Shining the light on creative writing

Locals and people from around the district had a chance to hear from two authors with North East Victoria connections on a regional tour at the Beechworth Library two weeks ago. Beechworth librarian Julie said Michael Winkler and Wayne Marshall gave the audience an insight into the creative process and the many influences that shape writers led by Beechworth Book’s Charles Dean. “Both authors reflected on growing up in regional Victoria and how local landscapes, communities and storytelling traditions informed their work,” she said. “They also spoke about the importance of seeing successful writers from their own communities, making the idea of becoming an author feel both possible and achievable." Julie said the pair also conveyed a strong appreciation of how literature continued to thrive in regional Australia through readers, libraries and local book communities. Michael said inspiration for his latest book Griefdogg came from his interest in writing about a character who experienced a crisis of confidence in middle-age. “The character decides to withdraw from the world – but the world keeps pulling him back in,” he said. Michael said he explored themes of secret grief, water, the crisis in masculinity and climate pessimism. “I also wanted to write about the Mallee/Murray River landscape and see how many jokes I could fit into one manuscript,” he said. Having grown up in towns a little smaller than Beechworth – Merbein, Cobram, Tallangatta, the author said writers seldom visited. “With my talk I wanted local people to have the opportunity to chat about literature in an accessible way," he said. Wayne said his debut novel ‘Henry Goes Bush’ was based on a discovery of a book ‘A Stranger on the Darling’ about Henry Lawson's trip from Sydney to outback New South Wales in 1892 when the writer was 25. “The journey was a crossroads moment for Lawson, and I knew there was something in the story for me as a writer,” he said. “I wanted to have fun combining the history with wild and speculative fictional elements in an attempt to explore the myth of Henry Lawson and his famous trip to Bourke." Wayne said the idea to reimagine one of Australia's best known colonial poets and fiction writers was to take Henry on a dizzying ride into his own legend and the many sides of his personality. “Growing up, I spent so much of my time camping and fishing along the Murray and this accounted for three-quarters of my style as a writer and a big part of the book,” he said. Wayne grew up near Bacchus Marsh with his mother’s side of his family hailing from Mount Beauty. Both authors will be at Wangaratta Library next Friday 21 August. Visit https://events.humanitix.com/wayne-marshall-and-michael-winkler for more information. Signed copies of ‘Henry Goes Bush’ and ‘Griefdogg’ are available at Beechworth Books.

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