In-sistered writing

The rawness of gums The day it happened; I knew for certain. The flesh of Mum’s memories were no longer rooted in her mind, and neither were her teeth in her mouth. When I walked in, she was sitting unshowered and crying on her unmade bed in a worn pale pink chenille dressing gown. She…

Just write, just write, just write I am reading Natalie Goldberg’s Writing down the bones: Freeing the writer within—well actually, I’m listening to her read it to me. Mostly on my way to work as company during the four-hour round car trip there and back, sometimes when I am out walking in the quiet hours before…

I may never be happy, but tonight I am content. Nothing more than an empty house, the warm hazy weariness from a day spent setting strawberry runners in the sun, a glass of cool sweet milk, and a shallow dish of blueberries bathed in cream. When one is so tired at the end of a…

Here she is – my gal, the thinker. Wondering and writing with the words of Jeanette Winterson in 12 Bytes and those gifted to the world by Ursula Le Guin in The lathe of heaven; moved to wonder and write by bell hooks in All about love: New visions, always by Dorothy Allison but this time in Two…

“What I really mean is: How will I stay alive, if I stop writing?” (2020)   Helen Garner Australian novelist and diarist     Writing between the lines: A gift There is a photo of me nursing Lucy pinned to the inside cover of my purple diary. The two of us are sitting outside in…

Can you come a little closer?  No, I was mistaken—it wasn’t you, it was just a fleeting shadow. Would you like to join your old friend for a coffee? No, never mind—you’ll only end up feeling like a perfect stranger. You’ll feel better when you get home and lay down next to the one you…

As a matter of fact, miraculous and magical things happen I can’t remember the first Alice Hoffman book I read. I don’t think it was Practical Magic (1995), even though I loved the movie of the same name starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock. Practical Magic tells the story of twin witch sisters Sally and…

“Have you seen the grotesque of her in the Great Court at the University? How delightful is the sculpture of her behind a steering wheel in homage to the way she practically and politically moved men around!” Anna Frederika (Freda) Bage (1883-1970) Academic Biologist Motoring adventurer Sports administrator University administrator Women’s activist   Yesterday She…

“Happiness is the reflection of a smile”, from Holly’s words of wisdom: An appointment calendar for 1977. Hello Holly Hobbie I didn’t know anything about her except that her name was Holly Hobbie, and she was the first to keep my secrets close in a white diary. Holly Hobbie, an American writer, water colour artist…