After one hundred and seventy-odd posts about other people's writing, I figure I might be forgiven for taking a brief moment to yap on about some writing of my own. Next week sees the release of the seventh volume of
The Sleepers Almanac which, for those who don't know, is an always-exciting compendium of short stories by new and established writers, put out annually by Australia's finest independent publisher,
Sleepers. The publication of the first six volumes were, to me, worthy of celebration, but I'm shouting this one from the rooftops because it contains my first piece of published fiction (as opposed to the reams of newspaper columns, reviews and academic articles), a story called "
The Prisoner of Babel". I'm told the story is funny, though I thought it horrifying when writing it. I guess, as I told the editor, one cannot judge one's own children (actually I told her that I was willing to accept that my child is a little shit, even if I can't see it). Either way, hopefully, you'll like it because right about now I feel like I'm standing in front of the class naked!
The Sleepers Almanac is being launched at
Bella Union Bar in
Trades Hall (corner Lygon Street and Victoria Street, Carlton in Melbourne) at 6.30pm on Thursday December 1.
Jessica Au will be hosting the show and I shall be doing a brief reading from my story, as will four of the other authors,
Rosanna Stevens,
Julie Koh,
Eric Dando and
Pierz Newton-John. If you're in Melbourne and can drag yourself away from the computer screen for an hour, please come down and help celebrate great Australian writing (hey, it'll be worth it just to find out if
Pierz is related to
Olivia and
Eric is related to
Evan). If you are unable to make it to the launch, make sure you pick up a copy of the Almanac at your favourite independent bookstore when you next stop in. There will also be a
Sleepers Almanac iPhone App, but more on that as it comes to hand.
Posts
2 comments:
Congratulations, Mr. Worm. I look forward to reading your story. I might even make it to the launch. There is, of course, nothing preventing a work of fiction from being horrifying and funny. And a good combination it is too.
Thanks James. After the awful year I've had it was a very gratifying kicker. Sleepers pretty much saved 2011 for me! Hope to see you and Kate at the launch!
Post a Comment