Lithgow Ironfest is a glorious celebration of creative anachronism once a year in this coal-mining town just beyond the Great Dividing Range. Ironfest started with blacksmithing and now embraces steampunk, jousting, Napoleonic era reenactment, robots, Dr Who, birds of prey, archery on horseback, a medieval village, steampunk Samurai, WWII soldiers, a mariachi band and things impossible to name.
Here’s a guest post by Elizabeth Lhuede on the Reading Matters blog on Australian Women Writers. It’s gratifying to be mentioned in the company of so many other wonderful writers. This story of Lhuede’s is astonishing though…
‘I assumed it would be easy to find books to read, but when I asked my local library staff for recommendations, I was stunned that neither of the two (female) library assistants on duty could name one living female Australian author. The author they did name, Elizabeth Jolley, was one of the few I’d read as an undergraduate. Other authors I knew were all either dead, of an older generation, or expatriates, many of whom had achieved recognition for their work outside Australia, including Shirley Hazzard, Helen Garner, Kate Grenville, Thea Astley and Janette Turner Hospital.
Where were the books by authors of my own generation and younger?’
‘As the world’s human population grows, we’re reducing the amount of agricultural areas and forests. That’s why some architects are working on concepts for sustainable skyscrapers and vertical agricultural buildings. Here are some of the most interesting plans for the merging of the city and the farm.’ – from i09
Could see all sorts of images like this in the film or tv series…
The September issue of The Monthly has arrived from the printers, with my piece on the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity and the landing party at Canberra Deep Space Network Tracking Station (Tidbinbilla).
It should now be available in print and online
Martin Ollman’s terrific photo of us space tweeps in the rain by the ‘big dish’ at Canberra DSN is on the inside front cover. This is his photo of his photo.
The Dutch edition of When We Have Wings has been released with a gorgeous new cover by the classy Dutch imprint Uitgevrij Signatuur. In hardback.
Author Michael Pryor asked me to write about my favourite book from childhood. Choosing a favourite book is impossible; would it be The Jungle Book or The Silver Chair, The Lord of the Rings or Harriet the Spy? In the end, I wrote about a book I realised powerfully influences my adult writing.
It’s worth checking out Michael’s website. The guest posts on favourite books are fascinating and I love that Michael feels it necessary to list his favourite dinosaur (Triceratops). He’s right, this is vital information and I’m now racking my brains for my favourite dinosaur. I think it has to be one of the many Australian ones, such as Eric the opalised plesiosaur.
Camille Seaman is an amazing photographer whose work I’ve just seen for the first time. The Atlantic has published a stunning photoessay on supercell storms; if you’ve read WHEN WE HAVE WINGS, you’ll know why I love these.
There’s also an interesting article on Seaman chasing supercell storms, Chasing Danger, Capturing Beauty, in the NYtimes Lens blog.
(above photo was posted to the Lens FB page)
The earlier story, on icebergs, is also a must.
Not only are the photographs superb, I’m particularly interested in how the article describes the way Seaman’s eye and sensibility were shaped by her grandfather: ‘Every day, from when she was 5 until his death when she was 13, he would make Ms. Seaman and her brother sit outside without moving, for one hour. After an hour, he would call them into the house and ask what they had seen.’
Lens is a relatively new photojournalism blog but appears to have quickly become essential reading/viewing for people serious about photography and photojournalism.
