‘Mike Fordham lies under a makeshift canvas shelter at the turn-off, dying.’
Mike Fordham lies under a makeshift canvas shelter at the turn-off, dying. It’s only fifteen kilometres on to Maria Lagoon, where Ginger Riley, the Aboriginal painter, has his permanent outstation camp. Not far to go, considering we’ve already come more than a thousand. But now, after driving ti…
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‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
Guy Gunaratne interviewed Margo Jefferson after the winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize was announced, and they discussed her prize-winning book, Constructing a Nervous System.
‘Grief has a warring logic; it always wants something impossible, something worse and something better.’
An extract from Biography of X by Catherine Lacey.
‘Ghost stories, then, are not always characterised by fear. Sometimes, they are stories of belief, comfort, faith.’
Laura Maw on the photography of Corinne May Botz.
Nick Drnaso on the making of his new graphic novel Acting Class, in this exclusive mini-documentary.
‘The self is the work of art. Criticism puts that self in the service of other art.’
The authors discuss the multiplicity of the self, the idea of necessity, and how to work with what you lack.
