I talked with Wild Colonial Girl, aka the lovely Kirsten Krauth, about the transformational aspects of becoming a parent as part of a series of interviews with writing mothers on her blog: read here.

I wrote about my favourite friendships in literature – Anne of Green Gables and her bosom friend Diana Barry get a big mention, along with The Secret History and Brideshead Revisited – for website Untitled Books. Click here.

Looking forward to rugging up for the inaugural Southern Highlands Writers Festival in Bowral this coming weekend July 21 & 22: a great program including Kate Forsyth, Malla Nunn and Richard Glover. I’ll be talking about friendship in literature with Manisha Jolie Amin and Mark Tredinnick on Sunday. And drinking hot whiskey by the fire. See the whole program here.

The Wheeler Centre blog asked a bunch of authors what books they once loved that now make them cringe. In responding to this, I discovered that I have no shame. Read the story here.

I’m delighted to announce that I will be in conversation with Jeanette Winterson, author of so many life-changing novels including Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and The Passion, at the Melbourne Wheeler Centre on May 18: details here. Be still my beating heart! We’re on a double bill with Chad Harbach and Jenny Niven at the Comedy Club.

The insanely huge and enthralling program for the Sydney Writers’ Festival is now online. While not worshipping at the altar of Jeanette Winterson, one of the featured authors, I’ll be taking part in several events and also running a writing workshop focusing on rules for writers: do we need them? What should we do with them? how can they be broken creatively and with purpose?  In panel discussions I’ll be talking about writing the dreaded second novel, writing about men, and A Common Loss. Also looking forward to the Big Reading on Friday May 18th, and the Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelist Award event on Sunday May 20th: I was thrilled to be one of the judges this year, and the winners are really outstanding. And there’s the Hoopla Literary Lunch celebrating The Stella Prize on Friday May 18th, overloaded with glamour and brilliance from Tara Moss, Di Morrisey, Anita Heiss, Anne Summers, Anna Krien and others.