May 2015: Other Worlds Zine Fair & Memoir Club

Other Worlds zine fair is back for a second year with an expanded program of talks, workshops and of course the zine fair, which is on Saturday 23rd May, 11am – 4pm. I’ll be there with some new zines and maps as well as some favourites from the past.

Randwick Literary Institute c.1957 by Steve Terrill.

On Tuesday 26th May I’ll be in conversation with Jessica Kirkness at the Randwick Literary Institute for the monthly meeting of the Memoir Club for Readers and Writers. I’ll be speaking about my memoir Ninety9, tips for writing lives, and the possibilities of memoir. The details are:

Tuesday 26 May 2015        6.00—9.00pm
Randwick Literary Institute
60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031
RSVP by 24 May: memoirclubsydney@gmail.com

More information on the Institute can be found here.

Ninety9 Appearances

I’ll be doing some Ninety9-related readings and talks in the next few months. First off I’ll be at Late Night Library on April 10th for their Stories About Music edition. I’ll be reading from Ninety9 and Eddie Sharp, A.H. Cayley and James Colley will also be reading on the night.

At the Sydney Writer’s Festival I’ll be conducting a workshop about writing teen memoir on May 17th. It’s a 3 hour workshop on how to write effectively about your teenage experiences. I’m also on the A Life in Rhythm panel on Friday May 23rd, along with Emma Ayres, Omar Musa and James Valentine. Later that night I’ll be reading at the Mixtape Memories event at the Festival Club, hosted by The Lifted Brow.

Reviews, Interviews and Talks

A few reviews of Ninety9 have appeared lately, among them a review on the Compulsive Reader blog by Magdalena Ball, in the Newtown Review of Books by Walter Mason, and in The Australian by Kirsten Krauth.

Listen to an interview with me on the Compulsive Reader radio show here.

And for those in Sydney, I’ll be talking about Ninety9 and Newtown in the 90s as part of Better Read Than Dead’s Talking Heads series at Newtown Library on February 25th.

Pulp Questionnaire Reply #2

Another Pulp Questionnaire reply. Where are YOU and what are the vibes like?

Pulp Questionnaire Reply #1

At the launches of Ninety9 I’ve given out an activity page with a find-a-word and a fill-in Pulp Questionnaire. A few completed questionnaires have come back to me in the post, here is one of them:

While I’m here, thank you to everyone who has written to me after reading Ninety9, it has been such a pleasure to get your letters.

 

 

Canberra Launch

The wonderful folks at the Canberra Zine Emporium have invited me to their final event of 2013, to launch Ninety9 with them at Smith’s Alternative Bookshop. Do come if you’re in Canberra – there will be readings, a lucky door prize, and a Canberra zine stall courtesy of the CZE. The event page is here.

Ninety9 Teenage Bedroom

Some photos from the Newcastle launch of Ninety9, which was held as part of the National Young Writer’s Festival. I write about the first NYWF in Ninety9, and making the trip to Newcastle to attend it. I read this story from my replica teenage bed, with The Cure poster above me.

The pictures on the walls are all ones I had on my walls during the 1990s. I have kept them in a suitcase ever since then – you might recognise some of them from previous posts on this blog.

See some more photos here.

Ninety9 Launch in Newcastle

I’m launching Ninety9 in Newcastle this weekend from a recreation of my 1990s bedroom. See you under the Robert Smith poster.

 

In My Room: teenagers in their Bedrooms

I’ve been busy putting things together for my launch in Newcastle this weekend, for which I’m making a version of my 1990s bedroom. While I was in my bookcase looking for 90s issues of Rolling Stone, I rediscovered this book of 90s teen rooms, published in 1995.

King Street in the 1990s Walking Tour

 

Join me for a walking tour of King Street as it was in the 1990s on Saturday October 19th – it’s free, and you can book here. We’ll meet at Newtown Library and head off in search of King of Yeeros, the Oxford, and the Burland Community Hall.