Adelaide, Newcastle and England on the internet

I’m doing a few festival appearances over the next few months. First up: Adelaide Writers Week (which is next week):

• Catherine McKinnon and I will be talking about Invented Histories on Saturday
• I’m doing a ‘meet the writer‘ at Dymocks in Rundle Mall on Monday
• I’m chairing a session with Maja Lunde and Harriet McKnight on Tuesday (this one will also be live streamed on the festival’s website)
• Claire G Coleman and I talk about Seeking Refuge on Wednesday

Newcastle Writers Festival is on 6-8 April and I’m doing a couple of sessions on the Saturday:

• Outside the Square, talking about experimental writing with my Kanganoulipo colleagues Julie Koh and Ryan O’Neill
• Crossing Over, a conversation about writing in multiple genres.

Meanwhile, I was utterly delighted to get a six-star (out of five) rating from UK book blogger Simon Savidge. You can watch Simon talk about From the Wreck, and about how he wants to read more Australian authors (send him your books, fellow writers).

 

 

 

 

 

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From the Wreck in the papers

What a big weekend my small book had over Easter, with reviews in the Fairfax papers (SMH/Age/Canberra Times) and the Weekend Australian.

Adam Rivett at Fairfax said “[the limits of genre] make Jane Rawson’s new novel all the more striking – two paths are likewise drawn, yet the fences that might divide them do not hold. Instead, the paths meld and melt, producing something truly unique and disquieting.” You can read the whole thing here.

Ed Wright at the Australian said “In less capable hands these narrative facts would accumulate to preposterousness and tempt the reader to abandon the ship of the book. Rawson, however, has the rare talent of stretching our capacity to believe, while at the same time making us feel genuinely for the characters.” You can read this review here.

And this past weekend the Adelaide Advertiser also ran a review, which my South Australian uncle was kind enough to scan and send to me. Katharine England talks about “the magical delicacy of Rawson’s concept, the lightness of the writing, the resonant humanity and gentle humour”; the whole review is here..

What to expect when you’re expecting a book: #3 Publicity

An offer to an author from a publishing house consists of two key elements: first, the advance on royalties they’re prepared to pay you, and second, their marketing plan. It is easy to focus on the money, but the marketing and publicity is arguably just …

Some From the Wreck media

I’m just going to put these here so I can find them later…. Over the past couple of weeks, From the wreck has been reviewed in: Australian Book Review – Fiona Wright said it was ‘a deeply ecological novel…fascinating for its hybridity, its willingness to bend …

Some ‘From the wreck’ interviews and reviews

I’ve done a few interviews over the past couple of weeks. ‘Published or not’ on Melbourne radio station 3CR had a chat with me about the metaphysics of From the wreck – it was the first time I’d heard someone else read the book out …

Welcome to the world, From the Wreck

Today is From the Wreck’s first official day of life. I’ve already seen it out in the wild – at Melbourne bookshops Paperback Bookstore, Readings in Carlton, Hill of Content and Dymocks on Collins Street – and I’ve heard rumours of it from Better Read …

From the Wreck interview on 3RRR

Yesterday I did my first interview for From the Wreck, with Elizabeth and Lou from 3RRR’s ‘Multi Storied’. It was a great little chat. If you’d like to have a listen, you can go to 3RRR’s Radio On Demand.

2016 Snapshot: Jane Rawson

Thanks so much to the Spec Fic Snapshotters and to David McDonald in particular for including me in this year’s lineup: I’m flattered!

Australian SF Snapshot Project

Interview by David McDonald.

Jane Rawson is the author of the novel, A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists (2013 Transit Lounge), which won the Small Press Network’s 2014 ‘Most Underrated Book’ Award, and co-author of The Handbook: surviving and living with climate change (2015 Transit Lounge), a practical, personal guide to life in a climate-changed Australia. Her novella, Formaldehyde (2015 Seizure), won the Seizure Viva La Novella Prize. Her short fiction has been published by Sleepers, Overland, Tincture, Seizure, Review of Australian Fiction and SlinkChunkPress.

You’re someone who seems comfortable moving between the worlds of literary and genre fiction, with stories that combine a number of styles, and awards and other recognition across different fields. Did you start trying to write certain types of stories and find different elements creeping in, or has this blend always been there?

I have always just wanted to…

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10 terrifying questions

Hello! Here’s an interview I did with Booktopia a while back, and which they’ve just published. They asked good questions.

In writing news, I think I’ve just finished the first draft of something new. You’re probably not supposed to say that; I’ve doubtless cursed myself now. Anyway, I’m excited about doing draft two.

In reading news, 2016 has been superb. Have you heard about that Elena Ferrante? Holy cow, those books are good. I have one left to read. And I also read Ali Smith’s How to be both and it’s my favourite thing in a long time.I just went and bought a copy at Readings St Kilda so I can read it over to try to figure out how she does what she does.

And in unrelated news, I saw the Flaming Lips last night and that reminded me how much I would like the things I write to be like the songs they make. I have no idea how to do that.

Some Formaldehyde reviews

A little novella like Formaldehyde was never going to get much attention from book reviewers, so I’m really pleased to see a few reviews cropping up here and there over the last few months.

• Ed Wright, who was super-kind about A wrong turn at the Office of Unmade Lists a few years back, said Formaldehyde‘s ‘deliberate implausibility is refreshing’ in a review in the most recent Weekend Australian.
• Declan over at Writerful Books says he was ‘fully drawn into this story with its weird and wacky characters’.
• I managed to unsettle Stephanie at No-award for a second time running; she says ‘Jane’s fiction work often leaves me confused and slightly unsure (if ‘twice now’ can count as ‘often’); Formaldehyde is a part of that pattern.’
• Rachel at Leatherbound Pounds follows up a great review of Unmade Lists by saying Formaldehyde is ‘funny in the darkest, driest way possible. I laughed out loud and I was confused and I was shocked and a little bit sad. It’s surprising, quietly political and has a freshness that I enjoyed so much.’ You can read the review here.
• And Alan at Readings reviewed all three Viva la Novella winners, saying Formaldehyde was ‘a delicious blend of science fiction and magical realism, of severed limbs and Russian novels … a baffling, joyous and addictive read’. Thanks, Alan!