The UTS Writers' Anthology

1. What was the name of the first story you ever wrote, and what was it about?
I don’t remember what it was called, but it was definitely about me and my true-life dog, Henrietta.

2. Where do you get most of your writing done?
All over the place. In transit, while walking, in bed, at gigs.

3. Internet on or off while you’re writing?
Off for drafting ideas, but on for editing and re-writing.

4. Which book/poem do you wish you’d written?

The Great Gatsby. I always fall for tragic love stories, and this one managed to both memorialise a now bygone time and place whilst also transcending it, enduring over generations.

5. Favourite writer?

Anais Nin, Capote, Pablo Neruda, Fitzgerald, Harper Lee, Richard Brautigan, Marquez, Salinger…too many more to name.

6. Favourite fictional character?

Arturo Bandini. And Holly Golightly.
 

7. Writing stimulant of choice?

Coffee, first - then numerous pots of tea to give me something to do while thinking, without getting jittery.

8. Who would play you in a movie adaptation of your life?

In my dreams: Anna Karenina circa Alphaville. It’d be a French re-make of my life.

9. Best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?

Raymond Carver said that the best writers create a world according to their own ‘unique and exact way of looking at things’ and find the right way to express that way of seeing.
He also was a proponent of “no cheap tricks”. I respect that. I hate gimmicks.

10. If you could only read and re-read one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

One Hundred Years of Solitude, because it contains the essence of more than one lifetime.

11. Which book do you only pretend to like to look cool/well-read?

Catcher in the Rye. I do love Salinger (To Esme, Franny & Zooey) but that one is not my favourite.

12. What are you working on at the moment?

Short story ideas, songs and unfinished emails to friends overseas that I miss.

 1. What was the name of the first story you ever wrote, and what was it about?

‘The Adventures of Doo Bert the Dragon’ which was about medieval travels. I wrote it for the little kids on holiday at the Bright Caravan Park. I was 11 so I formed a club and wrote a chapter a night for them.

2. Where do you get most of your writing done?

In bed.

3. Internet on or off while you’re writing?

Off. I write by hand. Except scripts then it’s everything ON.

4. Which book/poem do you wish you’d written?

 Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

5. Favourite writer?

Ruth Park - for her versatility and humanity.

6. Favourite fictional character?

 Silas Marner

7. Writing stimulant of choice?

Chocolate

8. Who would play you in a movie adaptation of your life?

 Cate Blanchet. She could do gangly, freckled, Aussie outback kid really well.

9. Best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received? 

Just do it.

10. If you could only read and re-read one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot

11. Which book do you only pretend to like to look cool/well-read?

The Slap

12. What are you working on at the moment?

 A creative non-fiction piece about the Ribbon Boys, who believe in the rebel myth and die young.

1. What was the name of the first story you ever wrote, and what was it about? 

I was making up stories and pretending for as long as I can remember, but the clearest early tale was about a hippo having a tea party.

2. Where do you get most of your writing done?

In bed with about five pillows propping me up.

3. Internet on or off while you’re writing?

On – I like to research/fact check while I write.

4. Which book/poem do you wish you’d written?

‘Why Did I Ever’ by Mary Robison, T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland’, and Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

5. Favourite writer?

An equal tie between Amy Hempel and Mary Robison: I would read their shopping lists if I could.

6. Favourite fictional character? 

Scarlett O’Hara, Brett in ‘The Sun Also Rises’, the fictionalised Antonia Quirke in her memoir ‘Madame Depardieu and the Beautiful Strangers’ – all strong, witty and deeply flawed characters. Also, all kind of arseholes in one way or another.

7. Writing stimulant of choice?

Coffee, always – not just for writing, but the driving force behind my life.

8. Who would play you in a movie adaptation of your life?

Ahhh… in my dreams it would be Winona Ryder circa ‘Reality Bites’ or Natalie Wood circa ‘Splendour in the Grass’

9. Best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received? 

I don’t think I’ve ever received specific advice on how to write and I’m not sure if it’s a practice that you can be advised on. However, I’ve received a lot of support from certain people over the years and the underlying current of all their encouragement which I have found to hold true is to not think too much while you write, don’t let fear break the flow. Normally when I’m not writing it’s because there are issues in my own mind that I’m avoiding at the time.

10. If you could only read and re-read one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be? Amy Hempel’s collected stories.

11. Which book do you only pretend to like to look cool/well-read? 

I’ve probably exaggerated my like of Irvine Welsh/Bret Easton Ellis to impress one boy or another. To those boys: Apologies for the bended truths. In all honesty, I enjoyed ‘Trainspotting’ the movie over the book, because deciphering the jargon annoyed me, and I really do enjoy Ellis but he’s not exactly Tolstoy, is he?

12. What are you working on at the moment?

I get paranoid that if I talk about something before it’s done I’ll ruin it, therefore: not telling.

1. What was the name of the first story you ever wrote, and what was it about?

I plagarised/borrowed from one of Spike Milligans poems. I think I was only 7 - Josephine … about a young girl who bathes in gasoline.

2. Where do you get most of your writing done?

Assorted

3. Internet on or off while you’re writing?

Mostly off

4. Which book/poem do you wish you’d written?

The first half of Atonement.

5. Favourite writer?

Right now … Janette Turner Hospital and J.M. Coetzee.

6. Favourite fictional character?

T. S. Garp (from ‘The Wold According to Garp’), and Briony (from the first half of ‘Atonement’)

7. Writing stimulant of choice?

Coffee and hiking

8. Who would play you in a movie adaptation of your life?

Judy Davis (I’ve been told my whole life that we look alike)

9. Best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?

Bums on seats. Plant a killer first line

10. If you could only read and re-read one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

‘Anna Karenina’ or ‘A Secret History’

11. Which book do you only pretend to like to look cool/well-read?

My Grade 2 SRA Readers

12. What are you working on at the moment?

Short prose non-fiction that reads like a story!

1. What was the name of the first story you ever wrote, and what was it about? 

The first stories I ever made up were about my stuffed toys kidnapping my sister’s Barbies and holding them hostage on a bunk bed mountain….Troubling if you think about it.

2. Where do you get most of your writing done?

On my darling laptop, in my bed.

3. Internet on or off while you’re writing?

On. Always on.

4. Which book/poem do you wish you’d written?

‘Gone with the Wind’…. or any poetry by Richard Siken.

5. Favourite fictional character? 

Scarlett O’Hara. 

6. Writing stimulant of choice?

a)      Tea

b)      Coffee

c)      Booze

d)      Energy Drink

e)      Other (please specify)

All of the above in a variety of combinations, depending on the day.

7. Who would play you in a movie adaptation of your life?

I’d like to say Keira Knightley or Penelope Cruz but apparently I look like Christa Theret. 

8. Best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received? 

Be honest, especially with yourself.

9. If you could only read and re-read one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

‘Gone with the Wind’ - it’s not hip or particularly literary but I love it.

10. Which book do you only pretend to like to look cool/well-read? 

Sometimes I pretend to have read the Harry Potter series to avoid being hugely ostracised, but really, I only read the first one recently and wasn’t that fussed.

11. What are you working on at the moment?

When I know what it’s about I’ll let you know. 

1. What was the name of the first story you ever wrote, and what was it about?

One of the first memorable stories I ever wrote was a creative piece in response to Frankenstein in Year Ten (or Year Eleven); I had been writing attempted poetry in notebooks for years and this was the first time I started to enjoy writing ‘stories’. The piece was about a doctor who was trying to interbreed a cat and a young girl, who had been sent to his laboratory by her parents as she was a rebel child and badly behaved. She was locked in a single white room during the time of the pregnancy, and she could only speak to the voice of the doctor: she never met him, although through conversation they developed a strange friendship. She gives birth to the ‘thing’, the doctor realise he is in some sort of love with the girl, and she then gets eaten alive by the ‘thing’ she gave birth to.

2. Where do you get most of your writing done?

In public spaces, mainly. The more open and echo-ey the better, as I am able to zone out and just type away.

3. Internet on or off while you’re writing?

On if I need to research more about my ideas: like illnesses or names of animals, places etc. However it is off if I just propel and write or am writing in my notebook.

4. Which book/poem do you wish you’d written?

There are too many books/ poems that are worthy of attention to be able to do an answer to this question justice.

5. Favourite writer?

Camus, Baudelaire, Banana Yoshimoto, Angela Carter, Cormac McCarthy, Michel Houellebecq, David Nicholson, Coetzee, Nabakov, Marquez, Kimiko Hahn… there are lots.

6. Favourite fictional character?

I am going to answer with two from when I was twelve and sixteen. When I was twelve I loved a girl called Kestrel from the ‘Wind on Fire’ series by David Nicholson, and when I was sixteen, I had a bizarre love affair with Michel Houellebecq’s ‘Atomized’ characters (brothers) Michel and Bruno. Now I interchange my favourite character depending on what I am reading.

7. Writing stimulant of choice?

Morning coffee, and pots of tea.

8. Who would play you in a movie adaptation of your life?

I highly doubt that I will have a film made out of my life…and if it was to happen it would be when I was happily passed to another place, so it would a female whose name I could not tell you.

9. Best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received? 

‘Make sure you’re readers work hard for their cheese’- from a Professor in the United States who described short fiction as like setting a trap for your reader, but finally letting them get their cheese, after they’ve had their fingers snapped.

10. If you could only read and re-read one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

I have an endless pile of books still to read that could be the one that I read for the rest of my life, so until I’ve read everything I don’t know.

11. Which book do you only pretend to like to look cool/well-read?

‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins

12. What are you working on at the moment?

I am working on a story involving puddles and light and shadow play.

1. What was the name of the first story you ever wrote, and what was it about?

The first I’ll admit to was called ‘Apples In My Bedroom (Snakes All The Way Baby)’, about a crocheted blanket and a teenage boy’s descent into depravity.

2. Where do you get most of your writing done?

At work, between bits of actual work – the joy of being self-employed.

3. Internet on or off while you’re writing?

On. For, umm, research purposes.

4. Which book/poem do you wish you’d written?

Catch-22.

5. Favourite writer?

Haruki Murakami, Neil Gaiman, Carl Hiaasen and Hunter S. Thompson can arm wrestle for it.

6. Favourite fictional character?

Ignatius Reilly from ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’.

7. Writing stimulant of choice?

Coffee/Booze/Coffee with booze in it

8. Who would play you in a movie adaptation of your life?

If you have the choice you’ve got to say Johnny Depp, haven’t you? It would be a pretty boring movie though.

9. Best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received? 

Always have a notebook handy, and remember to use it.

10. If you could only read and re-read one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

Catch-22. I could read that in an infinite loop.

11. Which book do you only pretend to like to look cool/well-read?

I pretend to read and enjoy all manner of (clears throat) literature so I wouldn’t like to limit myself to just one pretend-y cool one.

12. What are you working on at the moment?

A Hiaasen-esque eco-romp through convict and contemporary Tasmania. At least, that’s what I’m aiming for. 

What was the name of the first story you ever wrote, and what was it about?

It is still my favourite story: Opera dei Pupi. It describes a puppeteer who is mourning the loss of his wife and child. One day I will convince Frank Woodley to play the puppeteer in a short film. He will be beautiful.

Where do you get most of your writing done?

Sadly, in my head.

Internet on or off while you’re writing?

On for research … just a little more research and it will all fall into place…

Which book/poem do you wish you’d written?

‘Copenhagen’, a play by Michael Frayn. My piece in the UTS Anthology is a derivative of this play.

Favourite writer?

The Australian poet Robert Gray. I was blessed to have him as a lecturer. Who needs a paint brush when you have eyes and words?

Favourite fictional character?

Me as a lauded writer.

Writing stimulant of choice?

A good book.

Who would play you in a movie adaptation of your life?

Judy Davis, of course.

Best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received? 

Sit down and write. The American Goddess Nike couldn’t have said it better herself: Just do it.

If you could only read and re-read one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

‘The Mandarins’ by Simone de Beavoir. I don’t know why it’s my life book, but when I know, I’ll probably stop reading it. 

Which book do you only pretend to like to look cool/well-read?

The books written by my lecturers, but I’ve graduated now so I don’t have to pretend anymore.  No…not true of course, although I was tempted to lie to Debra Adelaide and pretend I liked Nabakov’s  ‘Lolita’.  

What are you working on at the moment?

‘The Tabula Rasa Kid’ - a story about the consequences of a controversial method a vibrant woman uses to conceive a child. 

1. What was the name of the first story you ever wrote, and what was it about?

The first creative piece I remember writing was a poem called ‘My Jungle’. It was about sleeping on/with a lion in a beautiful but geographically and biologically unlikely jungle. I cleverly finished the story with something like ‘and then I woke up and realised it was all a dream.’

2. Where do you get most of your writing done?

In countries where I do not speak the language.

3. Internet on or off while you’re writing?

On. Then off. And inevitably on again.

4. Which book/poem do you wish you’d written?

‘Twilight’, because then I’d be rolling in the Benjamins.

5. Favourite writer?

Jonathan Franzen this month.

6. Favourite fictional character?

 Bob Katter.

7. Writing stimulant of choice?

Brains.

8. Who would play you in a movie adaptation of your life?

Nicolas Cage would play the shit out of me.

9. Best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?

Don’t end stories/poems with ‘and then I woke up’.

10. If you could only read and re-read one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be? ‘In Remembrance of Things Past’ by Marcel Proust. I wouldn’t have to re-read cause it’d take about as long as I’m comfortable with living.

11. Which book do you only pretend to like to look cool/well-read?

The Bible.

12. What are you working on at the moment?

A short film and a short story set in Mexico.

1. What was the name of the first story you ever wrote, and what was it about?

I’m not sure what was first, but a really early one was called Acrorats! It was about some mice that got superpowers from coconuts.

2. Favourite writer?

I actually hate this question because it’s too general, but I’m going to say Terry Pratchett.

3. Favourite fictional character?

Pippi Longstocking.

4. Writing stimulant of choice?

 Tea

5. Who would play you in a movie adaptation of your life?

Probably Anne Hathaway.

6. If you could only read and re-read one book for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

‘Star Rangers’ by Andre Norton.

7. What are you working on at the moment?

A sci-fi/horror graphic novel script and a philosophical short story, which are both really hard to describe without sounding like a wanker. Also, some songs and a pulp role-playing game plot. …oh, and my honours thesis.