Karen Wyld

So the books that I read about women in my early years were written by men.

So, I mean, I read a lot for work as a reviewer, but also because of my master's study, I read a lot.

So things that have really stood out recently for me would be a non-fiction book, Why Indigenous Literatures Matter by Daniel Heath Justice, that's written in the

Canadian point of view, but it was really good.

A Long Pedal Off the Sea by Isabel Allende.

That sort of, for me, felt like it was returning to some of her earlier books, except it didn't have any of the magic realism, but it was really good.

Again, it was a saga and it focused on the Spanish exiles leaving Europe and creating a new beginning in Chile.

Very recent was the 2020 book, A Long Listed How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C.E.

Pam Ja Ang.

I don't have that on my bookshelf because I loved it so much I actually mailed it to someone up in Broome to read because... That's a good sign.

Yeah, because his great aunt, I think, was actually living in America and...

This book is set during the gold rush era with a touch of magic realism and from the point of view of Chinese Americans.

Of course, every author's use of magic realism is influenced by their experiences and their cultures and everything.

So it's always different.

OK, so I'm doing a master's by research.

So, you know, it's fairly much independent study.

I'm looking at how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers use magic realism to articulate time, place and belonging and how it's used for truth telling, a resistance and assertion of agency.

As part of my study, the books that fit into the subject that I'm studying would be more like Kim Scott's Banang and That Dead Man Dance and Alexis Wright's Carpentaria.

But attached to that will be a creative piece, so I'll probably be doing a novella.

There's not a lot of books that are actually magic realism.