Octopuses, oilslicks and earthquakes
The last six or eight months have been all about writing. A few recent highlights from 2012:
GREW PRIZE
2011 GREW Prize for Non-Fiction
Awarded to the writer/s ‘whose work has been deemed most original and influential.’ The award includes a week-long residency, manuscript appraisal and mentoring.
EAR TO THE GROUND
‘Ear to the Ground’, Griffith Review 35: Surviving, February 2012. A long essay looking at the Christchurch earthquakes and their aftermath. What happens when a series of radical events strike a conservative place?
SUNDAY STAR TIMES
‘Ear to the Ground’ , Sunday Star Times (NZ), Sunday 19th February 2012.SLICK
‘Slick’, The Big Issue, Annual Fiction Edition , October 2011.
Short fiction about an oil slick, the world’s most ambitious advertising campaign and the Second Coming. Check out an extract published on Arts Hub.
OCTOPUS
‘Octopus’, Griffith Review, Annual Fiction Edition 34, December 2011
“Probably my favourite of the whole collection, Nicolas Low’s ‘Octopus’ , is set in New Zealand and cleverly combines Maori culture with fears of terrorism, fears of the outsider, and fears of an ancient, apocalyptic understanding.” – Bookseller + Publisher Magazine
“… a pleasingly diverse collection. Where Williams, Morgan and others use traditional narrative forms, others do not. Nicolas Low moves to more experimental registers in Octopus … Indeed, there is not a flat note in this collection. It shows us Australian contemporary fiction is in fine fettle.” – Weekend Australian
An interview about the genesis of ‘Octopus’: http://griffithreview.com/insight-in-the-mind-of-the-writer/interview-with-nicolas-low-author-of-octopus
PUNKASILA INDONESIA
‘Punkasila Indonesia’, Art Monthly, issue 244, October 2011
Art, punk and politics contemporary Indonesia.
SEOUL CITY ROLLING
‘Balloon and Hyung-seok and Bo Yeon and Seoul city rolling’, Cordite Poetry Review, issue 35:2, August 2011.
Reportage about a three-day, three-night tour of the underbelly of Seoul: red light districts, abandoned industrial precincts, Mongolian worker districts and the Gate of Corpses; and the resulting collaboration between Australian writers and Korean architects and designers.
ARTSTART 2011
2011 Art Start Grant from the Australia Council for the ArtsDUMBO FEATHER
‘New Zealand Creative Immigration’, Dumbo Feather, issue 27, April 2011.
‘New Matilda and the future of publishing’, Dumbo Feather, issue 27, April 2011.
Crowd sourcing and writing; why so many creative New Zealanders live overseas, and what might happen if they all moved home.
