Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 08 November
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Helen Garner's name is synonymous with excellence and rigour in narrative non-fiction today. She's famous for spare yet stirring prose, dark subject matter and brutal introspection (the New Yorker’s James Wood called her a 'savage self-scrutineer').
In our final Longform Society meeting for 2017 – and as her collections, Stories and True Stories, are republished – we’ll explore some seminal essays from this peerless figure in Australian writing.
Chime in with your own perspectives – in the room, or online (the event will be live streamed) – as our panel consider Garner’s craft, her impact and the essays that have stayed with them. Our texts include examples of her early work, and her most influential stories.
The texts:
- 'Killing Daniel' (1993)
- 'The Art of the Dumb Question' (1996)
- 'Sighs Too Deep for Words' (2001)
(PDFs are no longer available for download.)
For regular links to the reading list, and live stream reminders, subscribe to the Longform Society's emails below. (If you want to come along, you'll also need to book a ticket.)
Featuring
Sophie Cunningham
Sophie Cunningham is a non-fiction writer and novelist with a passion for trees, walking and broader environmental issues. Sophie’s most recent books are This Devastating Fever (Ultimo Press) and Flipper and Finnegan ...
Bernadette Brennan
Bernadette Brennan is an academic and researcher in contemporary Australian writing, literature and ethics. She is the author of a number of publications, including a monograph on Brian Castro and two edited collections: Just Words?: Australian Authors Writing for Justice (UQP 2008), and Ethical Investigations: Essays on Australian Literature and Poetics (Vagabond 2008). She lives in Sydney.
Chloe Hooper
Chloe Hooper’s The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island (2008) won the Victorian, New South Wales, West Australian and Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, as well as the John Button Prize for Political Writing, and a Ned Kelly Award for crime writing. Her latest book is The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire (2018). She is also the author of two novels, A Child’s Book of True Crime and The Engagement.