On 27 July 2023 TGSC had the award winning writer Debra Adelaide read the title chapter from The Innocent Reader: Reflections on Reading & Writing. She spoke about the interactive nature of writing and reading, the separation between writer and reader and the difficulty of letting go of the book you have written to be in another’s hands to do with what they will. Certainly, “reading and writing is an intimate conversation between two minds”.
We then heard from Loretta Jessop’s work in progress called Phoney (a tip of the hat to Catcher in the Rye). Loretta perfectly captured the angst of a twenty something young woman living in a share house in Sydney’s inner west, trying to look and act like she has it all together, while struggling with her own sensitivity to and cynicism about life. Her descriptions of the train lines and streets we all know in the Inner West adding rich context to the work.
Open mike was a diversity of form, from poetry to prose and everything in between. From beat poetry to Beowulf reimagined. From suburban humorous prose to gloriously observed life in the 2020s.
Due to demand the next TGSC will be open mike only to allow more time for new writers to read.
Image: Gregory Ferris
Dr Debra Adelaide
Debra is the author or editor of 18 books, including fiction, non-fiction, edited collections and reference works. Her 2018 novel, The Household Guide to Dying, was published to acclaim in Australia and around the world, and was short- and long-listed for several literary awards, including the former international Orange Prize, now the Women’s Prize, for fiction. Other fiction includes Letter to George Clooney (2013), which was shortlisted for the Nita B. Kibble Award, The Women’s Pages (2015), and Zebra (2019), winner of the short story category in the Queensland Literary Awards. Her most recent books are The Innocent Reader: reflections on reading & writing (2019) and Creative Writing Practice: reflections on form & process (ed with Sarah Attfield, 2021). Debra Adelaide taught creative writing for 20 years and is now an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. She lives and writes on Bidjigal country in Sydney’s inner west.
Lorretta Jessop
Lorretta Jessop’s two favourite things in the world are observing people and finding out what makes people tick. She will accompany a stranger into the Qantas lounge, unabashedly strike up conversation with one of the Prime Minister’s minders and she’ll definitely heckle real estate agents at an auction.
She works as an Executive Officer at one of the largest NSW Government agencies, which provides Lorretta boundless material for her first novel; Phoney. Inspired by Catcher in the Rye, Phoney follows a public servant flunkee over the course of several days as she traverses Sydney, illuminating themes of morality, identity, belonging, and connection.
Lorretta also co-produces the community radio segment, The Writer’s Channel, where she and her close friend Maria Issaris talk to emerging writers about their creative process.
