I’ve been spending the last two months or so doing an artist residency in the town of Taos, New Mexico. I feel very lucky to have been given this opportunity – a fellowship from The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico. During my time here, I’ve been working on my novel. While working here in Taos, I’ve been thinking about such...
Read MoreFrom Ólafsfjörasður
I’m writing this from Ólafsfjörður, in northern Iceland, where I arrived a few hours ago. This is the start of my two-month residency at Listhús, where I’ll be working on the draft manuscript for my novel. So far, I have written what I estimate is about 40% of a draft manuscript. At this point, I am feeling pretty good about the state of the...
Read MoreWhat relief is
Tom Cho 曹勵善 on X (formerly Twitter): “Relief: when what you’ve written the night before passes the morning after test. Still the hardest section of this chapter to write though. / X” Relief: when what you’ve written the night before passes the morning after test. Still the hardest section of this chapter to write...
Read MoreMore results just in
Thea Astley. She’s dead, but she’s still winning prizes. That’s how good she is. Yes, Thea Astley’s piece “Hunting the Wild Pineapple” has won the final of the Meanjin Tournament of Books. While I would have loved for my piece to have won the final, I certainly didn’t expect that it would make it so far through the...
Read MoreWriting good jokes make me happy
I’ve been writing some good jokes. And that makes me very happy. Also making a guest appearance in the major revision of this piece: everyone’s favourite...
Read MoreStill such a long way to go but…
Still such a long way to go on this book, but last night/this morning was my most productive stint of fiction-writing this whole damn-hard year. I have missed that particular mind-space so...
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