Chapter 1: What themes are explored in Polly Samson's A Theatre for Dreamers?
Hi, welcome to the Bookshelf on Radio National, online on your bookish podcast catcher of choice. I'm Kate Evans, joining you from home.
And I'm Cassie McCullough, and what an embarrassment of riches we have in front of us today, Kate.
well and these books are going to take us out and about so i'm in the mood for a bit of international travel through reading so i've decided to dress today as if it's 1960 and i'm heading to a greek island so it's all slightly worn out cotton for me right it's very cheesy clothy okay well i'm in a flannelette shirt with some sneakers and um yeah feeling kind of like i could make it in outback australia as well as downtown newtown so you know somewhere in between there
We're going to drop in, Kate, on a couple of Australian writers of yore, George Johnston and Charmian Clift.
And that's with the help of the new book, A Theatre for Dreamers, by Polly Sampson.
Of course, they're both long since passed away, so we won't actually be dropping in on them, but we'll be hearing about this book that's been written inspired by their lives. And also, Kate, we're going to head to Mexico. Yes.
with journalist and novelist Fernanda Melchor and her book, Hurricane Season.
But why don't we meet our fellow travellers for today's episode?
Cassie, I first heard the work of Stephen Herrig as a performance poet in Sydney, and I even had a vinyl single of one of his poems.
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Chapter 2: How does Fernanda Melchor's Hurricane Season depict violence in Mexico?
But since then, he's written over... Vinyl? A single? What a poet! Yeah, it was called My New Haircut. I've told him this before to his great embarrassment. But since that time, he's written over 20 novels, especially for children and young adults, including The Bogan Mondrian, Pookie Alira Is Not My Boyfriend, and Love, Ghosts and Nosehairs. And he joins us from New South Wales, Blue Mountains.
Hello, Stephen.
Hi, Kate. Thanks for telling the world how old I am.
I think I'm telling them how old I am too.
Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What unique perspective does Elena Alonso-Mira bring to Latin American literature?
And maybe I'll join in there because, Stephen, when I think of your name, I also think of Gundawindi.
Why do I think of that? It was a poem I wrote many, many, many, many years ago called Caboolture, but it included the words Gundawindi. And I now go back to those schools in Goondiwindi and Caboolture regularly because of that poem. Oh, really? 30 years on.
Goondiwindi made you. Oh, yeah. It did. Hello, Goondiwindi, if you're listening.
But Stephen, as a writer, you mentioned schools. You do spend a lot of time going into schools, doing readings. But what's happened under this COVID-19 lockdown? What's happened to you?
Yeah, look, it's been terrible. I had a wonderful year mapped out of touring Queensland and Caboolture, not Goondiwindi this time, and right up to Gladstone and also the north coast of New South Wales and Sydney.
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Chapter 4: What are the real-life influences behind the characters in A Theatre for Dreamers?
So something like 50 to 70% School shows and library shows have been either cancelled or postponed for the next three or four months. And there's more shows booked after that that may well cancel as well, of course.
All those kids missing out on the joy of wordplay and insanity.
Oh, and me missing out on the joy of performing for them. I love my job and I feel really stuck here in my study now, I'm afraid.
Well, you also write travel books. So I suppose that's curtailed as well.
Absolutely. So my year is normally divided into three sections. Between October and January, I write a book, a fiction novel or verse novel for children or teenagers. For six months, I visit schools. And for three months, I ride my bicycle around Europe until I fall off. and write a book about that.
Bloody hell, you got it sorted out, haven't you?
Yeah, it's fantastic.
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Chapter 5: How does the COVID-19 pandemic affect writers and their work?
But you can see that coronavirus has basically stopped nine months of my year from taking place. So having just spent three months in my study from October to January writing a book, I'm now back in my study writing another book. because I've got no option.
Well, you need one of those, you know, stationary bikes like they have for the Tour de France and people pretend they're in the Peloton. You can, you know, beetle around Europe. I've got one on the veranda. Have you? Yes.
Also with us is Elena Alonso-Mira, a specialist in Latin American literature from the School of Languages at Deakin University. And she joins us from Melbourne. Elena, welcome.
Oh, thank you. Elena, now tell us, what particular part, what literature are you interested in? Which countries?
Chapter 6: What is the significance of the relationship dynamics in the discussed novels?
I'm mainly interested in Argentina and Chile even though I'm from Spain I always had a passion for Latin American literature I guess I saw it as a bit more exotic for me and I was always attracted to it and I yeah I did my PhD in Argentinian and Chilean literature but I read literature from all the countries like Colombia and Mexico as well particularly so yeah I have It's just my passions.
What I mainly read is anything that comes from Latin America, really.
You must be feeling very separated from home in Spain right now.
Well, yeah, but I do talk to my family and I'm really thankful that Skype exists and WhatsApp and we're constantly in touch. And because everyone is home, there's actually more time now to talk to them than there was before. But I'm obviously worried about them and how... how terrible things are going there at the moment.
Yes, and the world is worried for Spain and Italy and now America and gosh knows where else the hotspots are going to be. So let's turn our mind from that. Let's talk about books for a moment and tell us perhaps, Lena, what you've been reading lately.
I've been reading a lot of theory just because I have time. I'm reading at the moment a lot of Timothy Morton, and he talks about hyperobjects. He has even tweeted that coronavirus is a hyperobject, but people who read him can find out what that is. And I'm also, of course, reading some fiction because that's what I'm passionate about.
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Chapter 7: How does humor play a role in addressing dark themes in literature?
And I'm reading Samantha Schrebling, who is an Argentinian author that also won the International Booker Prize in 2017. And, yeah, the original title was Distancia de Rescate, which is literally Rescue Distance. And, yeah, and then I have a few books to read on my shelf. And this is another Mexican writer. That's Veronica Gerber.
or Gerber, I think they would be pronounced in English, and it's an empty set and that has been translated as well.
And all of these books, we will have a list on our program page at the RN website. So if people are interested in following up these books that we're hearing about from Alina, they will be there for you to look at.
And what about you, Stephen? What's your lockdown reading?
At the moment, I'm reading a book called All Together Now, One Man's Walk in Search of His Father and the Lost England by Mike Carter. And it retraces a jobs march that was partly organized by his father and took place in 1981 at the height of Thatcherism. And this man, Mike, is retracing those steps in 2016, just before the Brexit vote.
So he's kind of trying to find his father on the walk, but also trying to get a sense of the country that he's walking through. I mentioned that I was in the middle of writing a young adult fiction novel, so I tend to read as far away from those sorts of books as possible when I'm writing.
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Chapter 8: What book recommendations arise from the conversation?
So you don't get influenced or you don't subconsciously pick up little phrases and things?
Plagiarism is not nice, so I avoid that. I've always enjoyed Mike Carter. He's a Guardian journalist and he's written a few travel books. And so I always enjoy walking along or cycling along with him when he writes these books.
What about for comfort? What do you turn to, Stephen?
Well, at the moment, it's real comfort reading because I'm rereading my son's second book. My son is a writer. Oh, wow. I know, I know. Sorry, this sounds like a free plug, doesn't it? I apologise. No, it sounds like fatherly pride. It is. And his second book was out late last year. It's called Heartland, How Rugby League Explains Queensland.
Well, it must be about the size of a phone book, the old school phone book.
It's a very thick book. So he's trying to make sense of that thing that is Queensland. Both he and I are Queenslanders originally, so he's trying to make sense of it through the prism of rugby league. And it's done pretty well so far, I'm pleased to say.
What's your son's name?
Oh, his name's Joe Gorman, G-O-R-M-A-N.
But let's move on to the books that you've both read for us. Elena, you read Fernanda Melchor's Hurricane Season, a Mexican novel, and Stephen, you read Polly Sampson's A Theatre for Dreamers, which takes us to a Greek island in 1960 where this man was writing poetry that later turned to song.
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