I’ve set up a Flickr account to publish a series of photos taken as part of my various writing projects and also the research I have performed at Victoria University. They include images I shot while working in Fiji, South Africa and Italy, and also my general wanderings around my home town Footscray in Melbourne’s west.
Most of these photos have been taken using a Canon Digital SLR camera. I’m certainly not a professional, and am learning as I go along.
The Emerging Writers Festival was held in Melbourne last month. They ran some great sessions about opportunities, challenges, tips and tricks for writing and publishing in Australia. Being a writer is tough. Support networks do exist, however, and it’s refreshing to feel more connected in real world spaces when writing can be such a solitary pursuit. I only went to the festival’s opening night (which was very cool), but I did write an article about writing, rejection and uncertainty as my contribution to dialogue around young people and creativity. The piece was published by Meanjin in this month’s issue:
Meanjin is an important literary journal and it feels great to have my first story for this publication – plus Sophie Cunningham’s editorial about feminism really nailed how I and others feel about negative reactions to women in various cultural spheres:
“I’ll just say this: either women can’t sing, paint, write or think as well as they used to—certainly not well enough to offset their tendency to become less beautiful with age—or we live in a culture that does not like the things women say or does not know how to hear them when they say it.”
Wilco is band that demand respect. A few weeks ago I put myself in credit card debt to go see the Chicago based rockers at The Forum in Melbourne, Australia. They jumped and rollicked their way through a feast of Wilco gems. It seriously rocked and the punters were salivating for more. I wrote a review of the gig and it’s been published at TheDwarf.com.au – I relished the return to music writing and injected this little nugget with plenty of cheeky machismo.
Live review of Wilco in Melbourne
My new story has been published as a weekly feature at Eureka Street. High-tech Health in the Bush makes a case for affordable and user friendly technological innovation to effectively support the health and wellbeing of Australia’s diverse range of communities, such as culturally and linguistically diverse groups in rural and remote areas.
High-tech Health in the Bush
The story was a great way to draw on my travel experiences and research work in regional Australia, and also poorer communities in South Africa.
‘Primal Urges’ has been profiled in an article at HorrorSquad, a popular website dedicated to horror films. It’s accompanied by another indie short, ‘Tell Tale Heart’, based on Poe’s short story. You can see them both here and check out HorrorSquad for other gory goodies.
One of my stories that originally appeared in the Herald Sun, ‘Grandad Still Worth Gold To Me’, has been published in the book The Perfect Gift For A Man. This collection features 30 stories about reinventing manhood – very cool.
This book came together after an online campaign (Manweek) by Reachout and Triple J to encourage men to speak about their experiences.
All proceeds go to Inspire (www.inspire.org.au), an organisation dedicated to helping Australians lead happier lives.
A free version is available but please also consider buying a copy for friends and family.
Everyday Weirdness have published my new piece of flash fiction, A Shagger’s Tail. This story follows the plight of a young bloke who has just been dumped by his girlfriend via text message and comes home to find he has a new and particularly dodgy flat mate called ‘Pickles Magee’. It features giant rats, A-Team collectible figurines and late night escapades with Video Ezy shop assistants. What more could one want?
The full high quality version of Primal Urges is finally online. Eat your heart out Van Diemen’s Land, this is cannibalism in the ‘noughties.
Welcome to benomara.com! Here you can find information about my writing, research and short films.
Many thanks to Mark at eFront for the whole shebang, and Kim for the tech savvy feedback!
The end of 2009 is shaping up as conference time for me. I will be presenting on the use and application of ICT to communicate messages of health and wellbeing for refugee and migrant communities at:
I will also be presenting on writing for short film production at the 2009 AAWP Annual Conference: Margins and Mainstream, Hamilton, New Zealand, 26-28 November.