Tony Birch is an Australian author that has published Shadowboxing (2006), Father’s Day (2009), Blood (2011), The Promise (2014), and recently, Ghost River (2015) which was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.
I had the pleasure of attending this insightful workshop held by Dr Tony Birch. Tony invited us to write in response to a collection of Aboriginal artworks, which was a direction in writing practice that was new to me.
In relation to Aboriginal culture and contemporary art, Tony discussed the investment writers have with objects as they are representations of culture, personality, and community. This connection to objects is a way that writers reclaim stories that have been lost.
Our initial reaction to an artwork is critical in the process of writing in response to it. We were told to record our first reaction and to pay special attention to the sensory details of the work, especially the atmosphere it created. Another tip we were given was write in response to portrait photography to test how well you write character description.
Photo: Joe Armao, The Sydney Morning Herald
Advertisements Share this:
