American poet, Louise Bogan, wrote: ‘No woman should be shame-faced in attempting to give back to the world, through her work, a portion of its lost heart.’ Through my work as an emerging creative nonfiction writer, I share my life and my heart with the world because I want to influence the way people think and feel about contemporary social and moral issues. By exploring these issues from a variety of angles (but always with a close personal perspective) I prompt readers to examine their own attitudes as they gain insight into the complexity of problems encountered by modern women.
Over the last eight years, I have written two book-length manuscripts in the creative nonfiction genre. ‘Yahtzee and the Art of Happiness’ (part of a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Queensland), is the story of one family and how they approach a coming birth. By examining one woman’s thoughts and fears, as she battles with work, home life, and her own confusion over the pregnancy and a traumatic event from the past, this intimate memoir exposes the secrets of contemporary women’s business and reveals what life is really like for women today. This work attracted a 2009 Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Mentorship with renowned editor Judith Lukin-Amundsen, and was short-listed for the 2011 Finch Memoir Prize.
My second manuscript, ‘Iron Men: Alchemy at Work’ (part of a PhD in Creative Research Practice at the University of New England), explores the challenge of disaffected youth from a mother’s perspective. I have been awarded four Residential Fellowships at Varuna Writers’ House to further develop this work, including most recently a 2010 Varuna HarperCollins Award. Last year, I received my second ASA Mentorship for this memoir, once again working with Judith Lukin-Amundsen. Alongside these full-length projects I have also published six short stories about a young Dutch Jewish immigrant girl and her family in 1970s rural Australia (which will one day form the basis of a semi-autobiographical novel) and five personal essays in major literary journals (including Griffith REVIEW, Island, Hecate, Westerly, Idiom 23, and fourW).
In May 2010, when Griffith REVIEW published my essay ‘Joining the pack’ (the first chapter of ‘Iron Men: Alchemy at Work’), I was invited to speak on Radio National’s ‘Bush Telegraph’ program and the essay was re-published in ON LINE Opinion, Australia’s e-journal of social and political debate. This same essay was published in Nth Degree, the Australian Association of Writing Programs’ 2010 Anthology. People are looking for answers, and through my writing I try to bring light and a human perspective to the question: ‘What can we do to help our marginalized youth?’
As a skilled and experienced public speaker, I would be happy to give readings, attend various writing groups and engage in other writing-related activities. Apart from my work as a sessional tutor at the University of New England, in both formal academic writing and creative writing units, I regularly attend and present at writing conferences as part of my academic career. Articles about my writing and research have twice featured on the University of New England’s home page, and local Armidale newspapers have featured news about my work.
