The March Nutshell
Nova Weetman, Chapters For Change, Ghost Story, and Story Tools
Dear Reader,
I didn’t plan it this way but my March 2023 nutshell was also fronted by Nova Weetman — then a children’s author, now also a memoirist: Love, Death & Other Scenes, published this week by UQP, is about to slip into many of your hearts. Written in the immediate aftermath of the death of her partner, the playwright Aidan Fennessy, this account of Nova’s life is a gift to any reader. It is brilliant, down-to-earth, generous, perceptive, warm-blooded, honest writing.
I was there when she wrote it — in the sense that Nova would text me when, bleary-eyed, I was only just drinking my first coffee of the day, to say that she’d been up for hours already, writing it — and we are close friends, co-writers and confidantes, but reading the finished version of Love, Death & Other Scenes was my reminder that you never know what someone is going through. Not really. Not until a writer of Nova’s skill invites you into the full spectrum of their experience.
“Take your broken heart, make it into art,” Meryl Streep recalled her friend Carrie Fisher saying. That’s what Nova Weetman has so ingeniously done. Find it at your favourite bookstore from 3rd April; here’s a start.
This month on Voracious
I’m making my way through the 51 books assigned to me in a literary award and it’s an eye-opening experience that occasionally makes me feel like a goose being fattened for Christmas. Naturally I can’t talk about the books so I’ve been drawing on experiences rather than current reading for my posts.
In Judge Dread: How to be semi-sensible (ish) about awards, I shared my childhood history with award-receiving, the subsequent dry patch, and why literary awards are ultimately about agreement and how that may help those of us in the running not to fall apart over them. Then in Minis #5: Surviving Tiny Arrows: A way of thinking about the indignities of being a writer, I described how a Ladybird Classic gave me perspective when I hit some rejections recently. And finally I shared 5 of my Writerly Confessions.
I’ve also unlocked Finding Kate Kelly, written to mark the publication of Outlaw Girls.
Chapters for Change: July Readathon
I’ve become an ambassador for Chapters For Change, raising funds to help improve children’s literacy in Cambodia. They’re running a readathon this July. Each reader sets a goal — from a Literary Marathon of 20 books down to a Quartet Quest of 4 books. I’ll be fresh from award-judging so I’m imagining a Quartet Quest will suit me— perhaps a middle-grade, a YA, a fiction and a non-fiction. You can register your interest for the readathon here. Of course you can read whatever you like for it but closer to the time I’ll let you know which books I’m going to read — we could raise money as a Voracious community and read the same books, or you can do it separately or make your own team. Let me know if you feel like taking part. Chapters For Change is part of Human & Hope and you can read about their impact here.
Watching:
Two cases of “the book was better” for me: I watched Three Women on Stan and Apples Never Fall on Binge and neither came anywhere near the experience of reading the books by the same name, by Lisa Taddeo and Liane Moriarty, despite being beautifully shot and having great leads.
But do watch the astoundingly good Season 4 of True Detective (Binge) starring Jodi Foster and Kali Reis, set in a fictional Alaskan town — it is scary and complex with a superb cast, it is also night-time for the entire season and I reckon it’s the most arresting telly I’ve seen since Succession.
Listening:
Two strong recommendations: an episode of This American Life called Yousef, which is a series of phone calls with a Gazan man between early December and March. And a 7-part series called Ghost Story — which is everything I love in one series: flawed family history coming to light + uncanny coincidences + larger-than-life characters + justice for a brilliant, hidden woman. Binge it, go on.
Reading:
I’m keeping track of the new releases I want to return to when judging is over. Lani and the Universe by Victoria Carless because I loved her previous middle-grade, Gus and the Starlight; To and Fro by debut Anton Clifford-Motopi because it was recommended by H. Hayek when I interviewed her (you can listen to our chat here); Wurtoo by Tylissa Elisara and Dylan Finney because it has been described as Blinky Bill meets Winnie the Pooh; Return to Sender by Lauren Draper because I saw an advanced reader copy on the counter of a bookstore and it was all I could do not to swipe it — Lauren’s debut YA was beautifully written and romantic and reminded me of some of my favourite Australian YA writers; Butter by Asako Yuzuki because of this Guardian review; Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck because someone somewhere on the internet gave a compelling reason and dammit I can’t remember what or who but I am fully committed nevertheless to one day reading this book.
Finally, Story Tools
There are so many educators subscribing now that I thought I’d let you know about Series 3 of Story Tools, a creative writing toolkit for school students featuring a huge cast of Australian writers, illustrators and book-makers. I’m in Lessons 1 (All About Conflict) and 2 (Plot Twists) — these were filmed in my apartment and feature my pets, much-more-famous-than-me bookcase, and most importantly my best advice for young writers. Scripted by authors and illustrators and then shot and edited by professional filmmakers, with short targeted lessons, I believe this is the best creative writing series for schools.
Goodbye March, here’s to April. X
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I love the idea of a readathon to raise money - count me in!