Dream…

It’s the National Year of Reading 2012 and each month has been given a theme. June is Dream. I’ve had many comments from readers that When We Have Wings gives them vivid flying dreams. Seems the folks at Parramatta Library think so too – they’ve included WWHW on their June Dream poster for NYR3012.

 

Barbara Jefferis Award 2012

This was a classy event put on by the Australian Society of Authors to celebrate the fifth annual Barbara Jefferis Award. Anne Summers gave a rousing speech. Anna Funder won for her novel All That I Am. Congratulations Anna.

 

Three shortlistees attended the BJA Award ceremony: Georgia Blain, Gail Jones and me. I hadn’t met Georgia or Gail before and it was such a pleasure to talk to them. We ended up standing together as the award was announced; we could have been seen as competitors but I felt so much support. My lovely agent, Selwa Anthony, also came to show her support. Thank you, Selwa. Margo Lanagan was there too and it was lovely talking to her and to Sophie Masson, the head of the ASA, and to Derek from Better Read Than Dead books in Newtown. From L to R below: Georgia Blain, Gail Jones, me.

From the Barbara Jefferis Award Judges’ Report

From the BJA judges’ report:

Claire Corbett: When We Have Wings (Allen & Unwin)
This unusual and original novel evokes a futuristic world as seen by ‘fliers’, people who find ways to acquire wings and explore the skies. Corbett contrasts a glamorous world of towering cityscapes and floating islands in the sky with an underclass of the flightless: the powerless, the poor and the weak. Crossing several genres – fantasy, thriller, detective story – this novel addresses numerous questions of class, of genetics, of gender, and of what it means to be human. This is a story of great imaginative power in which women’s maternal rights are exploited and ultimately asserted.

I am so excited to announce…A-Team

I have a Russian publishing deal!

Appropriately enough, I found out just before attending the SWF screening of Stalker, the Tarkovsky film, introduced by the witty and lovely Geoff Dyer. Of course I bought his book about Stalker, Zona.

That brings my overseas publishing deals for When We Have Wings to four: The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and now Russia.

My Russian publisher is called A-Team. How cool is that? The imprint is called Lenizdat, which is one of the oldest names in Russian publishing. As the name implies, it was “the publishing house of the Leningrad oblast committee of the CPSU, one of the oldest Soviet publishing houses. It was established Nov. 29 (Dec. 12), 1917, as the Publishing House of the Petrograd Soviet; it became Lengiz in 1924 and Lenizdat in 1938”. (info from The Free Dictionary)

Continuum 8: 51st National SF Convention

I’m booked! I’ll be on the following panels:

Storyworlds
Backyard speculation
Splicing Genres

plus a reading and signing session.

I look forward to seeing you there.

More details when I have the schedule.

Spec Fic panel at Gloucester Writers Festival

This panel, with Rob Riel, me, Michael Pryor and Meg Mundell, was so much fun, as you can see from the photo. Judging by appreciative comments from the audience afterwards, they enjoyed it as much as we did. Thanks to Lindy Dupree for organising such a lovely and intimate festival. I felt as if Rob and Michael and Meg were instantly friends and loved meeting Lisa Heidke and Lisa Walker too. Jesse Blackadder’s talk and slideshow on Antarctica was also a highlight. Thanks everyone and especially again to Lindy and James for putting us up and looking after us.

 

Who would be among your top ten emerging authors? From 5th anniversary posts for Angela Meyer’s LiteraryMinded blog

“Paul Anderson asks: ‘Top ten emerging authors? (I know, contentious)’

I find this so hard to answer because I can only judge by authors I’ve read, and of course, there are so many emerging authors I haven’t read. Here’s ten authors that people really need to check out, though (and I’m taking ‘emerging’ as ‘having published [in the mainstream] three books or under’). I’ll also limit this to Aus/NZ authors:

Tom Cho, Ryan O’Neill, Josephine Rowe, Rachael King, Chris Womersley, Krissy Kneen, Claire Corbett, Lisa Lang, Amanda Curtin, Dominic Smith.

That leaves out so, so many. But you can’t go wrong if you check out the work of these authors! See this page on the ANZLitLovers blog (click through to reviews of debut novels) for more ideas. Or read the Review of Australian Fiction, which publishes an emerging writer in each issue.” – Angela Meyer

I will be checking out all those authors too. I have never read so much Australian literature in my life as I have since being published last year and it’s been wonderful. NT author Marie Munkara would be among my top ten emerging authors. And Meg Mundell.

Gloucester Writers Festival 4-6 May

This panel, with Rob Riel, me, Michael Pryor and Meg Mundell, was so much fun, as you can see from the photo. Judging by appreciative comments from the audience afterwards, they enjoyed it as much as we did. Thanks to Lindy Dupree for organising such a lovely and intimate festival. I felt as if Rob and Michael and Meg were instantly friends and loved meeting Lisa Heidke and Lisa Walker too. Jesse Blackadder’s talk and slideshow on Antarctica was also a highlight. Thanks everyone and especially again to Lindy and James for putting us up and looking after us.