The South Coast Readers & Writers Festival returns to Thirroul over the weekend of 5-6 July with a vibrant lineup of literary talent, from rising stars to international bestsellers. With a program ranging from soul-stirring poetry readings, captivating literary fiction, historical recreation, and young adult adventures to thought-provoking non-fiction, intimate memoirs, gripping biographies, and cutting-edge politics, this year’s South Coast Readers & Writers Festival has something for everyone.
We sat down with one of the festival’s headlining authors, Isobelle Carmody (Comes the Night), to talk all things writing and reading.
What is your latest writing project?
I have been working on Darkbane, most recently, but while I have been touring around with Comes the Night, I have been thinking about it a great deal and I have been making some notes for a companion novel. I have also for a couple of years been working on a graphic novel about Little Fur.
What are you reading right now?
I started to read the exquisite The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge. Always meant to read it because so often on panels when authors are asked what they loved when they were young people would mention this book, which I had never encountered. I am only one chapter in because it was so incredibly beautifully written that I can't bear to consume it as fast as I would if I just went through it so I left it at my friend’s house with the intention of reading a little every time I visit her. I am really this restrained.
I'm also reading some books I got after meeting the authors in New Zealand during the tour I have just returned from, one is by Rachael King called The Grimmelings. Another is a gorgeous book by Catherine Chidgey called The Axeman's Carnival, which is frightening me a little bit.
On the to-read pile is Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout and a novel by Heather McQuillan called Truth Needs No Colour. I bought these either because a bookseller I was signing stock for had raved about it or because I met the author and wanted to know more about them and there is no better way to know a person than to read the book they wrote.
What is the book that made you want to be a writer?
I wouldn’t say any book made me want to be a writer, although I did love stories. I loved the way talking and wrote about nature in Lord of the Rings, I loved the idea of a wardrobe door leading to another world where animals talked. I loved The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban because the meaning felt so deep and mysterious and beautiful. I understood from this book that meaning could hide in the words so you could feel it but not actually pin it down.
The book that made me understand what I was trying to do was Enid Blyton's The Land of Far-Beyond, which is a sort of retelling of A Pilgrim’s Progress. I absolutely love this book and I would borrow it continuously from the library. I don't know why but I felt I needed it so perhaps that's the book that made me write.
What does your writing space look like?
Mostly I work at the kitchen table wherever I am. I love the size of it which allows me to spread out and I love getting up and washing dishes or cooking a bit, as I think in between paragraphs. It is a pragmatic space where nourishing things are created, I feel always very grounded and ordinary as I write in that space in between cooking and living. I also work in cafes, which is just like a public kitchen table and you don't have to cook and clean.
What is your writing routine?
My writing routine is if possible to get up and get a cup of tea in my pyjamas and go back to bed and write till after midday. On the best days I will stop at 3 o'clock then I will go for a walk and do something physical to stretch the kinks out and to let the work drop from my conscious mind into my unconscious so that it can do deeper work.
I like to swim if I can during the afternoon and if not, I sometimes take a long bath and read a book. I would eat something and do all the stuff I have to do and then come back at night and work some more, until I'm falling asleep. I like working in the very early morning and also in the late evening if I can be wide awake enough. Sometimes I'm just too tired and I have to sleep but when I can hold myself away from sleep, I grow more awake and often I can work for a few good hours in the evening as well.
Super early bird tickets are on sale now for the South Coast Readers & Writers Festival at southcoastwriters.org/festival. The full festival program will be announced on 5 May.