Hello friends, apologies for infrequent posting; please enjoy these photos of the beautiful advance copies of my upcoming book I ATE THE WHOLE WORLD TO FIND YOU.
I don't know how other authors feel when they first see and hold a new book for the first time - but it's brought up such a strong mix of intense feelings. I worked on this collection through a huge period of change in my life and have brought every side of myself to it, sides hitherto unkown. I'm still in a state of (happy) disbelief at how lucky I am to have the trust of the teams who worked on this weird little goblin of a book. Especially thank you to @tracyhurren@dbinks and David Golding :)
Some endorsements etc:
‘Here are stories of the body’s darkest moments and profoundest ecstasies, bound up in a lush, strange, genre-defying collection. I adored this book.’
Carmen Maria Machado, author of IN THE DREAM HOUSE
"Introducing a bold new voice — one of the most exciting short-story writers working in comics today.
A coworker-turned-prospective-lover confesses a hard-to-swallow fetish. A train ride fantastically goes off the rails. Cousins revisit summer holiday bliss — or was it really horror? Exes fumble an attempt to reconnect over a dip in the pool. And an expectant mother slips into uncharted territory as she enters a communion purer than language.
I ATE THE WHOLE WORLD TO FIND YOU maps the topography of trauma, treasures, and loss imposed onto the body of Jenny, a twenty-something-going-on-thirty-something partial hot mess who’s making her way more firmly into adulthood. As she navigates friendship, family, and romantic relationships, will her inability to communicate destroy her, or ultimately be her rebirth?"
In stores this April (she's an Aries) but please preorder whether you live in Australia/New Zealand (from the @scribepub website or your favourite independent bookshop) or the Rest of the World (from @drawnandquarterly website). You can actually order either version from @readingsbooks Ask your local library to get it in. It really does make a difference. And if you are a writer/critic interested in a review copy, please slide into my DMs.
🌏 Έφαγα όλο τον κόσμο για να σε βρω
New short story in @kyd_magazine today. Big thank you to editor extraordinaire @suzygracias first reader @stacygougoulis (and i mustn't forget Realson & Catson!)
I am very excited to be part of this event at @ngvmelbourne Australia, in collaboration with @wheelercentre - MOTHER: An Afternoon of Art and Storytelling. Ekphrastic writings and readings, responding to the exhibition MOTHER, which brings together works from the collection, from across art history. It turns out we humans have always been mothering, caring, and involving/discussing/depicting/weaving it into our creative works.
👶🧠🫀👀
In partnership with National Gallery of Victoria and inspired by their MOTHER exhibition, three extraordinary writers present intimate new works on mothers and motherhood.
Few relationships are as formative than those we share with our mothers. Artists and writers have long sought to reflect, articulate and capture the complex experience of motherhood, exploring our collective desires and anxieties, and depicting experiences both universal and culturally specific.
Amidst the works of National Gallery of Victoria’s surprising, subversive and moving MOTHER exhibition, a distinguished line-up of writers present new writing that will respond to artworks and themes on display.
Featuring Rachel Ang, Lulu Houdini
and Edwina Preston, each will explore rich textures of motherhood in an era of shifting social mores, evolving notions of gender and sexuality, new reproductive technologies and competing conceptions of what being a mother can or should look like. With host Maxine Beneba Clarke. @maxinebeneba
🖋️ WORKSHOP: The Point is You with Rachel Ang (@rtwa ), presented by Darebin Arts as part of inSITU, Darebin’s creative writing program 🖋️
This interactive comics workshop encourages participants to bring a problem to the circle in the same way a querent asks a tarot deck for insight.
Participants will explore sampling and interpretation of existing images, drawing the problem as a way to divine possible solutions and pulling from the language of dreams to create personal, essayistic and expansive comics.
📅 Saturday 2 May, 10am – 12.30pm
📍 Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre
🎟️ Book your FREE ticket via the link in bio (bookings essential as places are strictly limited)
🖉 Design by @3sidedsquare , image courtesy of the artist
#inSITU #dSCRIBE #darebincreativewriting #creativewritingmelbourne #creativewritingnaarm #writingopportunitiesmelbourne
Thank you @dangerlam@rtwa and @brimbanklibraries for a great festival on the weekend! We had such fun hanging out and chatting about #graphicnovels
Photos by @jbae_1111 and Nico Photography
You may know Rachel Ang (@rtwa ) from their work in places like 'The New Yorker' and 'The Age', their debut graphic novel 'I Ate the Whole World to Find You' or even their beautiful essay 'A Stone in the River', made for Folio a few years back. But did you know that in 2022, they also got deep with Liz and Ronnie about love, vulnerability, embarrassment and camaraderie in comics making? And that you can read it all on foliocomics.com? Well if you didn't, you do now.
Pictured in this post is a loving satire of Rachel's work made by Aaron Billings (@dillings ) and Jack Kirne (@spooky_speaks ), taken from one of six stories that make up Rachel's interview.
Portrait of Rachel by Tatjana Plitt.
#comics #australiancomics
Hi friends, I want to take a minute to appreciate a truly memorable conversation I was honoured to be a part of - Matrescence: What Makes a Mother, hosted by Beth Atkinson-Quinton @bethaq .
It was so special to discuss such a historically overlooked (reviled, even) topic, and reflect on the most momentous year of my life, in such a civic space, surrounded by the coos, cries and gurgles of infants, the soft breathing of sleeping babies, and to feel so held and well listened to. Thank you to Sophie Walker @australianbirthstories and Atong Atem @atongatem for your presence and tenderness. I will never forget the moment Atong's partner held up their five month old and we all cheered xxx
If you would like to watch a recording of our conversation on YouTube, there is a link in my bio.
Photos: Nick Louey at @yarralibraries
Ps. I realise only now, looking at the photos, that i think we were supposed to sit under the book that we wrote 😅 whoops
Mothering Heights 🏔 🌊
I am very interested in the mysterious origins of songs we sing to children. Do you know this song, "Here is the Sea"? I can't find anything on it.
Do you know it from your own childhood, or did you hear it for the first time as an adult? Do you live in Australia or another colony of the British Empire? If so, in which state or province do you reside?
This week I was putting together a reading/reflection on a thread that keeps returning and circling and linking up with other interests in my work - the world and (il)logic of the dream. It was very fun to look back on my dream diary over the years, which has been a space to be as silly, anguished, zany, nonsensical and cringe as possible, with the following items 🪧 showing up over and over:
Bare bottoms
Urban spaces
Animals (big and small)
Nudity
Shadows
Ghosts
Anxiety
My chat with @ldcomics will be recorded for their @youtube channel, I shall share a link once its up x
Tonight’s conversation on #Matrescence with @atongatem@rtwa@australianbirthstories and @bethaq was brilliant and moving!
Here are my #visualnotes #graphicrecording #livenotes #sketchnotes from the talk
Hosted by @yarralibraries at Fitzroy Town Hall
Dream diary returns.
I am a very avoidant personality. I am scared to pick up the phone and call friends in case I disappoint them in some way. I run from conflict. I hate authority figures. When I try to drive a car I feel like I am under siege. When I am not good at something, I reshape my whole life so as to avoid doing that thing. I once avoided the dentist for 11 years.
I don't like my personality but frankly I think it is too late for me to fundamentally change it. I mean, I try. But my hope lies in the little tigers we will raise. Raise them to be able to fight.
As always, more in my newsletter, link in bio etc
I have always told myself that I am bad with colour, and should stick to drawing in black and white. That might be true, but what if it’s just a lie that I’ve been repeating to myself? Could i try to shift that negative feeling into a more neutral space?
So I’ve been trying to do a little drawing with gouache and colour pencil every day. I haven’t been able to stick to a daily practice, it's not always possible for kiddo to take a proper nap, but definitely every second day I’ve been able to sit at the kitchen table and draw in an unstructured way. And you know what — while I may not be good at it, it's really fun. And now maybe I feel sad that I denied myself fun?
Now the thing I say to myself is no longer: "I am not good at using colour," but, "I enjoy playing with colour." The new sentence does not contradict the first, and in fact is a secondary clause, compossible with the first:
"I am not good at using colour, but I enjoy playing with colour."
This feels like a step forward — though I am not sure in what direction. Much more drawing required to find out.
