What are the Attributes of God?: A Reading from The Meaning of Life and Other Fictions

Tom Cho

MCCA (School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts) Writer in Residence

Tuesday May 15, 1-2 pm

Curtin University
Humanities Boardroom, Building 208-214

RSVPs to: S.Perera@curtin.edu.au

[Source]

I’m participating in two events, both scheduled for the same day – a panel on humour and a reading. Details below:

Why so Serious?
29 Oct 2011
11:30 am – 12:30 pm

Featuring: Tom Cho, Neil Humphreys, Chuah Guat Eng
Venue: Transaction Pavilion, Campus Green, Singapore Management University
Moderator: Carolyn Camoens

What does it take to maintain a good sense of humour in your writing? And how do we ensure we don’t cross the border into slapstick territory? Let Australian artist-writer Tom Cho (Look Who’s Morphing), Chuah Guat Eng (Echoes of Silence, Days of Change) and British author Neil Humphreys (Notes from an Even Smaller Island, Premier Leech) share with you how they strike the right balance in their approaches towards humour.

Reading
29 Oct 2011
5:45 pm – 6:00 pm
Venue: Festival Pavilion, Campus Green, Singapore Management University
Free Admission

So why have I kept it quiet that I’m scheduled to appear at the Singapore Writers Festival? Well, there is a chance that I may not be going due to the health of someone in my family. Over the past couple of months, due to this family situation, progress on my second book has slowed considerably and various things have been put aside or postponed, including an interstate residency (that’s been postponed).

Years ago, I had to take time out from writing my first book because of personal reasons. As I put it to myself at the time, “Sometimes writing has to make way for living.” Well, it feels like living has well and truly intervened again. But then again, this reminds me of one of my long-standing arguments with myself about writing. Too often, in my moments of guilt about whether I am being a productive writer, my view of what constitutes writing narrows rather alarmingly. During those times, I have to remind myself that all those activities that seem to fall in between composing – thinking, berating myself for not composing and, well, probably even ‘living’ – are also part of my creative process. So often, I view these activities as gaps in my productivity, but let me commit it to writing here: gaps are from where things emerge.

First up, I’m giving a short reading as part of a benefit for Vignette Press’ Geek Mook. Here are the details, as taken from the page on Vignette Press’ website (and it’s also been listed as a Facebook event):

Geek Mook Fun-Razor — Dungeon Mook: Crawl to Mount Geek!

Will you be there? Or does the Fun-Razor have to come find you?

• Thursday 21 July 2011, doors from 7pm, starts at 8pm
• Bella Union, Level 1, Trades Hall, Corner of Victoria & Lygon Streets, Carlton South (enter off Lygon Street)
• Tickets: Pre-order online $12 + $2 booking fee or $15 on the door.

Tickets from the Bella Union website (http://www.bellaunion.com.au/program_guide/show_456)

A special, literary-themed Dungeon Crawl raising funds for Vignette Press‘ Geek Mook journal, to be published later this year.

Ben McKenzie and Richard McKenzie bring together the hottest comedy nerds to  fight, bluff, bribe and possibly dance their way through a magical adventure, helped by your decisions and hindered by the devious Dungeon Master. Featuring a cast of bizarre heroes, dysfunctional villains and crazy quests – and of course, killing monsters and stealing their stuff.

Basically, the “Dungeon Crawl” comedy show for this event will be followed by a few short literary readings (which is where I come in).

Not long after the Geek Mook benefit, I’m going to Sydney to do another reading. It’s for the monthly event Penguin Plays Rough. I’ll be reading a long excerpt from my story “What are the attributes of God?”, which will even include a short film. I read an earlier version of the excerpt at this year’s Midsumma Festival and I really enjoyed it. (The full story is also going to be published in The Lifted Brow next month.)

Here are the details of the event, as taken from the PPR website (and, again, this has also been listed as a Facebook event):

Penguin Plays Rough

Saturday July 23, 8-11 pm

Bring your own mug and cushion to 4 Lackey St, St Peters to witness

Tom Cho
Ryan O’Neil
Sam Twyford-Moore
and two special secret people

read out loud with your very own eyes

(the witnessing will be done with your eyes, not the reading out loud. Though if you can do that, you will probably upstage everyone, so all power to you).

Pip has been hassling TOM CHO to read at PPR for over a year. And now, what with Japanese residencies out of the way, it’s finally happening.

Tom published a collection of short stories a few years ago called Look Who’s Morphing, in which the central character undergoes a series of transformations, shape-shifting through figures drawn from film and television, music and books, porn flicks and comics. He is Godzilla, a Muppet, and Whitney Houston’s bodyguard; the Fonz, a robot, a Ford Bronco 4×4 – and, as a climax, a fifty-five metre tall guitar-wielding cock rock star, who performs for the people of Tokyo, and an adoring troupe of sexy fans.

Tom’s book was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book (South East Asia and Pacific), 2009 Age Book of the Year (Fiction) and Melbourne Prize Trust’s 2009 Best Writing Award.

But for PPR, Tom tells us, he will be sharing a brand new story (which will even feature a short film!). So this is definitely a PPR not to miss.

Tom is coming all the way from Melbourne to read to you – and just in case that didn’t make you feel special enough, RYAN O’NEIL is going to press pause on his very own house-building and schlep all the way from Newcastle to read to you too.

We’re also going to hear SAM TWYFORD-MOORE’s very nearly prize-winning story, Everything We Did in a Different Order.

Oh, and there are two ladies waiting in the facebook shadows I’m yet to surprise you with, and the finest of mulled wines, and the cosiest of heaters to toast you up all the way to your very toes.

See you on the 23rd,

Pip & Lucy

I’ve only given one reading from my 2nd book so far, so this will be really exciting for me.

The venue is perfect for what I wanted. It’s intimate, quirky and there is no book signing table. The venue is Kaye Sera’s BiZARRE – a shop, piano lounge and gallery owned by one of Melbourne’s very best drag queens, Kaye Sera. At capacity, 40 people can attend a show, but 25-30 people is a more comfortable fit, so please book soon if you want to be guaranteed a spot. I’ll be sharing the bill with Mikaya Heart, a US writer reading from her book My Sweet Wild Dance.

The reading is part of a series for Midsumma Festival called Words on Wednesday. More details below:

Words on Wednesday

A page turner – quite literally.

This series of festival readings runs over three Wednesday nights. On offer are the thoughts of our most inspirational wordsmiths, each and every one with a compelling story to tell.

Wed 19 Jan
JEAN TAYLOR reading from her book Brazen Hussies
HARRIET reading from Val Eastwood’s autobiography

Wed 26 Jan
TOM CHO reading from his new book in progress The Meaning of Life and Other Fictions
MIKAYA HEART (USA) reading from her book My Sweet Wild Dance

Wed Feb 2
KEVIN McGREAL reading his new play Jesus and the Goldtooth Gang
CHRISTOPHER WHITE reading from Peter Blazey’s autobiography Screw Loose

Venue Kaye Sera’s BiZARRE, 108 St Kilda Road, St Kilda
When 19 & 26 Jan, 2 Feb, Wed 7:30pm – 9:00pm
Price Full $16; Concession or Groups (10+): $11. Book online
Info Phone 0422 973 592 or visit http://www.kayesera.com

(In case you don’t know, Brimbank is in the west of Melbourne, close to where my old stomping ground was before I went all uber-inner-city. Think Sunshine, Sydenham, St Albans, etc.)

Here are the details of my gig:

Wednesday 22 September 2010
6.30pm-7.30pm
St Albans Library
71A Alfrieda Street

Bookings: Ph 03 9249 4650

At one of my events for the Sydney Writers Festival this year, I participated in an interview that was structured around a bunch of songs I chose that were of significance to me and my work. The beginning of each song was played, and then Matt Levinson (the interviewer) and I discussed its relevance to my life and fiction. I never got to play and talk about all of the songs at that event… so I’m thinking that I’ll do the full set at my talk (minus the interviewer). Yes, it’ll be me DJing. On the wheels of steel. Keeping it real. Or maybe just pressing “Play” and “Stop” on a portable CD player. Anyway, it should be a fun way to round out my festival participation for the year so feel free to come along for some cock-rocking good fun.

I’ll be speaking for half an hour about applying for arts funding. Here are some details for the event:

Publishing… The Whole Shebang

A day-long overview of the complete spectrum of the publishing industry. (More info here in the official event description)

Featuring Peter Donoughue, Bob Sessions, Michael Heyward, Sue Hines, Aviva Tuffield, Toni Jordan, Christopher Milne, Tom Cho, and Clare Forster

Fri 27 August, 10am-5pm
Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
$100 / $90 (buy tickets)

Here’s what I’ll be doing:

9.15am – 10.15am, Friday 6 August, Blue Marquee, North Beach
Our whizzing, whirling world: can writing reign supreme? With Tom Cho, Angela Meyer, Peter Skrzynecki. Chair: Susan Wyndham

12.15pm – 1.15pm, Friday 6 August, ABC3 Marquee, North Beach
Briefs: celebrating the short form. With Tom Cho, Cate Kennedy, Karen Hitchcock, O Thiam Chin. Chair: Chris Hanley

It’s a shame I’ve had to cut my festival participation short but I’m glad that I’ll be there for at least one day. If you’re in the neighbourhood, please come along and say hi.

Asialink Winter Writing Series presents

Winter Stories

Thursday 15 July, 6:00pm-7:30pm

Sidney Myer Asia Centre
Cnr Swanston Street and Monash Road
University of Melbourne

On a cold winter’s night, gather close for some good old-fashioned story-telling with all the right ingredients: mulled wine, spiced chai and a range of great tales from the region. Winter Stories places five of Australia’s punchiest fiction writers in a comfy armchair, hands them a microphone, and lets them take you away.

Follow an all-women landmine clearing team through the fields of northern Cambodia, fish up the past with a Japanese abalone diver and a Buddhist monk, and walk the French-inflected streets of colonial Hanoi.

Featuring: Laura Jean McKay, Catherine Cole, Xenia Hanusiak, Kalinda Ashton, Pip Newling and Tom Cho.

Winter Stories includes the launch of The Perfumed River, a new anthology that offers diverse perspectives on Vietnam. Work from the anthology presents a portrait of a unique nation’s cultural strength, built from struggles through colonization by the French, occupation by the Japanese, the American War, and the transition to a modern tourist economy.

Voiceworks provided me with my second ever poem publication and one of my earlier short fiction publications. There are a few lit journals in Australia that I have particular affection for and Voiceworks is one of them. It’ll be good to hang at a Voiceworks gig again.

P.S. Here’s how my launch speech begins:

Whitney Houston once sang: “I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.”

Learning to love youth arts is the greatest love of all.

Edit: Coming soon-ish… my full launch speech.

You can also expect to see more pictures, videos and other media here. I’ll now be tagging posts too. In fact, via the gigs tag, you’ll still be able to find out about my latest gigs. (That old favourite, the Melbourne Writers’ Festival parody, has a tag too: writersfestivalparody.) But far more importantly, I hope this website will better reflect the streaming thoughts of my day-to-day artistic practice and life. So consider this blog both a glimpse into and a part of my studio.

There are still more changes to come but this is how it’s looking so far. So, in conclusion, welcome and yay!