This page will be updated on an ongoing basis – it features some of my favourites, as well as stuff I’m currently reading.
Here are some of the local writers/poets/spoken word artists I really dig (some are also visual artists/actors):
- Duncan Armstrong
- Valentino Assenza
- Heather Babcock
- David Bateman
- Philip Cairns
- Brenda Clews
- Brian Francis
- Camilla Gibb
- Felicia Guy-Lynch
- Brock Hessel
- Vanessa McGowan
- John Oughton
- Cathy Charlie Petch
- Elizabeth Ruth
- Vanessa Smythe
- Andrea Thompson
- Lizzie Violet
And some other writers/poets I really like:
Once again, I renewed my goal to read more in the New Year (a challenging prospect, given that I write and edit for a living and after hours).
2017 reads:
- The Matisse Stories (short stories by A.S. Byatt)
- The Princess Diarist (memoir by Carrie Fisher)
- Salome (play by Oscar Wilde)
- The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith)
- The Cat’s Table (Michael Ondaatje)
- Finding Your Own North Star (Martha Beck) – in progress
Here’s a great G&M article by Russell Smith, featuring a vid by Stephen Fry, on language. I think it’s bloody brilliant!
Having said that, I do believe that there’s a happy medium – between clarity/correctness and creativity/passion in language – somewhere between Lynne Truss and Stephen Fry.
For info on the origin/meaning of words/phrases, I like The Word Detective:
Saw this in my NOW Magazine horoscope for the week of Nov 24, 2011 (I’m a Gemini, as well as a hopeful romantic): When I see your face, the stones start spinning. Water turns pearly. Fire dies down and doesn’t destroy. In your presence I don’t want what I thought I wanted. – the poet Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
