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April, 2024
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Heather Taylor Johnson - Writing the Body
Date/Time: Thursday, 24 April 2014, 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Location: Ira Raymond Exhibition Room, Barr Smith Library
Cost: $5
More information: Visit website
Heather Taylor Johnson
Writing the Body: Different Approaches to Illness as Metaphor in Fiction and Poetry
The Friends of the University of Adelaide Library invite you to an event with Heather Taylor Johnson on Thursday 24 April 2014, 6.00 for a 6.30pm start, in the Ira Raymond Exhibition Room, Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide.
Heather Taylor Johnson is the author of three poetry books (Thirsting for Lemonade, IP, is her latest) and one novel (Pursuing Love and Death, HarperCollins) and is currently the poetry editor for Transnational Literature.
She moved from America to Australia in 1999 to begin her postgraduate work at the University of Adelaide in creative writing, the same year she was diagnosed with Meniere's disease. She received her PhD in 2007 and has taught creative writing at the tertiary level. She lives near the Port with her partner Dash, their three children Guthrow, Sunny and Matilda, and a dog named Tom. This year she is attempting to be a full-time writer.
"Personal illness can be a tricky thing for writers to tackle in their creative work as it is so close to the core of who we are. I spent years attempting to capture what it is like to live with the chronic illness Meniere's disease but found myself frustrated with overwriting and an abundance of self-pity as the final product. When I handed my disease over to a fictional, male, sixty-three year old character in my novel, Pursuing Love and Death, I was able to work through the illness in ways that I physically cannot do, and I found great liberation in doing so. I have gone through a persistent scrunching-up-of-paper with poetic attempts as well but now think I have found the key to writing my illness in that genre, too. 'Writing the Body: Different Approaches to Illness as Metaphor in Fiction and Poetry' will explore my creative processes."
Bookings by Tuesday 22 April to:
robina.weir@adelaide.edu.au
Telephone: 8313 4064
Open to the public
$5 admission
Contact: Mrs Robina Weir, Email: robina.weir@adelaide.edu.au, Website: http://www.alumni.adelaide.edu.au/fol, Friends of the University of Adelaide Library, Barr Smith Library, The University of Adelaide, Business: 8313 4064, Fax: 8313 4369
