Australian Women Writers Challenge 2014 Roundup

For 2014 I created the Franklin Plus personal challenge of 15 books read and reviewed. (For more information about the challenge go here). 

The results were: 17 books read and reviewed of Australian Women Writers.  I varied the genres this time reading,  poetry, contemporary fiction and speculative fiction.  So the challenge was exceeded yet I still failed to hit my Gender reading targets of 60% women read.

Ah well, this means I must endeavour to keep participating in the challenge. Perhaps you could join me.

You can sign up here.

 

 

 

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This review is part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2014.  Please check out this page for more great writing from Australian women.

2014 Gender Audit

So yes a little late considering that we are midway through January.  (The inspiration for Gender audits can be found here.)

However here are the results. 

Note these figures are based entirely on books received for review and don’t include any reading done for Aurealis.  I haven’t included anthologies with more than two authors in the count (this rules out two anthologies that were mostly, if not solely female). 

So, total number of books read excluding these anthologies is 53.  Where books featured a male and female author I have awarded a tally to each (there were two volumes with mixed authorship so I tallied one book for each gender).

Female Authors Read = 24

Male Authors Read = 29

 

Hmmm so much for my target of 60/40 female to male reading. I realised upon compiling this audit that I hadn’t done one for the end of 2013 either.  So applying the same rules as per anthologies…last year was much better.

 

In 2012 I included mixed works in the final graph but as you can see there appears to have been a steady decline from 60% in 2012 to 44% female authors read in 2014. 

 

There are a number of factors that probably feed into the results this year.  I read a number of nonfiction books in 2014 and if you exclude poetry, all the non-fiction books were authored by men. I admit aside from the Australian Women Writers Challenge I have not had a deliberate focus on women ie I have not sat down and considered whether or not I should read a book based on gender.

Perhaps that is a requirement if I want to hit that 60/40 target.  The results confirm my suspicions that without a deliberate, structured approach to redressing a reading imbalance I will tend to read more men.

 

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eBook Review – Writing Poems by Peter Sansom

Part of my poetry practice last year and this year was reading more poetry and reading more about poetry. Peter Sansom is a noted English poet and teacher of poetry. His Writing Poems was published in the mid nineties, making this book 20 years old and you may well question the relevance of a text two decades out of date. 

Thankfully, much of what Sansom has to say is relevant to an emerging poet today.  It’s relevance and applicability no doubt contributed to Bloodaxe Books decision to create it in ebook from in 2011.

Writing Poems is approachable, conversational in tone; a read enjoyable outside the information and opinion it attempts to pass on.  How relevant it is to the poet seeking to refine their craft will depend on individual experience.  I found the first three chapters full of timely reminders for myself, the later chapters on forms less relevant - the information here is widely available, though Sansom’s observations are entertaining and informative.

Looking back over the table of contents Writing Poems seems to break into two parts.  The first half deals with why we write poetry and how we should approach the writing of poetry, the later part focuses on mechanics. 

What I take away from the work is a focus on discernment, increasing my own experience through reading and writing - building a sense of knowing what might be good about my own work.  Building the capability to recognise whether a poem is being knocked back from publication because it doesn’t fit, or because the poem is lacking.

The information on the technical aspects of both form poetry and free verse are helpful, though I still find Stephen Fry’s Ode Less Travelled the best text I have read for getting iambic pentameter drumming in your ear.

Could a beginner pick this up and enjoy it?  Yes I think so, the tone is approachable and the technical details supported by a variety of modern examples.  I also think there’s a good deal of value for those, like myself who have had some small success and struggle with refining their work and producing something of more lasting value.

I borrowed my copy from the SA Library but you can purchase both the paperback and ebook through Booktopia.

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