Here are some sessions at the Sydney Writers' Festival that might be either helpful or interesting.

There are some 'craft' sessions and some that sound useful from a craft point of view: Jackie Kay on May 25th, 180, How Imagination can help us survive; Framing a Life: on Memoir, 213 on May 26; Research and Writing 218 on May 26th, Deborah Levy on why she writes, 249 on May 26; A Character called Place, 217, on May 23; Ann Deveson in Writing Painful Experiences, 63, May 23; The Art and Ethics of Biography, 122, May 24.

The writers I'm interested include Kate Atkinson, Claire Messud, Pankaj Mishra who writes brilliantly about India, James Wood, the critic and reviewer.

And there's an evening at the Observatory with Ross Gibson, always a stimulating speaker, talking about his new book Starburst World, on William Dawes.

New classes and Memoir/Nonfiction Masterclass

I'm running two new short courses in June and July, as well as a Masterclass in Memoir and Nonfiction starting in August. The first of the short courses looks at meditation and creativity in relation to writing, and will give you some practical instructions - an introduction to meditation and ways to support your writing. The second class is something I've often been asked for: a short practical course designed to help you to get started on a new project or get back to an existing one, and make some progress.

For new information about my classes, and how to register, go to the Masterclasses and Mentoring tab at the top of the page.

I've been co-editing, with writer friends and colleagues Moya Costello, Anna Gibbs and Ros Prosser, a collection of short experimental prose and poetry by Australian women. It's coming out very soon as a special issue of an e-journal, Text, with the title Mud Map. I'll let you know when it's up - is that what you say with e-journals? when it's published? when it's in the ether, on the net?

Here's a poem for memoir writers.

Instructions for living a life. 
Pay attention. 
Be astonished. 
Tell about it.

Mary Oliver

And for those of you who came to the Memoir Club in March, I read a short extract from "Searching for Monty', from Verandahs. If you'd like to read more, you'll find it in Griffith Review 34, under fiction.

NB: If you didn't come to the Memoir Club and would like to be on our mailing list, email me at
bbwritinglife@gmail.com. The next meeting is Tuesday night 30 April.