Jewish Women of Words

Posted on August 27, 2023 by magdalenaball

An article of mine about Bobish and the impossibility and magic of history is now up on Jewish Women of Words:

Recording My Great Grandmother’s History

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History Illuminated

Posted on July 23, 2023 by magdalenaball

On the 2nd of September I get to chat with 2 legends in one day and you get to come along and join in for a gold coin donation!  First off is none other than Kate Grenville, who will be joining me to discuss her latest book Restless Dolly Maunder which is about Kate’s formidable grandmother which fans might remember from Kate’s book about her mother, One Life.  You can join us at Charlestown Library 2-3pm.  For more information and to book tickets (which are free to book – you pay your $1 or $2 coin at the door), here: https://library.lakemac.com.au/Events/Restless-Dolly-Maunder-Kate-Grenville-in-conversation Directly following on from Kate Grenville at 3:15 I have a session with the fabulous Jean Kent, whose new book, The Shadow Box, is, like my Bobish, a narrative verse memoir.  In Jean’s case The Shadow Box was inspired by the experiences of her maternal grandparents, George and Jean Campbell, during and shortly after World War I and we will delve into why poetry is such a good medium for historical memoir, why we call it memoir, and much more.  Jean’s poetry is, to put it simply, utterly gorgeous, and I am so excited about both of these sessions.  Please do come join us in Charlestown if you’re able.

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Sydney Jewish Writers Festival!

Posted on July 23, 2023 by magdalenaball

Another impending event is the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival!  Have you seen the program? I’m plotzing myself with joy to be part of this.  I’ve got two events, both on Sunday the 27th of August.  The first is 830am when I’ll be joining Sukha Mukha Yoga director and yoga instructor Idit Hefer Tamir for “Poetry and the Body”.  The second session is at 230pm, where I’ll be moderating a panel titled “Women on the Verge” with powerhouse authors Katia Ariel, Elise Esther Hearst and Kerri Sackville.  I’m knee deep in Katia, Elise and Kerri’s most recent books and I can tell you that this is going to be a session like no other you’ve attended.  The rest of the program is also wonderful.  Go, now, and get tickets – they’re selling like latkes: https://www.shalom.edu.au/event/sjwf-2023/

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Love lines

Posted on July 23, 2023 by magdalenaball

I am so very blessed to have lots of upcoming events. The first is Love lines, run by The Salons, an absolutely gorgeous organisation that curates boutique festivals of art-after-hours in artist-run venues, galleries and community spaces of inner Sydney.  They do such amazing shows, and the next one is happening at the Chrissie Cotter Gallery in Camperdown, running from Thursday 10 August — Sunday 27 August 2023.  I’ve been working closely with multimedia artist Ieva Clive, writing ekphrastically through her beautiful art, and our piece will be displayed as part of the program – you can see it in the gallery any day through the show, but I’m also in conversation on Sunday the 13th of August at from 2-4pm with my dear friends Gillian Swain and Angie Contini – Angie is also the Salons curator –  to do some poetry performance that will include reading and discussion of the works, the process of this unique experiment, and deeper question regarding the power play between words and images. I’m so excited about it.  You do need a ticket to attend our event, but they are very reasonably priced with concessional rates, and all tickets include refreshments (that’s physical as well as intellectual :-)).  Hope to see you there!  https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/love-lines-conversation-performance-with-gillian-swain-magdalena-ball-tickets-665813976527

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Liquid Amber Press Poetry Prize

Posted on July 16, 2023 by magdalenaball

I’m very pleased to have been long listed in the 2023 Liquid Amber Press Poetry Prize. Judges Ann M. Carson, Rose Lucas and Reneé Pettitt-Schipp chose the long list out of hundreds of submissions written to this year’s provocation of ‘Home.’  Short List will be announced on 5 August and winners announced on 12 August, with the anthology launched via Zoom on the 30 November.  The full long list can be found here: https://liquidamberpress.com.au/2023/07/14/2023-poetry-prize-long-list-announced/

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ArtsHub Australia – article on competition entry fees

Posted on July 4, 2023 by magdalenaball

Thuy On has written a thoughtful and balanced piece on competition entry fees for ArtsHub Australia in which, along with many other writers, I am quoted. You can read the whole piece, which is very timely, here: https://www.artshub.com.au/news/features/competition-entry-fees-are-they-worth-the-costs-2644544/

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Poet’s Corner with David Ades

Posted on June 24, 2023 by magdalenaball

The wonderful David Ades invited me to join him for a long form conversation on West Words’ Poets’ Corner podcast (more of a vlogcast), where I read some eight poems from Bobish and chatted in depth about the book. The podcast has now been posted on the WestWords You Tube channel and can be viewed here:

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Hecate journal

Posted on June 15, 2023 by magdalenaball

5 poems from Bobish were published in this month’s Hecate 47.1&2, published in 2022 (but just arrived via post).

The journal is published Carole Ferrier and Jena Woodhouse in conjunction with the University of Queensland. Find out more about Hecate here: https://hecate.communications-arts.uq.edu.au/

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Trauma is trending – new review/article at The Conversation

Posted on May 19, 2023 by magdalenaball

Traumata author and academic Meera Atkinson has written a beautiful and deeply fascinating piece on Bobish and trauma, as an analytical review which explores Bobish in the context of Dr Ahona Guha’s nonfiction book Reclaim.  This is such a tender reading with beautiful gems such as the description of the book as a “kind of intuitive-affective translation that “comes with its own linguistic and creative reading of the experience of others” or describes the  cover image as “a young woman with the thousand-yard stare of the trauma survivor.”  You can read the whole piece here:  https://theconversation.com/trauma-is-trending-but-we-need-to-look-beyond-buzzwords-and-face-its-ugly-side-201564

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Reading on West Words

Posted on May 17, 2023 by magdalenaball

WestWords, Western Sydney’s Literature Development Board, invited me to do a reading from  Bobish for their Writing Western Sydney series which they very promptly put up on their YouTube channel.

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