australia, another retreat where writers may find ‘a space’ in which to progress their writing. Like Varuna, KSP … Read more
From the Editors
Northern Lights, Madness and Mayonnaise: The Truth about Writers’ Retreats (Part 1)
Everyone has their reading habits. There are the ‘thou-shalt-not-crack-the-spine’ folks who read like perverts, peeking between narrowly opened pages. There are those who open books like they’re skinning rabbits, ripping the cover right around and ravaging any semblance of binding. There are the origami-ists, the ‘I-must-dog-ear-this-novel-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life’ readers, … Read more
From the Editors
Hunches and the historical novel
I have always tried hard not to mysticise the creative process. To me, imagination, although precious and powerful, is not supernatural; ideas come to us through a process of conscious and subconscious suggestion. Writers draw upon facts, or experience; they write from a position of knowledge or … Read more
News
Booing idiots, ‘accidental’ groping and Florence and the Machine: Blissed out at Melbourne’s Laneway Festival
Yes, it’s that time of year again, where the young and old get their toes tapping to the tunes all around Australia: music festival season. With events like Big Day Out, Laneway, Good Vibrations, Soundwave, V Festival, Future Music and Bluesfest storming cities around the country, there’s … Read more
Books
Literary Gluttony: Hannah Kent on Holiday Reading
Ah, Christmas holidays. That special time of year filled with endearing family spats, sunburn that leads to ridiculous tan lines, and what my friend likes to call ‘meat sweats’ from days spent overeating at the beach, park, or token relative’s bottle- or cat-strewn backyard. A time to tie … Read more
Interviews
Interview with a Porn Star: Kill Your Darlings speaks with Monica Mayhem
Pornography, and the mainstreaming of porn in our society, is a divisive issue. Does porn encourage misogyny and sexual violence, or is it a necessary part of society? Can porn help save relationships, or does it encourage unrealistic expectations of sex? Does it provide a necessary outlet … Read more
News
A Walk to Remember
About a week ago, I was sitting at my desk at home when I had a rather horrifying realisation. It had been a long day – I had worked steadily at my computer from seven-thirty in the morning until six at night, without stopping for lunch. … Read more
Events
Kill Your Darlings Radelaide Literary Trivia Night
After the success of our first public event in Melbourne in September, Kill Your Darlings decided to spread the literary love across the nation and ran another trivia night in Adelaide on Wednesday the 28th of October. Held at the delightful ‘Wheaty‘, nine tables battled it out through … Read more
News
Adelaide Writers’ Week Line-Up
Arguably Australia’s most exciting and influential writers’ festival, Adelaide Writers’ Week is back in February 2010. With the names of the visiting authors announced yesterday, it looks like a doozy. It’s a stellar line-up. Not only will some of Australia’s finest be there – Christos Tsiolkas, Andrea … Read more
News
Money For Nothing: Flirting with Striptease
I have never been one to get my boobs out at a party. I’ve never become intimately acquainted with a bespangled g-string, and the closest I’ve come to tabletop dancing is standing on the kitchen bench to change a light bulb. Don’t get me wrong – I’m … Read more
Books
Head Trauma, Heartache and Hunchbacks
The Occupational Health and Safety Risks of Being a Writer and Reader I recently had to suffer through a conversation with someone who was convinced that my job, as a writer, reader and editor, was ‘soft’. ‘My brother’s in construction,’ they told me, ‘and I’m a fireman. … Read more
Books
The Ghosts of Readers Past
I’m terribly fond of second-hand books. Not only are they cheap and smell wonderfully dusty, but I don’t feel guilty if I inadvertently spill spaghetti sauce, beer, or shampoo (don’t ask) onto their pages. If I buy a crisp new novel, then accidentally splatter ink onto its … Read more
