The Memoir Club: Michael Mohammed Ahmad in conversation with Beth Yahp

Tuesday, 24 June 2014, 6.00 - 9.00 PM

The Randwick Literary Institute,
60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031
RSVP: learn@bigpond.net.au

Next Tuesday’s Memoir Club presents a new talent that will change Australia’s contemporary literary landscape. 

 

Come share the stories of Michael Mohammed Ahmad, a young Lebanese writer from Western Sydney, whose work of autobiographical fiction offers insight into the life and customs of The Tribe, members of a small Muslim sect who fled to Australia just before the civil war in Lebanon in 1975. 

Young Bani offers a child’s unflinching yet wise view of the lives of three generations of The House of Adam:
 

"I was only seven when this happened but it always feels like right now. My Tayta raises her blouse and shows me her stomach. It’s so big it rests on her large thighs. Her skin is golden and soft, and sometimes, when she holds me close and kisses me, her body feels like a plastic bag filled with warm water. She only has a few teeth left and she smiles between them. Tayta’s hands are like wood because she has arthritis. They’re thick and brown and dry and she can hardly move them, except for when she’s preparing aa-jeen, which is what we call dough. Tayta places both her hands under the base of her stomach and she lifts. She reveals to me eleven scars that look like train tracks running in different directions just below her belly button. She points to one and she says in Arabic, ‘This is your father, Jibreel.'"

Ghassan Hage described The Tribe as ‘a significant and astonishing novel that takes us inside the cultural world of the Adam family, a socio-economically disadvantaged Australian Syro-Lebanese Alawite extended family from Sydney and Melbourne… The book is in the best tradition of ethnographic novels: it generously offers us access to a unique cultural world and describes to us some of its features, warts and all, with remarkable details.' (Overland Journal, Winter 2014)

Ground-breaking, funny, intricate and moving, The Tribe opens up Arab-Australian lives far from the racist abstractions dished out by the mainstream media. Michael Mohammed Ahmad is an exciting new literary talent, whom the Memoir Club is honoured to present this month. 

Michael Mohammed Ahmad was chief editor of Westside Publications from 2005 to 2012. His essays and stories have appeared in the Guardian, HEAT, Seizure, SBS Online, The Lifted Brow and Coming of Age: Growing Up Muslim in Australia (Allen & Unwin). In 2012 he received the Australia Council Kirk Robson Award in recognition of his leadership in community arts and cultural development He is currently a doctoral candidate in the University of Western Sydney Writing & Society Research Centre.

Michael Mohammed Ahmad as Billy "The Kid" Dib in I'm Your Man (Downstairs Belvoir , 2012)

Beth Yahp is the author of a novel, various short fiction and non-fiction, and works for the stage and radio. Beth was recently awarded a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Technology, Sydney, for a travel memoir which is due to be published by Random House Australia in 2015. Beth currently teaches in the Masters of Creative Writing program at the University of Sydney. She also runs small group masterclasses once or twice a year for writers of memoir, fiction and travel writing.

When: last Tuesday of every month (29 July, 26 August, 30 September etc.)

Time: 6.00 - 9.00 PM (come for a cuppa and help us set up at 5.30 PM - please remember to bring your own cup!)

Where: The Randwick Literary Institute, 60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031. Tel: 02-9398 5203 (for directions and venue info). Street parking available. Clovelly bus 339 on the doorstep. For how to get there, see: http://randwickliteraryinstitute.com.au/faqs/

What: A communal space to meet other writers and readers and converse about all things to do with reading and writing memoir. We are interested in all kinds of life stories and in different ways of telling them. The genre of life writing and the possibilities of expanding and reworking the genre is exciting to us. Therefore we have a somewhat open and inclusive approach to what makes a memoir, and we hope you do too! Here is a space to connect with others and share ideas, questions and just hang out. Each meeting will start off with a talk, conversation or discussion about a particular topic or book, sometimes with a guest speaker or facilitator, then we move to an informal gathering and catch up.

Donation: $10 at the door for hall hire, refreshments and speakers.

Food: $15 for a plate of delicious vegetarian finger food (different each meeting). Ring or text to book a plate: 0450 907 422.

Future Speakers: Mandy Sayer (July).

Look forward to seeing you there! Please do pass information on to anyone who might be interested in this community gathering.

mem·oir /ˈmemˌwär/
Noun. A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge. An autobiography or a written account of one's memory of certain events or people.

“Stories nurture our connection to place and to each other. They show us where we have been and where we can go. They remind us of how to be human, how to live alongside the other lives that animate this planet… When we lose stories, our understanding of the world is less rich, less true."                                                                                                           —Susan J. Tweit

“I once saw hourglasses in my grandmother’s eyes, and now I see them again, the sands of time dictating my future. But what if the desert in my grandmother’s eyes came to an end? What if it collided with the sea, somewhere, beyond the dunes?"                   —Michael Mohammed Ahmad

“When it comes to memoir, we want to catch the author in a lie. When we read fiction, we want to catch the author telling the truth.”
                                                                                                                      —Tayari Jones

The Memoir Club Presents: Saskia Beudel in conversation with Barbara Brooks

Tuesday, 27 May 2014, 6.00 - 9.00 PM

The Randwick Literary Institute,
60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031
RSVP: learn@bigpond.net.au

Saskia Beudel’s A Country in Mind: Memoir With Landscape “intertwines genres of memoir, travel literature, historical and ecological writing in order to reveal the complex interplay between history, memory and landscapes”.—Autumn Royal, TEXT Review

After a period of loss, and much change, Saskia began walking. Within 18 months she had walked in the Snowy Mountains, twice along the south-west coast of Tasmania, the MacDonnell Ranges west of Alice Springs, the Arnhem Land plateau in Kakadu, the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, and in Ladakh in the Himalayas. But she kept returning to the glowing ochre gorges of central Australia.

The book that emerged tells stories from Australia’s desert heart, examines the entanglement of Aboriginal and European cultures, remembers POW camps in Indonesia during World War II, and relives childhood epiphanies in a haunting collection of landscapes while tracing family secrets across the globe.

Saskia powerfully captures the enigmas of displacement, belonging and the intricacies, often strikingly at odds with one another, of Aboriginal and settler understandings of the desert environment in her book A Country in Mind, which will be discussed at the Memoir Club.

Saskia Beudel is the author of the novel Borrowed Eyes (Picador, 2002), which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards for fiction and the Dobbie Awards for a first manuscript. She has published widely as an essayist, with works appearing in the Iowa Review, Best Australian Essays, HEAT, Overland and the Cultural Studies Review. Her second book, A Country in Mind, was published in 2013.

Barbara Brooks has published fiction, essays and a biography, Eleanor Dark: a writer’s life, and co-edited Mud Map: Australian women’s experimental writing. She teaches at UTS and Masterclasses (see http://bbwritinglife.blogspot.com.au/).

When: last Tuesday of every month (27 May, 24 June, 29 July etc.)

Time: 6.00 - 9.00 PM (come for a cuppa and help us set up at 5.30 PM - please remember to bring your own cup!)

Where: The Randwick Literary Institute, 60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031. Tel: 02-9398 5203 (for directions and venue info). Street parking available. Clovelly bus 339 on the doorstep. For how to get there, see: http://randwickliteraryinstitute.com.au/faqs/

What: A communal space to meet other writers and readers and converse about all things to do with reading and writing memoir. We are interested in all kinds of life stories and in different ways of telling them. The genre of life writing and the possibilities of expanding and reworking the genre is exciting to us. Therefore we have a somewhat open and inclusive approach to what makes a memoir, and we hope you do too! Here is a space to connect with others and share ideas, questions and just hang out. Each meeting will start off with a talk, conversation or discussion about a particular topic or book, sometimes with a guest speaker or facilitator, then we move to an informal gathering and catch up.

Donation: $10 at the door for hall hire, refreshments and speakers.

Food: $15 for a plate of delicious vegetarian finger food (different each meeting). Ring or text to book a plate: 0450 907 422.

Future Speakers: Michael Mohammed Ahmad (June), Mandy Sayer (July).

Look forward to seeing you there! Please do pass information on to anyone who might be interested in this community gathering.

mem·oir /ˈmemˌwär/
Noun. A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge. An autobiography or a written account of one's memory of certain events or people.

“How do people imagine the landscapes they find themselves in? How does the land shape the imaginations of the people who dwell in it?"—Barry Lopez

“The events I’m touching upon involve at least two sets of conflicting memories and histories. Because of this it is almost impossible for me to write redemptively of my father’s past, or to recuperate it in any simple way, especially writing from within a settler culture such as Australia’s, where the question of dispossession is still pressing and unsettling."—Saskia Beudel

“Before it can ever be a repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock."—Simon Schama

The Memoir Club presents: Martin Edmond in conversation with Brent Clough

Tuesday, 29 April 2014, 6.00 - 9.00 PM

The Randwick Literary Institute,
60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031
RSVP: jessica.kirkness@students.mq.edu.au  

 

Martin Edmond has been described as a "memoirist, whose 'memoirs' are quest books, rehearsing investigations, making enquiries, retailing anecdotes and philosophical ruminations in pursuit of some invariably elusive subject" (David Eggleton, Landfall Review).

His prize-winning work of narrative non-fiction, Dark Night: Walking with McCahon, re-traces and re-imagines the "lost journey" that pre-eminent New Zealand artist Colin McCahon spent wandering from the Botanical Gardens to Centennial Park in Sydney, disoriented and adrift, while a retrospective of his work was due to open at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1984.  

Colin McCahon

"Colin McCahon is the most celebrated New Zealand painter of the 20th Century... His explorations on canvas of his relation to the world and his standing place in New Zealand, squinting into the hard sun, represent defining statements about what it means to be 'from here'... McCahon reconceived Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud, as the land of the long black shadow [to paraphrase Murray Bail]."—Paul Stanley Ward, NZEDGE.

This month the Memoir Club is pleased to present Martin Edmond in conversation with Brent Clough about, among other things, the ways in which a fascination with the lives of creative individuals and sensitivity to the power of place have mapped Martin's own way in the world.

'Are there not twelve hours of daylight?', Colin McCahon, 1970

Martin Edmond was born in Ohakune, in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. He moved to Sydney in 1981, where he lives and works as an author, essayist, poet, screenwriter and sometime cabbie. In his hugely erudite non-fiction he has explored the life of his father, Pacific history, New Zealand artist Philip Clairmont, drugs and art, travel, and his own paths to self-discovery. In 2013 Martin was awarded the New Zealand Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement for non-fiction.

Brent Clough is a New Zealand-born broadcaster who has lived in Sydney since 1984.







When: last Tuesday of every month (27 May, 24 June, 29 July etc.)

Time: 6.00 - 9.00 PM (come for a cuppa and help us set up at 5.30 PM - please remember to bring your own cup!)

Where: The Randwick Literary Institute, 60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031. Tel: 02-9398 5203 (for directions and venue info). Street parking available. Clovelly bus 339 on the doorstep. For how to get there, see: http://randwickliteraryinstitute.com.au/faqs/

What: A communal space to meet other writers and readers and converse about all things to do with reading and writing memoir. We are interested in all kinds of life stories and in different ways of telling them. The genre of life writing and the possibilities of expanding and reworking the genre is exciting to us. Therefore we have a somewhat open and inclusive approach to what makes a memoir, and we hope you do too! Here is a space to connect with others and share ideas, questions and just hang out. Each meeting will start off with a talk, conversation or discussion about a particular topic or book, sometimes with a guest speaker or facilitator, then we move to an informal gathering and catch up.

Donation: $10 at the door for hall hire, refreshments and speakers.

Food: $15 for a plate of delicious vegetarian finger food (different each meeting). Ring or text to book a plate: 0450 907 422.

Future Speakers: Saskia Beudel (May), Mandy Sayer (August).

Look forward to seeing you there! Please do pass information on to anyone who might be interested in this community gathering.

mem·oir /ˈmemˌwär/
Noun. A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge. An autobiography or a written account of one's memory of certain events or people.

"Years of solitude had taught him that, in one's memory, all days tend to be the same, but that there is not a day, not even in jail or in the hospital, which does not bring surprises, which is not a translucent network of minimal surprises."—Jorge Luis Borges

"McCahon, I think, was only Christ in the same way that I am a pilgrim following in his, McCahon-Christ's footsteps. That is, casually, intermittently, opportunistically, wilfully, because only in these fragmentary assumptions of another being's reality can something be said that would otherwise remain unarticulated."—Martin Edmond

"I only need black and white to say what I need to say. It is a matter of light and dark."—Colin McCahon

The Memoir Club for Readers and Writers Resumes on 25 March 2014

A Special Evening of  
"Memoir Favourites" 
to kick off our program for 2014

Tuesday, 25 March 2014, 6.00 - 8.30 PM
The Randwick Literary Institute,
60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031

Join us for an evening featuring some Memoir Favourites of our members. Jessica, Barbara, Patti and Beth will speak about and read work by writers who have profoundly influenced and inspired them.

Barbara Brooks on Doris Lessing

Jessica Kirkness on Helen Garner

Patti Miller on Annie Dillard

Beth Yahp on Maxine Hong Kingston

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it," says Holden Caulfield in JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, adding, "That doesn't happen much, though."

Some authors and their works stay with us and keep the conversation going years after we've read them and felt that they were friends, and this is a chance for us to share in that oblique and perhaps longer-lasting friendship and conversation.

If you have a memoir favourite that you'd like to share with other members tonight, please do bring a passage along to read out—and email Beth to let her know: bywritingworks@gmail.com

Barbara Brooks has published fiction, essays & a biography, Eleanor Dark: a writer’s life, and co-edited Mud Map: Australian women’s experimental writing. She teaches writing at UTS & Masterclasses (see http://bbwritinglife.blogspot.com.au/).

Jessica Kirkness is a student at Macquarie University. She has just begun the second year of her Masters of Research degree. As part of her Masters thesis, Jessica is writing a memoir which discusses the experiences of her Deaf grandparents in a hearing world.

Patti Miller is the author of the critically acclaimed The Mind of a Thief. She has written Australia’s best-selling autobiographical writing texts, Writing Your Life, and The Memoir Book as well as a novel Child, and two memoirs, The Last One Who Remembers and Whatever The Gods Do. She is currently working on another narrative nonfiction, Ransacking Paris. She has taught life writing for nearly twenty five years.

Beth Yahp is originally from Malaysia. She is the author of a novel, various short fictions and non-fiction, and works for the stage and radio. Beth was awarded a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Technology, Sydney, for her travel memoir documenting "detours through food, family and politics in Malaysia" in 2013. Beth currently teaches in the Masters of Creative Writing program at the University of Sydney.







When: last Tuesday of every month (29 April, 27 May, 24 June etc.)

Time: 6.00 - 9.00 PM (come for a cuppa and help us set up at 5.30 PM - please remember to bring your own cup!)

Where: The Randwick Literary Institute, 60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031. Tel: 02-9398 5203 (for directions and venue info). Street parking available. Clovelly bus 339 on the doorstep. For how to get there, see: http://randwickliteraryinstitute.com.au/faqs/

What: A communal space to meet other writers and readers and converse about all things to do with reading and writing memoir. We are interested in all kinds of life stories and in different ways of telling them. The genre of life writing and the possibilities of expanding and reworking the genre is exciting to us. Therefore we have a somewhat open and inclusive approach to what makes a memoir, and we hope you do too! Here is a space to connect with others and share ideas, questions and just hang out. Each meeting will start off with a talk, conversation or discussion about a particular topic or book, sometimes with a guest speaker or facilitator, then we move to an informal gathering and catch up.

Donation: $10 at the door for hall hire, refreshments and speakers.

Food: $15 for a plate of delicious vegetarian finger food (different each meeting). Ring or text to book a plate: 0450 907 422.

Future Speakers: Martin Edmund (April), Saskia Beudel (May), Mandy Sayer (August).

RSVP: RSVP Betty learn@bigpond.net.au.

Look forward to seeing you there! Please do pass information on to anyone who might be interested in this community gathering.

mem·oir /ˈmemˌwär/
Noun. A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge. An autobiography or a written account of one's memory of certain events or people.

"Whole parts of me are made by experiences that haven't been described before."—Doris Lessing

"I think some people wished I'd kept myself out of the book. But I kind of insist on it because I want the reader to share my engagement with the material, if you like, not pretend that I'm doing it completely intellectually."—Helen Garner

"The line of words feels for cracks in the firmament."—Annie Dillard

"'You must not tell anyone,' my mother said, 'what I am about to tell you. In China your father had a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born."—Maxine Hong Kingston

Memoir/ Fiction/ Travel Writing Masterclasses with Beth beginning 1 March 2014

Places still available: contact Beth at bywritingworks@gmail.com

These fortnightly half-day workshops are a chance for participants to work with me (and other members of a small workshop group of 6) over three months in the development of your writing towards a larger piece of work - e.g. a novel, a travel book, a memoir, a collection of stories.

The masterclasses feature indepth workshopping and detailed written editorial feedback from me each meeting, as well as a lesson focussing on an advanced writing craft skill (e.g. structure, transitions, description, point of view) and in-class writing exercises.

The masterclasses are for people who have previously attended writing workshops or classes, or have already published their writing, and therefore have some experience of writing craft. They are strictly limited to 6 participants to ensure that everyone has adequate time for discussion and feedback on their writing projects.

The emphasis is on supporting your writing, creating new work in a safe and nurturing environment, as well as learning to read as a writer and give constructive critical feedback on each other's writing. Students are also encouraged to exercise judgement in accepting feedback that is useful and productive. 

I find that deep learning and understanding can occur when people are engaged in other creative works, as much as their own. I also emphasize the rituals and practices of writing: it is practice, after all, that invites the muse to appear. And when we are working on a big project, we need to pace ourselves, with support and kindness, in order to be able to carry the work the distance it needs to go. It can be lonely and difficult working on one's own!

The meetings are fortnightly on Saturday afternoons and run for 5 hours (with breaks and lots of cups of tea/coffee and snacks to keep us going!). They are somewhat intense but on the whole rewarding (see comments by past participants below).

When:       6 fortnightly Saturday meetings, beginning 1 March 2014

Dates:       1, 15 & 29 March, 12 & 26 April, 10 May 2014

Time:         1.30 - 6.30pm (including  breaks)

Where:      Bronte 2024 in Sydney 

Cost:          $1000

You will get: 30 class hours in total (six x 5-hour workshops) and mentorship of you and your writing over the course of the masterclasses. Six detailed copy and structural edits/feedback on your writing from me (up to 2500 words to be submitted per class) - these edits alone would cost $400. A reader of course readings and writing craft notes, in-class writing exercises, presentation/ discussion of particular writing/ editing skills & techniques. Each meeting you will also receive verbal feedback and detailed discussion of your work from me and other members of the group. You will also get access to a safe space in which to test out your writing and exchange ideas and skills - a community of writers, engaged in a similar writing journey. Tea/ coffee/ snacks also provided.

Course covers: In-depth writing and editing skills for fiction (short stories or a novel) and creative non-fiction (memoir/ travel narratives/ personal essays, nature writing); generation of new material through writing exercises and reading/ discussion of  samples of particular craft skills; advice on writing craft and sustaining your writing life, as well as publication strategies; how to give and receive feedback/ criticism that is supportive and helpful to yourself and others as writers.

Application Process & Registration: Due to the small number of participants, there will be a selection process based on whether I consider I can be of assistance to you and your writing project; quality of work; and how the different projects in the group will resonate with each other. Selection will be based on a half page description of your project, as well as a two page example of your writing, which should be submitted to me by email ASAP.

Closing Date for Applications: 10 February 2014 (but as places are limited, it would be a good idea to send me your proposal in good time)

Contact:     For more information, please contact Beth at: bywritingworks@gmail.com

Topics Covered:

Masterclass 1: Critiquing, Workshopping, Intent

Masterclass 2: Editing, Description, Scenes

Masterclass 3: Transitions in Place and Time, Show and Tell

Masterclass 4: Structure: Plot Shapes and Sequences

Masterclass 5: Foreshadowing and Subtext

Masterclass 6: Polishing, Publishing and Sustaining Your Writing Project/ Writing Life

SOME COMMENTS from past participants of Beth's Memoir/ Fiction Masterclasses 2010-2013:

Kim P: (whose novel was shortlisted for the 2013 QWC/Hachette Manuscript Development Program) Thank you so much for all your teaching, editing and patience. This would never have happened without you, I was so lucky to have been part of that wonderful class with such a stellar group of women. I know this is a development program, and there is absolutely no guarantee of anything more, but it is so great to have this opportunity.

Kate R: You are such a gifted teacher and editor, Beth, and my classes with you have opened up for me a new way of writing and thinking. You have helped me solve the impasse I'd come up against before beginning classes with you. This was, of course, the question of narrative voice. I feel I've found the voice of the book, and I really didn't expect it would take so short a time to do so, and I have you to thank. (2013)

Odette S: I liked being in a ‘safe space’ around other writers sharing our work, learning together, guided by a fabulous teacher; improvement in my craft; being inspired by the group; reading some amazingly good work (and even commenting on them!); being REQUIRED to write AND read (that discipline has long been overdue); ideas from the others’ work and the reading. I was given confidence that I ‘could do this’. The course exceeded my expectations. The tutor, teaching method and materials were excellent and the masterclass stoked my dream [of writing my story]. The course was very good value.

Elizabeth B: I think more than anything the course provided the discipline to keep going with my project… now I have a much clearer view of the structure of what I'm writing and how the content can evolve inside it. I knew that the tutor would be fabulous… (that was part of the inspiration for taking the course!) and the writing materials were excellent… I would absolutely recommend it to someone who has a project and is looking for support and feedback to help them along what is otherwise a pretty lonely road… the community it provides has been invaluable to me.

Karen W: I gained more confidence and trust in my work; practice at critiquing; an avenue which allowed experimentation and a response to it; consolidation of writing skills; a group I am excited about continuing to work with. [The course] fulfilled all my expectations, which I must add were very high. Beth inspired, challenged and encouraged her students. She created a supportive, respectful, ordered and safe environment. The material was highly relevant and interesting. I have already recommended this course to everyone who will listen.

Leanne M: I liked the detailed feedback... The range of input was helpful - the variety of perspectives was very valuable. Giving feedback also helped me to start to look at my own work more objectively. The discussions and exercises on different topics related to writing craft helped me to see some of what I need to do and an inkling of how to do it. I feel that I am well-equipped now to take my first draft to the next stage. That was my goal and it has been reached. The tutor was knowledgeable, friendly and kind, also encouraging and supportive. Firm when that was needed in terms of feedback/constructive criticism points. Teaching methods are very immersive and experiential and therefore effective. Materials - the handouts each session - are helpful and valuable references for the future… a good mix of inspiration, examples and practical guidance. I would recommend the course, but emphasise that each participant has to be prepared to work and give of themselves. It was so good I didn't want the series to end! Mind you I was exhausted - like a marathon runner perhaps. Thanks for a great course.

Angela R: I loved being part of a community of writers; hearing from Beth about the views and approaches of other writers in the world; being entrusted by others in the group to read and comment on their precious work; the warm, professional atmosphere; learning from Beth’s great bank of knowledge and her insights; Beth’s critiques, delivered always in a gentle, respectful, enquiring, and competent way. The course has strengthened my commitment to my project, given me more confidence, and forced me to meet a regular ‘deadline’ – otherwise it’s too easy to ease off, attend to other demands etc. etc. I’m still fending off that critic that tells me to be a more attentive friend, mother, blah blah, but the course has emboldened me to honour an early vision I had (i.e., as a child): to write novels.                                                 

Greg W: Just want to thank you for being such a fabulous writing teacher, and for selecting such a great class of writers. It was a privilege being involved. I have learnt so much. As mentioned, I need to digest all you have passed on to me, which will take several months. You have created a great learning environment, and opened 'the darkroom of my mind'. Thanks so much. [Greg is a photographer by profession.]

The Memoir Club for Readers and Writers, 26 November 2013

Patti Miller in conversation 
with Beth Yahp about 
The Mind of a Thief

Tuesday, 26 November 2013, 6.00 - 9.00 PM

The Randwick Literary Institute,
60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031

Photo by Tracey Trompf

"Part reflection, part local history and part analysis of the bitter ironies that abound in contemporary Aboriginal politics, Miller's book quietly poses a loaded and complex question: what does it mean to be native to Australia today?" —Anna Maria Dell'oso

For our last Memoir Club meeting of 2013, the inimitable Patti Miller joins us to talk about her search for identity and connection in the land she was born in, a stolen land. "Red-haired and freckle faced as they come", in middle age Patti discovers that she may have "some blackfella" in her (as an Aboriginal elder from her home town suggests), yet by her own admission her "mind is European, the mind of a thief". 

Patti's journey takes her from "identity terror" through the silences, ambivalences and revelations of family, regional and national histories, and the stories and laws of the land and its peoples that have shaped her and her country.

Patti Miller grew up on Wiradjuri land in central west NSW. She is the author of the bestselling autobiographical texts, Writing Your Life (1994) and The Memoir Book (2007), as well as four other books: The Last One Who Remembers (1997), Child (1998), Whatever The Gods Do (2003), and her most recent book The Mind of A Thief (2012), which won the NSW Community and Regional History Prize in 2013. Patti gives memoir workshops in Paris and Writing the Senses workshops in Ubud, as well as teaches 'True Stories' for the Faber Academy.

Beth Yahp is originally from Malaysia. She is the author of a novel, various short fictions and non-fiction, some forgettable poems, and works for the stage and radio. Beth was recently awarded her Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Technology, Sydney, for her travel memoir documenting "detours through food, family and politics in Malaysia", which is presently being revised into a more or less palatable version. Beth currently teaches in the Masters of Creative Writing program at the University of Sydney.







When: last Tuesday of every month (new meetings starting next year: 25 March, 29 April etc.)

Time: 6.00 - 9.00 PM (come for a cuppa and help us set up at 5.30 PM - remember to bring your own cup!)

Where: The Randwick Literary Institute, 60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031. Tel: 02-9398 5203 (for directions and venue info). Street parking available. Clovelly bus 339 on the doorstep. For how to get there, see: http://randwickliteraryinstitute.com.au/faqs/

What: A communal space to meet other writers and readers and converse about all things to do with reading and writing memoir. We are interested in all kinds of life stories and in different ways of telling them. The genre of life writing and the possibilities of expanding and reworking the genre is exciting to us. Therefore we have a somewhat open and inclusive approach to what makes a memoir, and we hope you do too! Here is a space to connect with others and share ideas, questions and just hang out. Each meeting will start off with a talk, conversation or discussion about a particular topic or book, sometimes with a guest speaker or facilitator, then we move to an informal gathering and catch up.

Donation: $10 at the door for hall hire, refreshments and speakers.

Food: $15 for a plate of delicious vegetarian finger food (different each meeting).

Future Speakers: Look out for next year's program, now being developed. Do post any ideas you may have, with thanks!

RSVP: RSVP to alison.lyssa@sustainabletransport.com.au for room and catering purposes - don't forget to say if you want to order a plate of food.

Look forward to seeing you there! Please do pass information on to anyone who might be interested in this community gathering.

mem·oir /ˈmemˌwär/
Noun. A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge. An autobiography or a written account of one's memory of certain events or people.

"The story of my place might not tell me who I was, but if I could examine its weave, I might at least see what my cloak was made of."                                                                                                                                       —Patti Miller

"It was only then that I was really aware of what had been going on and what I had been a part of without realising it... So when I read this story, it unlocked a volcano of unanswered questions, because the questions had never been asked. It was an opportunity to come to terms with the lot of repressed history—and history of repression."
                                               —Philip Noyce, on reading the script for Rabbit Proof Fence

"What is it like to be a writer in Australia today? Australia is a nation of many Countries. Mine's Wiradjuri, which means of the rivers. I thought about this and in response I am Aboriginal first and everything I do is within that context. In writing as in life, it is impossible to separate the personal from the political. The political context is an integral part of the landscape..."
                                                                                                                                    —Jeanine Leane

Mary Zournazi in conversation 
with Brent Clough about Agnès Varda's 
use of memory and place in film

Tuesday, 24 September 2013, hosted by UNSWriting, 6.30 - 8.30 PM

Cinema 327, 3rd Floor, John Webster Building, University of New South Wales
Next month the Memoir Club moves back to its home at the Randwick Literary Institute



"Memory is like sand in my hand," said Agnès Varda, known as the 'grandmother (and only woman director) of the French New Wave'. "If we opened people up, we'd find landscapes," she said. "If we opened me up, we'd find beaches."

Varda's consistently experimental and lyrical films over six decades are famous for opening up spaces between fictional and documentary elements, exploring borderlands, like beaches, between reality and imagination, art and politics, memory and an ethnographic gaze.

Her films include The Beaches of Agnès (2008), The Gleaners and I (2000), Vagabond (1985), Cléo From 5 to 7 (1962), and her first film La Pointe Courte (1955), a "precursor of the (Nouvelle Vague) films that Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Goddard would start making five years later" (Ginette Vincendeau).    

In this month's Memoir Club writer and philosopher Mary Zournazi converses with Brent Clough about Agnès Varda and her notion of reminiscence and remembrance in her films, particularly The Beaches of Agnès.
 
Mary Zournazi is interested in how films feature the ideas of memory and place. She is a Sydney-based writer and philosopher, who teaches in the sociology program at the University of New South Wales. She is the author of several books, including Hope—New Philosophies for Change, Keywords to War—Reviving Language in an Age of Terror, and most recently (with Wim Wenders), Inventing Peace: A Dialogue on Perception (2013).

Brent Clough is a radio broadcaster, known for his documentary, music and creative audio programs on ABC Radio National. He was a recipient of the inaugural Tony Barrell Fellowship in 2012 to document the changing sounds, cultures and demographics of Brixton, South London. Brent is also a writer and DJ.

About the Memoir Club: a meeting place for readers and writers

When: last Tuesday of every month (24 September, 29 October, 26 November etc.)

Time: This month at UNSW only: 6.30 - 8.30 PM (come for a cuppa at 6pm in the foyer on the 3rd floor - remember to bring your own cup!)

Where: This month only: Cinema 327, 3rd Floor, Robert Webster Building, University of New South Wales—enter from the University Mall and go up to the 3rd floor. UNSW campus map reference G14. The Robert Webster Building is located at the midpoint of the Kensington campus, and houses the School of Arts and Media (SAM). There is parking next to NIDA, or in through Gate 14 off Barker Street. Check for signs. Public transport: http://www.facilities.unsw.edu.au/node/94

What: A communal space to meet other writers and readers and converse about all things to do with reading and writing memoir. We are interested in all kinds of life stories and in different ways of telling them. The genre of life writing and the possibilities of expanding and reworking the genre is exciting to us. Therefore we have a somewhat open and inclusive approach to what makes a memoir, and we hope you do too! Here is a space to connect with others and share ideas, questions and just hang out. Each meeting will start off with a talk, conversation or discussion about a particular topic or book, sometimes with a guest speaker or facilitator, then we move to an informal gathering and catch up.

Donation: $10 at the door for hall hire, refreshments and speakers.

Food: $15 for a plate of delicious vegetarian finger food (different each meeting).

Future Speakers: October will feature a "Members Night" of readings and storytelling, and in November Patti Miller (The Mind of a Thief) will join us. Look out for next year's program, now being developed. Do post any ideas you may have, with thanks!

RSVP: RSVP to alison.lyssa@sustainabletransport.com.au for room and catering purposes - don't forget to say if you want to order a plate of food.

Look forward to seeing you there! Please do pass information on to anyone who might be interested in this community gathering.

mem·oir /ˈmemˌwär/
Noun. A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge. An autobiography or a written account of one's memory of certain events or people.

“I would call The Beaches of Agnès an autobiographical documentary even though it's about more than just me. It shows the people who have surrounded me, who have helped me exist, who have inspired me. There's a Gertrude Stein Book called Everybody's Autobiography. That's the kind of feeling I wanted to convey in the film.”                                                                                                                                     —Agnès Varda

"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything."
                                                                                                                                —Aaron Sussman

"A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet."
                                                                                                                                    —Orson Welles

The Memoir Club for Readers and Writers

Next Memoir Club Meeting: Tuesday, 30 July 2013
at the Randwick Literary Institute

joanne burns in conversation

with Barbara Brooks

Renowned as an experimental poet and writer whose "seemingly contradictory hybrid of yarn and the vision" is "time and again made manifest through a rather laconic, sceptical and straight-talking voice", joanne burns joins the Memoir Club this month to discuss how memoir and autobiographical moments sometimes influence and infiltrate her writing.

Her "distinctive stance towards the world" has been described as "humourous, unsentimental, never pompous or prophetic, immersed in fleeting experiences..." and her poems are said to illustrate "the idea of poems being built out of the detritus of existence".

Can poems be considered a form of memoir? And, as Robert Frost claimed, can they "make you remember what you didn't know you knew"?

joanne burns writes poetry (including prose poems), monologues, and short futurist fictions or farables. Since 1972 many collections of her work have been published, the most recent being 'footnotes of a hammock' (Five Islands Press, 2004), 'an illustrated history of dairies' (Giramondo, 2007) and 'amphora' (Giramondo, 2011). 'kept busy', a CD of joanne burns reading a selection of her work, was released in 2007 (River Road Publishing). She is currently working on assembling a Selected poems collection, and on a new poetry collection, 'brush'. The ironic, satiric, the ludic and absurd feature strongly in her work.

Barbara Brooks is a Sydney writer, independent scholar and teacher of writing. She has published short stories, essays and a biography, Eleanor Dark: A Writer's Life. Her memoir Verandahs, which crosses into fiction, won the UTS Chancellors Award as an outstanding thesis.

About the Memoir Club: a meeting place for readers and writers

When: last Tuesday of every month (27 August, 24 September, 29 October, etc.)

Time: 6 - 8.30 PM (come help set up chairs etc. from 5.30pm if you can - more hands make lighter work! And at the end of the evening, help tidying up is much appreciated too...)

Where: The Randwick Literary Institute, 60 Clovelly Road, Randwick NSW 2031

Tel: 02-9398 5203 (for directions and venue info). Street parking is available. Clovelly bus 339 on the doorstep. For how to get there, see: http://randwickliteraryinstitute.com.au/faqs/

What: A communal space to meet other writers and readers and converse about all things to do with reading and writing memoir. We are interested in all kinds of life stories and in different ways of telling them. The genre of life writing and the possibilities of expanding and reworking the genre is exciting to us. Therefore we have a somewhat open and inclusive approach to what makes a memoir, and we hope you do too! Here is a space to connect with others and share ideas, questions and just hang out. Each meeting will start off with a talk, conversation or discussion about a particular topic or book, sometimes with a guest speaker or facilitator, then we move to an informal gathering and catch up.

Donation: $10 at the door for hall hire, refreshments and speakers.

Food: $15 for a plate of delicious vegan finger food from Rosada's Kitchen (different each meeting).

Future Speakers: Drusilla Modjeska (The Mountain), Mary Zournazi (on filmmaker Agnes Varda), Adam Aitken (Eighth Habitation) and Patti Miller (The Mind of a Thief) will join us at future sessions to talk about their memoirs or the memoir aspects of their work.

RSVP: Please RSVP to Beth at bywritingworks@gmail.com for room and catering purposes

Look forward to seeing you there! Please do pass information on to anyone who might be interested in this community gathering.

mem·oir /ˈmemˌwär/
Noun. A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge. An autobiography or a written account of one's memory of certain events or people.

“Breathe in experience, breathe out poetry.”                                                           —Muriel Rukeyser

"Robert Frost said that poetry can make you 'remember what you didn't know you knew'... In a way that is much more open-ended than prose writing, poetry destroys walls between private and public thoughts, between private and public emotions, between private and public motivations... You can truly describe personal events that may involve your familial readers with a power that is not necessarily stark, blunt, naked or offensive. A good poem is not always 'accurate' but just the same, is always 'true'."
                                                                                                                                   —Carl G. Schott

"cixous writes of her childhood experience of the story of jacob's ladder. how she was drawn to the images of descending angels. she writes of the dream ladder. going down. growing into the earth. the descent on the ladder of writing will be tough. down through the body of flesh and earth." 
                                                                                                                                     —joanne burns