Hope For A Little Life

In her closing address to the Sydney Writer’s Festival, Hanya Yanagihara, author of the dazzling and disturbing novel, ‘A Little Life’, reportedly spoke about violence and hope. She argued that violence belongs in novels because novels are about life, and violence is...

Meryl Streep and Me

  source: Postcards from the Edge (1990), Columbia Pictures Corporation   What could Meryl Streep and I possibly have in common? Here she is singing ‘I’m Checking Out’ from the 1990 movie, ‘Postcards from the Edge’. Hear the joy in her voice? The slow build? The...

The Principles of Happiness

All week, I’ve been feeling gloomy. Down, dark, depressed, despairing, disappointed, dismal, despondent, dour, dejected. (I had no idea there were so many ‘d’ words for feeling gloomy. Isn’t English the most thrilling language?) Then a woman stops in front of my...

Weeping In The Sky

I’ve spent this week kicking and screaming and weeping. I planned to write something essential and inspirational about fiction-writing, or perhaps something cute and funny about Barney Poodle. Instead I’ve done nothing but think about Thich Quang Duc, the...

We Are Better Than This!

When I was a child, I used to hold my hand on my heart at school assembly and chant: I am an Australian. I love my country. I salute her flag. I honour her queen. I promise to obey her laws. If we were naughty in class, we received a whack with the cane but there were...

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