Saturday, May 10, 2008

With The Tiger has been published

I received my first copy of my new novel With The Tiger just published by HarperCollins India.
What a beautiful cover!

Here’s the page at the HarperCollins India site:

http://www.harpercollins.co.in

April 9 2008

Ljubljana

OnTuesday April 9 I took a seminar for students in the course on Australian Literature, at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Dept. of English , (3rd year undergraduates) . The course is taught by Professor Igor Maver.
Another great group!

Monday, April 7, 2008

Australian Women’s Writing at Budapest, April 2

Then on April 2nd i spoke with another exceptional group of students in the course on Australian Women’s Writing co-ordinated by Dr Ceclia Gall at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.

April 1 2008

Budapest, Australian studies

April 1st in Budapest, i spoke at the weekly 90 minute long seminar in the “Focus on Australia” course at the Eötvös Loránd University (in the Faculty of Humanities), co-ordinated by Dr Dorottya Hollo, who also assisted my journey in many ways.
Terrific group of students, interesting questions and responses; they had been asked to read my story My Transylvanian Cousin - so it was interesting to disucuss that in this context!

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Rome residency

At the beginning of February I began my six month residency at the BR Whiting Library in Rome, Italy, granted by the Australia Council.

I will be writing a memoir.

“Neem Dreams” screenplay at Binger Film Lab

At the end of January, I completed five wonderful months at Binger Film Lab in Amsterdam.

As one of a group of 18 writers I wrote a screenplay adaptation of my novel Neem Dreams (developed to second draft).

See under “film-makers” at the Binger web site

Sunday, February 24, 2008

“Party Girl” in Wet Ink

My short story “Party Girl” was published in Wet Ink magazine in December 2007.

Read here

Sunday, July 15, 2007

“Your guru is your practice” in Iyengar The Yoga Master

My chapter “your guru is your practice” is included in the new volume “Iyengar the Yoga Master” edited by Kofi Busia (pub Shambhala) which was launched here at the Yogacharya Yoga Convention on July 13.
This piece is adapted from my book “sun square moon”.

6 months in Rome in 2008!

I have been given a grant by the Literature Board of the Australia Council to spend six months in Rome at the BR Whiting Library in Trastevere, Rome.
I vowed to return to Rome as soon as i could when i visited there last year after half a lifetime since my first stay there.
The Rome residency begins the very day the semester at Binger Film Lab in Amsterdam ends.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Leaving the Gold Coast…

Am packing up as i leave the place where i have lived for over seven years … and leave Australia for an indefinite time, first to the Yogacharya Yoga Convention (see earlier post “yoga and writing workshops in USA”) then to my new home base in Miami Florida then Amsterdam for 5 months then Rome…

With The Tiger publication

The contracts have been signed… my next novel With The Tiger is coming out with HarperCollins India … probably December 07

My commissioning editor is Saugata Mukherjee who was responsible for getting Neem Dreams published when he was with Rupa.

Writers Saloon at Swingin Safari 24 June

I’m reading and speaking at the Writers Saloon on Sunday June 24 - my last reading in Australia for who knows how long,

Writers Saloon is held on the last Sunday of every month and was set up my Michael Wilding, Tina Landeros and me.

Swingin Safari is a bar/restaurant/lounge / party venue in Surfers Paradise … i had a book party there when Three Sydney Novels was published…

Binger Film Lab, Amsterdam Sept 07

I have been accepted into the Binger Film Lab in Amsterdam for their September 07 - February 08 semester where i will be working on a screenplay adaptation of one of my novels.

www.binger.nl

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

“Yoga and Writing” workshops USA July 2007

Yogacharya Yoga Convention July 14

This page will give details of my workshop and talks at the Convention in honour of BKS Iyengar in California July 9-15

“Unity Woods” Yoga Center, Washington DC , Sunday July 22

www.unitywoods.com/

“Iyengar Yoga Institute of New York” Saturday July 28

www.iyengarnyc.org

All inquiries to the host organisations please.

Review of sun square moon by Norman Sjoman

A review of my book “sun square moon: writings on yoga and writing” has appeared on the Black Lotus Books site, written by Norman Sjoman, author of the enlightening “the Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace” and other scholarly books on yoga and art. He concludes “This is one of the few books on yoga that is not trivia.”
Read it here

Friday, April 13, 2007

Yogacharya Yoga convention

Yogacharya Yoga Convention here July 9-15 in Santa Clara, California

I’m giving a workshop (Yoga and Writing) and two talks (Yoga and Creativity; Yoga and Dreams)

Monday, February 26, 2007

New review of Neem Dreams in API

Have just been sent this review from API Review of Books

Citation
Ch A Rajendra Prasad. ‘Review: Neem Dreams by Inez Baranay’ [online]. API Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), June 2005. Availability: ISSN 1833-0932. [cited 02 March 2007].

Monday, February 12, 2007

Testimonial for yoga and writing

I received this lovely testimonial from author and yoga devotee Sarah Armstrong as I prepare my latest Yoga and Writing workshop (see previous post):

Testimonial:

It’s clear that Inez brings years of writing experience to her teaching - her observations of my manuscript were insightful and proved very useful in the re-writing process. It’s rare to find a writing teacher who is also a dedicated yoga instructor - and what a potent combination yoga and writing is! I have found yoga very powerful in connecting me to my creativity.
Sarah Armstrong
- author, Salt Rain (Allen & Unwin) shortlisted for the 2005 Miles Franklin, Queensland Premiers and Dobbie Awards.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

New edition of Neem Dreams in USA

A new edition of my novel Neem Dreams is now available at Amazon here

Read about Neem Dreams here

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

“Freshening the Mind” in “Creative Writing”

My essay “Freshening the mind: an account of teaching a three-week creative writing course in Chennai, India, which is also an account of some thoughts on how practice implies theory and vice versa”
has just been published in Krauth, Nigel & Tess Brady, eds (2006) Creative Writing: Theory beyond practice.

Brisbane: Post Pressed. ISBN 1 921214 04 X

Purchase your copy online now, and get more information here

Price $34.95 plus postage

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

New story “Three Mythic Moments”

A new story “Three Mythic Moments in the life of family and friendship” is published in the new collection called Confessions and Memoirs, edited by Michael Wilding and David Myers, publisehd by CQUP.
www.outbackbooks.com

Interview in Galician in Vigo

In Vigo i was interviwed for the university paper - questioned in Spanish, answered in English, results in Galician. I can’t find an internet translator …

Interview and photo are here Go to “Anteriores” and search for 28/10/2006.

Lectures in Oviedo and Vigo, Spain, October 25, 27

Still traveling in Spain. Gave my talks at the universities in Oviedo on October 25 and Vigo on 27th, speaking as usual on multiculturalism, globalisation and the many englishes to attentive audiences of students and scholars who asked provocative questions.
This blog is not a travel blog but i note that in each place people were so very hostpitable and generous, the meals were superb, and i saw marvels of ancient architecture and contemporary art….

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Yoga and writing workshop July 2007 in USA

I am scheduled to give the yoga and writing workshop next July in Santa Clara, California, at the Yogacharya Festival, dedicated to BKS Iyengar.  Go to www.yogacharya.org

Teachers from all over the world will be here to take yoga classes and honour Mr Iyengar, our Guruji, as he approaches his 90th year.

Oct 2006

Lectures in LLeida and in Tarragona, Spain.

Thursday 5 October in LLeida

Monday 9 October in Tarragona
Each of these towns is a day-trip from Barcelona.

A talk to students and faculty, followed by lunch and a tour of these beautiful, fascinating towns. The antiquity is breathtaking for an Australian.
Gracious wonderful hosts - Maria Vidal in Lleida and Dolors Callemar in Tarragona.

Lecture in Barcelona Spain

I had been invited to give the sixth MacDermoot Lecture here on 5 October 2006.
At the “Centre d’estudies Australians, Departament of Filologia Anglesa y Alemanya” at the University of Barcelona.
The talk was called “Multiculturalism, globalisation and wordliness: reflections on being an Australian writer in Europe”.

Present were Sue Ballyn, head of the department, whom i had met in Australia and who had invited me here, many of her colleauges, a large hall of students, and Dorothy MacDermott who is credited with introducing Commonwealth studies now usually called post-colonial studies to Europe. The Dept filmed the lecture. Several interesting questions were asked… about things i had said, and about creative writing studies at univeristy which they don’t have in Spain….

And then we all went to lunch and it was quite delightful and i love Barcelona….

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Sasha Soldatow 1947 - 2006

Sasha was an old old friend. He gave me a writing lesson i never forgot when he edited an early version of my first novel Between Careers - also an editing lesson. I am traveling in Europe as i hear of his hospitalisation, coma and death.

I’ll copy below what i wrote for Sasha’s wake.
Also some wonderful photos, a tribute and more about Sasha’s work at Pamela Brown’s blog:
http://thedeletions.blogspot.com
And see David Marr’s obituary “A spirit gone to another place” in the SMH (I’ll copy it below too) September 9, 2006 www.smh.com.au

From me:

Dear Sasha,

Soon after we first met we sat together one day observing around us a large crowd of largely younger people at an outdoor pop concert, younger even than we were then, and we were young, beginning to make our friendship, talking of how we saw society changing. That was nearly 35 years ago. You would always remember it too. It was when we began “really talking”.

Conversations with you were exhilarating , everything mattered, everything was connected, everything was politics and sex and art; you had such a gift for stimulation, empathy, silliness, challenge, relief - and disruption. Whatever came after – infuriation, distance, differences, drifting away –to see you again, though as years passed that happened more and more rarely, still was to experience an instant reconnection, to plug into a charge of dear memories and associations and mutual loves and passionate ideas.

Back at home, I still have a picture of you on the wall of my writing room, you naked on red sheets posing like the famous Marilyn Monroe calendar: it’s a poster for your show The Adventures of Rock n Roll Sally. Late 70s. Among my photos there’s one of your electrifying performance, your short hair bleached platinum, wearing only tiny denim shorts, one arm raised high. Oh god you were fun. You were dazzling. There was never anyone like you.

Your position then on going overseas was that you did not go overseas. Now I’ve gone travelling again and am not back there in Sydney with all your many and various friends to say goodbye, to commemorate you; to tell our Sasha stories and Sasha memories and describe the Sasha-shaped part of our lives.

The last time I saw you, fittingly at a party, you met some new people – you did always rejoice in meeting new people – and charmed them to bits with some of the stories out of a repertoire that i might myself not have cared to hear yet another time, partly because it was not very heartening to see your more recent alterations.

The last thing I said to you was – Sasha darling do take care of yourself and the last thing you said to me, laughing, was, I probably won’t.

And David’s obit:

A spirit gone to another place

September 9, 2006

Sasha Soldatow, 1947-2006

SASHA loved a crisis. Friends rallied. He was the centre of attention again. Whatever the scrape - betrayal, eviction, injury, neglect or poverty - someone always came to his rescue. But the latest crisis got a little out of hand and Sasha hasn’t been around to enjoy the fuss.

After years of drinking, this impish writer and troublemaker died of liver failure at St Vincent’s Hospital early on the morning of August 30. As he drifted towards death, old friends and lovers hung about in the corridors trying to piece together the story of his life. It wasn’t easy. Each of us knew only fragments.

Alexander (Sasha) Pavlovich Soldatow was born near Stuttgart to Russian parents washed up in Germany after the war. The boy was two when they reached Melbourne in 1949. Raised by a suffocating troika of mother and aunts, he was playing the piano in the Box Hill Town Hall at six.

The piano became another of the many things Sasha could do but rarely did, like making love to women or holding down a job. When he fled Melbourne and his family for the freedom of Sydney in the early 1970s, he announced he was a writer and plunged into the politics of the Push, the only gay man in that hard-drinking hetero crowd of radicals. He played a brave part in the stoushes of those years with rotten cops and corrupt developers.

To fall in with Sasha at this time was a life-shaking experience. He marched and drank under the banner of Liberty. Behind him he trailed the notion that he was a spirit from another place - that his ideals, his taste, his thirst and his often-gloomy soul were essentially Russian. He had things to teach and he was not to be contradicted. The deal he offered was this: place yourself in my hands, and I will set you free.

Meanwhile, he was a dab hand at finding people to look after him. He lived in Margaret Fink’s fine Woollahra mansion for years. She said this week: “He handled poverty rather well, until the end.” He did it all on nothing in those early years - good lunches, good travel, good company and endless time for writing. Back then it was poetry, stories and gossip for pamphlets and a little magazine he roneoed himself called The Only Sensible News. Sasha was a highly principled gossip. He would insist: “It has to be true.”

His other career - for which there remains a discriminating fan base - was as Russian subtitler at SBS where he immersed himself for most of the 1980s in flagon red and the great classic films of Soviet cinema. When SBS tried to sack him - he always claimed it was for gossiping - the union had him reinstated. Thereafter, he didn’t bother to turn up to work. He argued: “They can’t get rid of me now.” But they did.

He craved literary recognition but he was nearly 40 before Penguin published a volume of short stories and portraits called Private - Do Not Open. “Soldatow is one to watch,” was this paper’s verdict. “He writes like no one else in Australia at the moment.” But he spent the next few years slaving over an edition of the work of Fink’s old flame, the poet Harry Hooton. This appeared in 1990 but was never destined to sell.

Frustrated by this failure to make his mark, he sued the Australia Council, claiming he represented “all those authors who have been set outside the cabal of chosen writers which distributes the taxpayers’ money each year”. He liked the notoriety and fuss, but his efforts yielded little. He was given a few residencies here and there, including three months as “writer in residence” at Sydney’s Long Bay jail. He told the press he trusted murderers: “You don’t have to have 15,000 dinners with them. You get straight to the heart of the matter quickly.”

The heart of the matter for Sasha was always Russia and in 1991 he embarked on the great adventure - and perhaps the great disaster - of his life. His attempt to live as a Russian in Moscow failed after a few months and he retreated to the luxury of Monica Attard’s ABC apartment.

Long smoky nights with drunken intellectuals followed. Then in midwinter he slipped on the ice, shattered his leg and after grim weeks in a Soviet hospital was shipped to Australia an invalid.

This was the beginning of the long slide - he was now addicted to Valium and drinking heavily - but the next few years were his best as a writer. After Mayakovsky in Bondi appeared in 1993, he was midwife to Christos Tsiolkas’s fine first novel Loaded, which enjoyed the instant celebrity that evaded Sasha all his life. His last book was an odd mutual biography the two men wrote together called Jump Cuts.

Old friends were dropping away. There were still flashes of the carefree naughty boy, the dangerous charmer of his heyday, but Sasha was becoming hard work even for the most loyal. After a doomed attempt to live in the bush, he retreated to Melbourne where he ended up in a room at Percy’s hotel in Carlton above a bar where intellectual conversation of a kind was available night and day.

Friends rallied and brought him back to Sydney. For a year or so he lived in Cremorne, talking a lot but writing nothing, turning into a little old babushka. He still loved a good lunch.

His last stop was a housing commission flat in Waterloo where Bruce Pulsford, the guardian angel of his last 20 years, found Sasha collapsed and took him after the usual arguments to St Vincent’s. He died five days later.

Sasha Soldatow is survived by countless people whose lives he changed; by great jokes and unforgettable conversations; by books published and unpublished; by the carefully catalogued memorabilia now in the Mitchell Library; by his mother and step-siblings. He asked for a literary prize to be established in his memory to honour writers who haven’t had the recognition they deserve. His last publication will be the words he ordered for his tombstone: I See.

David Marr

Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Review of Best Stories in French journal Cercles

A review of Best Stories Under the Sun (D. Myers and M. Wilding, eds) CQUP, 2004 in which my short story “My Transylvanian Cousin” appears, was published in Cercles (a French journal on Anglophone literature)

http://www.cercles.com/review/r27/wilding5.htm

A par on my story:

Inez Baranay uses her Hungarian heritage to replay the vampire figure in the visit by Cousin Vlad to the Gold Coast in “My Transylvanian Cousin” [113-126]. Here the bright lights and garish touristy atmosphere of the Gold Coast are intertwined with the myths and ancientness of old Europe. If the vampire requires his consumption of fresh blood to survive, Baranay hints, by analogue, at the voraciousness of twenty-first century materialism devoid of sustaining myths that consolidate a clearly defined identity. It is the people of the twenty-first century, at play on the Gold Coast, who are seen as being far more at risk from moral and spiritual demise than Vlad on his necessary dose of blood. The true vampire emerges as western consumerism devouring everything in its path leaving no room for mythmaking, or spiritual growth.

Monday, July 03, 2006

“Scene Stealers” in The Weekend Australian

A piece I wrote on novels based on earlier novels and my recently completed novel Lotus Feet (based on Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge) was published as “Scene Stealers” in The Forum column, page 2 of the Review section of the Weekend Australian July 1-2, 2006.

The Forum is not published in the online edition of The Australian so i will put up a copy on the short prose page of my website.

June 13, 14 2006

Ulrick Prize Dinner and Readings  The Josephine Ulrick Literature and Poetry Prizes –Dinner and Reading June 13, 14

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Casual academics article

My essay (”At Last A Job”) on the casualisation of academic teaching was published in the Autumn 2006 edition of Griffith Review (Getting Smart - The Battle for Ideas in Education).

Download here

An abbreviated version was published in the Higher Education supplement of
The Australian on 8 February 2006.

Not available online anymore, sorry. Will put it on my site.

Have had a lot of response to this one.

As a reviewer (Frank O’Shea) said “There is a grim picture painted by Inez Baranay of the exploitation of casual lecturing and teaching staff by universities. The Howard “battlers”, who have been seduced into thinking that they may prosper as a result of being able to negotiate with their bosses for an individual contract, should read how the system has been working for years in universities where the abused worked are highly educated, articulate, ambitious.”

(Canberra Times 25/02/2006 page 17)

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Chiasmus Reading at Surfers Paradise 28 May 06

The writing group Chiasmus from Griffith University Gold Coast were joined by writing students from QUT (they share charismatic teacher Sally Breen) for an entertaining night of reading (+ listening + drinking), held at the Chophouse nightclub at Surfers. Fun to see old colleagues and students. (I’m taking a year off teaching.)

Readers included the editors of new online magazine Wastrel. (Attitude that reminds me of self-published magazines of my long past younger days….)
http://www.wastrelmag.com

May 2006

Sunshine Coast short story competition

I judged this, choosing 1st, 2nd and 3rd plus 7 commended from 149 entrants.

They will be published in an anthology.

Names to be announced.

Josephine Ulrich Literature Prize May 2006

I read the 271 entrants for the country’s richest short story prize ($10,000) and chose the winner and runner-up with fellow judge Frank Moorhouse. Names announced on the night of the dinner, June 13.

Jan 2006

Meera Nanda Delhi

Back in Delhi i had the great pleasure of meeting Meera Nanda, whose work I have admired since i came across it in the early days of research for Neem Dreams. We’ve been in email contact for some time and i was glad to find our time in Delhi would co-incide. We had lunch and wandered round the bookshops and cyber cafes of Connaught Place … We exchanged our latest books. She is a vehement and articulate defender of science and critic of the Hindu Right, and a great champion of secularisation… I know i will be referencing her work in the future…
Check out her book Prophets Facing Backwards (among others) and here is a 2004 piece of hers in The Hindu:  www.hindu.com

12 - 14 January 06

Australian Studies conference Ajmer (Rajastan, India)

Set off on a freezing, dark, pre-dawn Delhi morning to get the train to Ajmer; Australian poet Les Murray and his wife were heading there too in the same compartment. (Thanks to Australian High Commission Delhi for the arrangements.)
I had been to Ajmer in Sept 03 on the occasion of the publication of Neem Dreams. It was great to see (academic) Pradeep Trikha again, to stay at the magnificently located Circuit House again, to attend sessions at Dayanand College again, to see old friends and students and meet others … I gave a talk and a reading somewhere in here, and, as usual in India, enjoyed stimulating conversations and heavenly food. Also staying at Circuit House was brilliant speaker and scholar Professor Pushpesh Pant (JNU), a connoisseur of Indian cuisines as well as literature, whose beautiful book (with Huma Mohsin) “Food Path: Cuisine alng the Grand Trunk Road from Kabul to Kolkata” i bought in Delhi the following week …

Booksource

Kathryn Johnson has her new Booksource website up (www.booksource.com.au).
She is the exclusive distributor for my in-print titles in Australia.
My visit to Writers Workshop Kolkata only strengthened my ideal of keeping works in print and of being able to publish ‘non-commercial’ works. The internet once more makes so much possible…

Dec 2005

Creative Writing Course at Queen Mary College,

Chennai (Madras) India

My old friend Eugenie Pinto is the headmistress here – I wrote about meeting her in “Letter from Madras” published in Australian Author back in … . As a result of our connection, i spent a couple of months as Writer in Residence at Madras University and have revisited this favourite city many times.

In December 05 I spent three weeks teaching daily classes after normal college hours.

Fifteen participants, three of them college teachers of whom two were already practicing writing, and the rest of them students who had never done anything like this. Total dedication. They were an absolute joy.

It was QUITE an experience. I have written about it at length for a forthcoming book … I will post my chapter here (promise).

Nov 2005

Writers Workshop Kolkata (India)

I spent three weeks in the astonishing city of Calutta and met several writers, booksellers and librarians.

And notably, I met Prof P Lal (through a poet he had published); I attened his riveting 303rd and 304th lecture in his series on the Mahabharata which he has also “transcreated” to use his word. (He refers to current newspapers for examples of the Mahabharata’s continuing contemporary relevance.) And I visited him and his wife at his home, from which he has run Writers Workshop for 30 years. The books he produces are beautiful, each covered with hand-spun saree cloth, printed on hand-made paper and their titles inscribed with his own calligraphy. He keeps every book in print, even though they might sell very few copies; big sales is not the point. You can read all about it at the website. I went down to the kiosk and also over to the warehouse to pick out a small selection of the hundreds of books available, many of them enticing; I’m going to order some more online. I think of P. Lal as a kind of ideal publisher… both v old fashioned and way ahead of his time…

From P.Lal’s “Credo”
“Alternative publishing is desperately needed wherever commercial publication rules. WW is not a professional publishing house. It does not print well-known names; it makes names known and well known, and then leaves them in the loving clutches of the so-called “free” market (which can be and is very cut-throat and very expensive). It is not sad, it is obnoxious, to plead, as publishers do, “I will not publish poetry because it does not sell.” Most English book publishing today in boom-time India and outside is book-dumping. There is a nexus between high-profile PR-conscious book publishers, semi-literate booksellers, moribund public and state libraries, poorly informed and nepotistic underlings in charge of book review pages and supplements of most national newspapers and magazines, and biased bulk purchases of near worthless books by bureaucratic institutions set up–believe it or not!–to inform, educate and elevate the reading public.
Because WW goes in for serious creative writing, and because there is no satisfactory distribution network for such writing, its terms of publication are unique. I must be the only publisher in the world who knows when and where every book is sold;…”

go to:
http://www.writersworkshopindia.com/

6-9 November 2005

Beyond Borders conference Melbourne

“Beyond Borders – creative strategies for global harmony”
inaugural conference of the Asia Pacific Writers Network

I went travelling in India for 3 months after attending this, and felt I never had the time to really contemplate all that happened here. But - given my renewed commitment to this blog noting my literary-related activities, and given how wonderful this conference was, I must also belatedly and briefly note its occasion. This meeting was the brainchild of the indomitable berni m janssen, a poet, performer and literary activist who managed to get a mob of writers from Asia, the Pacific and Australia to give papers and readings and discuss many issues of moment to us all – freedom and censorship, translation and access, peace and boundaries, and what we might do in the future. The new website will include many of the papers presented here [will add url when I find it].
APWN is related to PEN :
http://www.pen.org.au
As a non-Indigenous Australian who can write and speak with relative freedom (even while our freedom is under threat) I was reminded of how much writers in far more repressive countries continue to suffer for practicing their calling. I met old friends, I met people whose work I knew or who knew mine, and I met lots of new people. Everyone here was a committed writer also engaged in politics. I am particularly interested in new hybrid identities, cross-cultural expressions and readings. In fact I called for a “mongrel” movement which appealed to some but not all.

Saturday November 5, 2005

Yoga and writing workshop

Held at Victorian Writers Centre
Am WAY late posting this but wanted to note how stimulating it was to give this workshop in Melbourne. All the participants already practiced in both writing and yoga. I prepare this workshop fresh every time, but always start with some yoga asana practice in a sequence designed to bring stillness and awareness, then a writing exercise, then on to various discussions, processes and other exercises. Everyone has lives full of other demands and sometimes, no matter how much commitment and love there is for our practices, both writing and yoga, we need to deepen and renew that, and that’s one of things this workshop is for.
Giving this workshop always deepens my appreciation of yoga and writing as ways to self knowledge and as disciplines that can be related. And there is also the issue of using yoga to balance and correct the misalignment caused by prolonged acts of writing.

Monday, October 31, 2005

New book: sun square moon has arrived

Now that I’ve got a blog I’ve had to decide what to write here. No book reviews, literary journalism, political comment, personal diary, links to cool sites, reports on the culture. Plenty of that already out there. This will only be about my writing and publishing. Naturally I’ll reply to any questions that come up here.

Today, finally, boxes of my new book arrived. I self-published an edition of sun square moon: writings on yoga and writing – this has been ready to publish for over two years. The Indian edition, contracted to Rupa (publisher of my last novel Neem Dreams) has been endlessly delayed. I’ll be selling these through my new distributor Kathryn Johnson, who will offer online ordering as well as supplying bookshops (listed on the site). Am glad for the completion; I expect to do more writing in this area – looking at yoga from a writer’s point of view and at writing from a yoga student’s.

Meanwhile, and relevantly, I’ve been looking at the final edits on a chapter on Self Publishing I wrote for a book on academic publishing. Not that my publishing is academic. I’ll put the piece up on my site after the book is out. Another article I’ve been writing is on the casualisation of academic work in Australian universities.

On Friday I’m off to Melbourne, to give a workshop on yoga and writing at the Victorian Writers Centre. In the following days I’ll be attending the “Beyond Borders – strategies for global harmony meeting” (“an event of the Asia Pacific Writers Network, dedicated to writing, conversations and freedom of speech in the region”).

A week later I fly to Calcutta – my ninth trip to India but the first time to Calcutta. Kolkata, I should say.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Not crazy any more

Elise is over helping me update my website. She said it was crazy to be a writer and not have a blog. To my astonishment i found myself ready to blog.
I’ve called it after my new book, sun square moon.