AAWP 2016: Authorised Theft

Since 2012 Australian organisation The Stella Prize has been counting the ratio between reviews of work by male and female writers.  The findings of Stella, like the findings of US organisation VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts have found that creative writers are much more likely to get their work reviewed if they identify as male rather than female. In 2015, I partnered with Stella to conduct their first ever Diversity Count which examines not only gender, but also race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity and ability of creative writers in Australia. While I am expecting that women from diverse backgrounds are reviewed (and also, probably) published less than white, heterosexual, non-disabled writers, the more interesting question for me is how are they reviewed?  Does their diversity or difference come into play in their reviews and for what purpose?  This is critically important. If we continue to fetishise or exoticise the work of certain groups within our writing community, then we keep casting these groups into the margins of our literary world at the same time as fixing the patriarchal canon at the core of what we consider to be great or universal work.  In this paper, I will speak to the findings of The Stella Diversity Count and examine the nature of the reviews received by diverse writers.  It is my contention that our reviewing culture keeps some stories at the fringes of our literary culture and this had ramifications on not only what kinds of books get published, but also limits what certain writers feel that they can write about.

To piqueer (also pickeer) means ‘to pillage, to make a flying skirmish’ (Walker & Smart 1836, pp. 468; 464). In this paper, this archaic word is taken to reference Cixous’ employment of the double meaning of the French verb voler (to steal and to fly) in relation to women’s writing, yet extend this productive duality to specifically address an act of queer literary “theft” and “flight”. This act is a piqueering of the children’s book, The Velveteen Rabbit, which uses remediation and digital collage techniques to make a “new” creative work from the source text. Comprising part of this paper, this work – The idea of queer: The Velveteen Rabbit remix – is used to explore connections between theft and collage in relation to cultural (re)production and queer belonging.

Moving Beyond the Self: How Blog Posts Can Inspire Narratives of Representation

‘Narratives of representation’ allow readers to see their own identities reflected within texts they access and can increase empathy by exposing readers to varied experiences (Smolkin & Young 2011: 217). Researching personal topics has traditionally relied on approaches that require direct contact between a researcher (writer) and a participant (Wilkinson & Thelwall 2011: 387), which can be time-consuming and expensive. The expression of personal experiences through autoethnography has also been adopted in the creation of these narratives as an alternative approach, but can limit the conclusions presented due to the restricted scope of experiences that can be explored (Méndez 2013). Critical analysis of blog posts offers new possibilities, allowing writers to explore how members of a social group candidly discuss their identities and the issues they face with each other and external parties. Accessing blog posts written by members of the queer community has allowed me to create specific narratives of representation underpinned by accurate and authentic depictions, ensuring readers are exposed to diverse perspectives that reflect reality. This paper explores the ways blog posts written by the queer community have influenced my depiction of queer identity in creative works and exegetical writing by inspiring and informing the exploration of issues such as mislabelling, stereotyping, discrimination, and fear.