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Saturday, August 31, 2019

Kicking The Sophomore Curse To The Curb, By Taking Eight Years To Publish A Second Novel



Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.

 Joss Whedon

 
 The best way out is always through.
Robert Frost

 CAN CONFIRM: Study Finds Most Sin A Direct Result Of Not Having Enough Coffee In Your System
... a lack of coffee directly increases the sinfulness of your thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and desires...


NEWS YOU CAN USE: Essential knots: how to tie the 20 knots you need to know


Boom time for Dervla McTiernan with big win and a film adaptation

It's a big week for Dervla McTiernan and her novel The Rúin.
… The Case of the Disappearing Editors



Facebook quietly ditched the ‘It’s free and always will be’ slogan from its homepageBusiness Insider Australia






Kicking The Sophomore Curse To The Curb, By Taking Eight Years To Publish A Second Novel


Téa Obreht took her time after The Tiger’s Wife struck the bestseller list and stayed for many, many months. She says, “It was appropriate to let the wrong books go and wait for the right one to come along.” – The New York Times










Russian Literature And The Meaning Of Truth


“We usually assume that literature exists to depict life, but Russians often speak as if life exists to provide material for literature. Russians, of course, excel in ballet, chess, theater, and mathematics. They invented the periodic table and non-Euclidian geometry. Nevertheless, for Russians literature is in a class by itself. The very phrase “Russian literature” carries a sacramental aura.” – New Criterion


A bloom of of one's own: Eight writers pen their odes to spring







Perhaps because I’ve never been to any of the Scandinavian countries, I’d never really investigated their history so the murkier aspects of their society came as a horrid surprise.  Ikea and ABBA and their sophisticated welfare systems all seemed so bland and benign.  (Well, benign, that is, until you actually try and assemble something from Ikea.)  But Ingvar Kamprad, founder of Ikea, had a very dubious personal history:
… there are also two ways into the Ikea story.  One is uplifting and inspirational: a young man from a modest background, but with more than the usual dose of business acumen, builds an empire.  Although the hero of the story makes an occasional mistake, that is precisely what made him human and such a treasured symbol of Swedishness.
The other way leads from Mr Kaprad’s childhood and adolescence in a Hitler-loving family, Germans who had immigrated from the Sudetenland, in Czechoslovakia, where both his paternal grandmother and his father were Nazis; his long-lasting commitment to the Swedish fascist movement; and his membership, during the Second World War, of Sweden’s Nazi party, Swedish Socialist Unity.  Both stories are equally true.  (p.90)


Tech Giants Are Hiring Philosophers. Will It Help?


“Tech companies seem to berecognizingthat they need advice on the unprecedented power they’ve amassed and on many challenging moral issues around privacy, facial recognition, AI, and beyond. Philosophers, who contemplate these topics for a living, should welcome any interest in their work from organizations that are set on shaping humanity’s future. But they need to be wary of the potential conflicts of interest that can arise from these collaborations, and of being used as virtue-signaling pawns for ethically problematic companies.” – Wired

Becoming: Applause - art for social change

"Have patience with all things — but first with yourself. Never confuse your mistakes with your value as a human being. You are perfectly valuable, creative, worthwhile person simply because you exist. And no amount of triumphs or tribulations can ever change that."
— Francis de Sales, born in 1567


South Junior Courtesy of mysterious boxer Ruby Dhilon and gang - dancing on the ceiling ...
Belvoir highlights stories of people pushing back against giants on world stageBelvoir's 2020 program is a mix of classics, audience favourites and important new writing.
WHEN
Sun 15 – Fri 20 Sept @ 7pm
TICKET PRICES
Full $25 I Concession $20

THE BECOMING

BY KATIE POLLOCK
“You call this life? This is death wrapped in plastic packaging.”
Greta Samsa awakes from uneasy dreams to find herself changed. She in turn decides to change the world, starting with her family.
Only trouble is, her brother Gregor is refusing to emerge from his room and Mum and Dad are too busy to notice. Then an unexpected visitor arrives and things take a surreal turn. When her brother finally decides to show his face, Greta discovers the world has radically transformed around her and she now holds all their futures in her hands.
A startling black comedy about love and revolution from award-winning Sydney-based writer Katie Pollock.
Produced by New Theatre  (Sarah Maguire of Three Williams fame) (Sydney Theatre School)

CREATIVE TEAM Director Brett HeathStage Manager Alexis Worthing
CAST
Alison Benstead, Jo Goddard, Ben Hanly,
Patrick Holman, Sarah Maguire, Paul Wilson

A black comedy, with punch, from award-winning Sydney-based writer Katie Pollock. Produced by New Theatre as part of the 2019 Sydney Fringe Festival." ...
 ...


Joy – You’re like the Tim Winton of theatre writers: your work exploring the world from a girl’s perspective, but having universal appeal, whereas Tim’s fiction looks at life from the young male \
Katie – Thanks for the compliment! I never set out to do things this way but after a few plays I realised all my protagonists are women or girls. I’m much more conscious of it now of course, but the idea still always comes first. It’s partly just the way I think, the way I have experienced the world and continue to filter it. But I also think it’s necessary to reframe the idea of the default perspective, of what we as society view as a normal way of processing information. Because I do believe the female lens is different and time is definitely up on anyone who says it’s less.



Katie Pollock is a Sydney-based playwright. ... Created, developed and produced by Red Line Productions, the New Fitz 2017 Program pairs emerging writers and directors on 10 brand new Australian works ...



AUDITIONS!
The Becoming by Katie Pollock.
Produced by New Theatre for Sydney Fringe Festival.
3 M (20 - 60) and 3 F (17 - 60).
Full details on our website

Applause: Latest success stories and prize winners

ArtsHub‎
People Inside Me by Katie Pollock ... The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) has ... Incinerator Art Award with this year's theme being'art for social change'.

ArtsHub


KATIE POLLOCK


Katie Pollock is a Sydney-based playwright.

Her plays for theatre are Normal; The Becoming; The Hansard Monologues (Age of Entitlement); Blue Italian/Nil by Sea; The Hansard Monologues (A Matter of Public Importance); The Blue Angel Hotel; A Quiet Night in Rangoon; A Girl Called Red; and numerous short works. Her plays and adaptations for radio are Beetroot: A bloody journey through roots and belonging; Nil by Sea; Contact; O is for Oxygen; and Blue Italian.

Her works have been produced by the ABC, Apocalypse Theatre, Casula Powerhouse, Eastside FM, Hothouse Theatre, Merrigong Theatre, Museum of Australian Democracy, New Theatre, Newtown Theatre, Old 505 Theatre, Redline Productions, Seymour Centre, Site & Sound Festival, subtlenuance, Sydney Fringe Festival, Tamarama Rock Surfers and The Street Theatre.

She is the winner of the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award; the Martin Lysicrates Prize; the inaugural Town Hall Theatre (USA) ‘Ingenious’ grant; the Inscription/Edward Albee Playwriting Scholarship; the Australian Writers Guild’s What Happens Next competition; and Hothouse Theatre’s Solo competition. She has been nominated for two AWGIES and was a finalist in two Silver Gull Awards and the Woodward/Newman Drama Award (USA). Normal is published by Currency Press.

For further information and to access her radio works see: katiepollock.com
BLUE ITALIANADD TO CART
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NORMAL

'If Our Fear Did Not Give It Weight'

ADD TO CART

“[D]eath is indeed the end, but not therefore the goal, of life; it is its finish, its extremity, but not therefore its object. Life should be an end unto itself, a purpose unto itself; its rightful study is to regulate, conduct, and suffer itself. Among the many other duties comprised in this general and principal chapter on knowing how to live is this article on knowing how to die; and it is one of the lightest, if our fear did not give it weight.”