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Capering criminally with the challenge: what I read for Australian Women Writers 2013
In 2013, I joined the Australian Women Writers blog and project as the non-fiction contributing editor. This meant I also ended up taking the challenge of at least reading if not reviewing various books by female Australian authors. I read, I reviewed, I interviewed. Here's the round up of the books, the authors and the fun.
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So who won the Australia Day Book Giveaway?
Who won the haul? That’s what you want to know right? What haul? This haul! Which I have to say is a pretty amazing haul. But what I found amazing were your comments. Thank you guys. It was really interesting to see what your favourite poems were and the reasons why as well. So while my cat ponders which one of you is lucky enough to win (or is distasteful enough that she doesn’t swallow the piece of paper your name is written on), let’s see some of your poetry favourites. KathArine (who does spell her name like that) kicks us off with Robert Frost: “Nature’s first green is gold,…
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AWW 2013: Marj McRae's Not A Man
“The hero is an eunuch.” said the author Marj McRae. “Wait, what?” was my reaction. She emailed me the link, I downloaded Not A Man in e-book form and dove in. An eunuch – I expected there to be a few descriptions of not so very nice things – violence and rape. I mean, it’s a young boy being castrated. And frankly, I was stunned by the level of research and detail. I now know a lot of very interesting things about castration and about Oxford. That’s right, Oxford. As in Oxford University. You see, Shuki, is not content with the fate of other eunuchs – lovable as along as…
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International Women's Day: "Woman"
“Woman”. That word scares me a bit. I don’t know what it means to be a woman. No, wait. Scratch that. I do know what it means to be a woman. But I don’t fit. Years ago, I was writing a weekly column for a newspaper. One day, someone asked me if I was a feminist. The question stumped me. I knew I was all for equality but I had never really bothered with the concept of feminism before. I knew the very definition of it had altered so fast over three decades. But this was a good idea for a column and hey, those were in short supply. So I…
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International Women's Day: And the backlash has started…
Note: This is my second attempt at writing this so it isn’t as wonderful as the first one was. Also these articles were originally posted as part of the blogging challenge for International Women’s Day on Emergen. It’s almost half past eight. Most of my friends have now woken up and headed off to work and have logged on to at the very least wish each other “Happy IWD day”. I’d like to think that they knew about the date and event because I’ve been harping on about it on FB for awhile. But as with anyone supporting any cause, there is a backlash. There have been a few negative…
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International Women's Day: What do we talk about?
When the invitation was waved in front of my nose, to blog for International Women’s Day (if I hadn’t jumped in willingly, I am sure Janine Ripper would have twisted my arm or blackmailed me somehow), I was excited but I felt at a loss. I don’t think gender should be an issue – as in that it is such an accepted part of life that it ceases to be part of what identifies you unless you wish it to be. And so, I wondered, “What am I going to discuss?” especially as I see a lot of issues as being human issues, complicated, yes, by gender inequality and…
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Review of Mark Hilton's New Album at RTR FM
The latest music review for the RTR FM radio station by Marisa Wikramanayake on the album A Good Man by Mark Hilton & The Lavender Girls. Marisa Wikramanayake is a freelance writer and editor based in Fremantle, Australia.
