by Southerly | 1 Nov, 2018 | Blog
Increasingly I think that the best kinds of writing about literature estrange it: illuminate its singularities through the performance of reading. So there’s a sense in which a ‘case for’ any particular novel is inherently pyrrhic. That said, where Patrick White’s...
by Southerly | 12 Oct, 2018 | Blog
Words || Jonathan Dunk It’s been ubiquitously noted that the publication of Jack Cox’s Dodge Rose in 2016 bucked a number of Auslit publication trends, and some international formal ones. Beginning with the obvious, it was published by Dalkey Archive in the US before...
by Southerly | 4 Oct, 2018 | Blog
I don’t read fiction about illness much. I know that’s not what you expected, as it goes directly against the premise of this essay. But fiction allows me to inhabit another body; it’s a luxury. I’m not sure I want to read about a body that is ill like mine. Thinking...
by Southerly | 24 Sep, 2018 | Blog
Words || Katerina Bryant “Sometimes pus, sometimes a poem… but always pain.” —Yehuda Amichai, as quoted in Shaping the Fractured Self The first poem I loved was Sylvia Plath’s Tulips. I didn’t understand it; not at first. I was in the last year of high school and our...
by Southerly | 13 Sep, 2018 | Blog
Words || Katerina Bryant When I first became ill, I tried to find stories like mine. I needed to see myself on the page to believe I could adapt to a new life: a quieter, restrained life. I will not go into the particulars of my illness here—it is a sticky blend of...
