Carmel Bird
Forfatter af The Penguin Century of Australian Stories
Om forfatteren
Carmel Bird is an Australian author and former teacher, born and raised in Launceston, Tasmania, in 1940. She taught fiction writing at the university level at Melbourne, Deakin, Latrobe, Monash, Swinburne and RMIT Universities. She has been writing since 1976 and is the author of novels, short vis mere story collections, nonfiction, children's books, and has edited anthologies. Dimitra was her first collection and was published in 1981 and My Hearts are Your Hearts was published in 2015. Cherry Ripe was her first novel, published in 1985, and Family Skeleton, published in 2016, is her most recent. Dear Writer, published in 1988, was her first nonfiction book and Fair Game was published in 2015. She wrote two children's books, The Mouth (1996) and The Cassowary's Quiz (1998). The Writing on the Wall: Collection of Poetry and Prose by Women (1985) was her first work as an editor, and The Penguin Century of Australian Stories was published in 2000. She has written book reviews for the Australian Book Review. Her awards include winning the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal at the Mildura Writer's Festival (2001) and in 2016, winning the Patrick White Literary Award. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre
Image credit: Samantha Everton
Serier
Værker af Carmel Bird
A Telephone Call for Genevieve Snow 2 eksemplarer
Woodpecker Point & other stories 1 eksemplar
AUSTRALIAN STORIES PA 1 eksemplar
Conservatory 1 eksemplar
The Isolation of the Deciding Factor 1 eksemplar
Cave Amantem 1 eksemplar
Associated Works
She's Fantastical: The First Anthology of Australian Women's Speculative Fiction, Magical Realism and Fantasy (1995) — Bidragyder — 33 eksemplarer
Regarding Jane Eyre: Writers Respond to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1997) — Bidragyder — 16 eksemplarer
Goodbye to Romance: Stories by New Zealand and Australian Women Writers, 1930-1988 (1989) — Bidragyder — 10 eksemplarer
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Kanonisk navn
- Bird, Carmel
- Fødselsdato
- 1940-08-30
- Køn
- female
- Nationalitet
- Australia
- Fødested
- Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
- Bopæl
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Tasmania, Australia - Uddannelse
- University of Tasmania
- Erhverv
- novelist
short-story writer
columnist
editor
creative writing teacher - Agent
- Jenny Darling and Associates
Medlemmer
Anmeldelser
Births, Deaths and Marriages af Carmel Bird
Richmond, Coriander Press
Carmel Bird's beautiful new book Telltale: reading writing remembering is the perfect book for a post-covid brain.
That is to say,, it's probably perfect any time, but when the ability to concentrate, read and remember is a bit compromised, a book like this is ideal. It doesn't have a plot to be followed, or characters to connect, or a narrative voice to interrogate for reliability. It can be read in short, unconnected bursts of energy for the sheer delight of Carmel Bird's reminiscences and the pleasure of the book's exquisite design.
It's ironic that I'm reading the book with a post-covid brain. Telltale has its origins in the great Covid enchantment — enforced isolation during the pandemic — when the books in the author's own personal library became the catalyst for this memoir. As Australian readers will know, we had strict and lengthy lockdowns in my state, widely supported because we evaded the worst of the virus when it was at its most virulent and the previous federal government had failed to secure adequate vaccination supplies. I'm reading the book now in the wake of being very unwell with the latest variant, but I was unlikely to die from Covid because I've had four vaccinations and the latest antivirals. But the steady rate of deaths each week means that the sense of dread is not entirely vanquished. (And we are not yet allowed out of the house, by law.)
Carmel Bird lives outside Melbourne in a small regional city and here she captures the sense of foreboding that was widely shared:
If you've read any of Carmel Bird's novels, you'll recognise the macabre imagery and the playful gothic style...
I have described Telltale as a memoir, but it's more than that.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/06/04/telltale-reading-writing-remembering-by-carm...… (mere)
That is to say,, it's probably perfect any time, but when the ability to concentrate, read and remember is a bit compromised, a book like this is ideal. It doesn't have a plot to be followed, or characters to connect, or a narrative voice to interrogate for reliability. It can be read in short, unconnected bursts of energy for the sheer delight of Carmel Bird's reminiscences and the pleasure of the book's exquisite design.
It's ironic that I'm reading the book with a post-covid brain. Telltale has its origins in the great Covid enchantment — enforced isolation during the pandemic — when the books in the author's own personal library became the catalyst for this memoir. As Australian readers will know, we had strict and lengthy lockdowns in my state, widely supported because we evaded the worst of the virus when it was at its most virulent and the previous federal government had failed to secure adequate vaccination supplies. I'm reading the book now in the wake of being very unwell with the latest variant, but I was unlikely to die from Covid because I've had four vaccinations and the latest antivirals. But the steady rate of deaths each week means that the sense of dread is not entirely vanquished. (And we are not yet allowed out of the house, by law.)
Carmel Bird lives outside Melbourne in a small regional city and here she captures the sense of foreboding that was widely shared:
Dead of night. I am at my desk, 'safe' inside my house in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. This is dja dja warrung country. The outside world is muffled by darkness and by the rows and rows of books. A misty wave of danger and foreboding whispers at the windowpanes, creeps under the door, drifts down the chimney, tickles with invisible slippery poisonous fingers the chambers of my heart. What is the shape of this hovering harbinger of death? Do the vast lugubrious wings of some dark angel slowly beat above the tiny marbled sphere of the turning world? (p.14)
If you've read any of Carmel Bird's novels, you'll recognise the macabre imagery and the playful gothic style...
I have described Telltale as a memoir, but it's more than that.
Telltale is composed of two different kinds of narrative. One is warp and one is weft, and I am not sure which is really which. Will the threads hold? What patterns might I work across the surface? Will the metaphors crumble into useless dust? One threads speaks of books read and sometimes of books written. And also of things that happened in my life. The other speaks of a journey of the heart, a pilgrimage through a patchy history of the world, becoming a poetic thread that runs through the whole narrative. (p.5)
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/06/04/telltale-reading-writing-remembering-by-carm...… (mere)
Reading this book was such a "non-event" that I wouldn't even waste time reviewing it. I have given it one star for the cover !
Marsali Swift and her husband William have returned to Melbourne after what they hoped would be a permanent retirement tree change to the quaint property of Listowel, in the Victorian Goldfields township of Muckleton. They hoped for a quiet life full of rural splendour, delightful book clubs and country charm. Instead they become victims of a theft, a neighbour goes missing - presumed murdered, and they uncover disturbing facts about their little town’s violent past.
The style of writing is somewhat unusual, especially for the genre, and it may not appeal to all readers. The novel is set out in a journal/memoir style and is a combination of recollections of the events interspersed with random thoughts and observations relating to art, history, politics, the environment, literature and science. It’s kind of like being stuck next to Great Aunt Clara at a wedding after she’s had too many glasses of sherry. It is charming, confusing, informative and irritating all at the same time. Part of you want to leave the table, and part of you can’t drag yourself away.
The style of the novel allows for extensive descriptions of character and places. One can readily visualise Muckleton, its quaint streets and landmarks and eclectic mix of locals. It is worth pushing through to the end, even if the writing doesn’t set readily with you.
“Field of Dreams” by Carmel Bird will either earn a place in your top ten for the year or be left unfinished. Reader’s choice.
I received a free copy of this book through Sisters in Crime - Australia, in exchange for a fair and honest review.… (mere)
The style of writing is somewhat unusual, especially for the genre, and it may not appeal to all readers. The novel is set out in a journal/memoir style and is a combination of recollections of the events interspersed with random thoughts and observations relating to art, history, politics, the environment, literature and science. It’s kind of like being stuck next to Great Aunt Clara at a wedding after she’s had too many glasses of sherry. It is charming, confusing, informative and irritating all at the same time. Part of you want to leave the table, and part of you can’t drag yourself away.
The style of the novel allows for extensive descriptions of character and places. One can readily visualise Muckleton, its quaint streets and landmarks and eclectic mix of locals. It is worth pushing through to the end, even if the writing doesn’t set readily with you.
“Field of Dreams” by Carmel Bird will either earn a place in your top ten for the year or be left unfinished. Reader’s choice.
I received a free copy of this book through Sisters in Crime - Australia, in exchange for a fair and honest review.… (mere)
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Associated Authors
Statistikker
- Værker
- 41
- Also by
- 12
- Medlemmer
- 653
- Popularitet
- #38,652
- Vurdering
- 3.4
- Anmeldelser
- 13
- ISBN
- 88