Episode 19: Blakwork by Alison Whittaker

In episode 19, we discuss Alison Whittaker’s Blakwork.

A mix of memoir, reportage, fiction, satire, and critique, Alison Whittaker’s Blakwork is an original and unapologetic collection from which two things emerge; an incomprehensible loss, and the poet’s fearless examination of the present.

Whittaker, a Gomeroi multitasker from the floodplains of Gunnedah in NSW, has been published in the Sydney Review of Books, Seizure, Overland, Westerly, Griffith Review, the Lifted Brow, Meanjin and Archer, was the co-winner of the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize in 2017 for her poem, 'Many Girls White Linen' and most recently, she was the Australian Indigenous Poet-In-Residence for the 2018 Queensland Poetry Festival.

Show Notes:

Book Review / Blakwork by Alison Whittaker: https://writingnsw.org.au/blakwork-by-alison-whittaker/

Blakwork (Alison Wittaker, Magabala): https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2018/07/26/112124/blakwork-alison-wittaker-magabala/

Heart is full and burstin’ blak: https://nit.com.au/heart-is-full-and-burstin-blak/

Confronting Multiplicity: An interview with Alison Whittaker: https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/2016/03/confronting-multiplicity/

Feminist Writers Festival Q&A: Alison Whittaker: https://feministwritersfestival.com/fwf-qa-alison-whittaker/

'Dragged like a dead kangaroo': why language matters for deaths in custody: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/07/dragged-like-a-dead-kangaroo-why-language-matters-for-deaths-in-custody

Recommendations:

Fi:

‘Where It Hurts’ by Sarah de de Leeuw

‘Birds Art Life Death: A Field Guide to the Small and Significant’ by Kyo Maclear

‘Half a Life’ by Darin Strauss

Kirby:

‘Daughters of Passion’ by Julia O’Faolain

‘The Fish Girl’ by Mirandi Riwoe

‘Little Fires Everywhere’ Celeste Ng

Neve:

Doctor Who, Season 11, Episode 3

Charmed, 2018

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