Category / Paul Kelly

by Melissa Watts

I’m talking at the Melbourne Writers Festival

I am very pleased to announce that I will be a panellist and an interviewer at the 2013 Melbourne Writers Festival.

I spent some time helping the team from MWF as part of my role at Ballarat Writers and now I can announce that I’ll be involved in 2 events.

My first event is on Saturday as part of the M.A.D.E. by Writers Panel. I will be discussing how my life as a writer interacts with the ideas of freedom, power and democracy. I’ll be sharing the panel with some great writers and must confess to having what singer/songwriter Paul Kelly calls ‘the pretendies’.

On Sunday I’ll be hosting, In Conversation with M.J. Hyland. I’ve written about her work before and a few years ago participated in a workshop that she was running.  I’m looking forward to this event as it closes out the weekend of events and I’m hoping will have some great audience participation.

So let me know if you’ve got any advice, or any questions you’d like me to ask.

If you’re in Ballarat please come along to some of the events. It’s a great chance to encourage Melbourne arts groups to run regional events.

There are heaps of workshops and panel discussions so please book in.

by Melissa Watts

Reading Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly’s How to make Gravy is not a book to read fast.

Perhaps that’s why I went to the launch in 2010 and have only just finished reading it. I put it off originally because of the size – too big to lug to the station for my train ride. But it was perfect reading as a new Mum. I was able to grab a chapter at a time between feeds and sleeps, and be inspired to get into my own creative work. Continue reading →

by Melissa Watts

Paul Kelly – How to Make Gravy

In his book In Sunshine or in Shadow, Martin Flanagan says of Paul Kelly:

The generation of singer-songwriters of which he is the best known member are to the 1980s and ‘90s what the Bulletin poets were a century before, the people who travelled this land, collecting its stories, and singing them into the consciousness of the people.

This comparison resonates with me, but I would go one step further. Continue reading →