Mark Rossiter

Last Sunday I presented a talk and workshop to the Bondi Writers’ Group, in the Waverley Library theatrette. It was a great session with a lot of audience energy and participation, some of which led, serendipitously, to the production of story fragments that could definitely go further. Workshops are such artificial constructs, yet their intensity and immediacy can generate very interesting outcomes, and the opportunity for constructive feedback — in a managed framework — is almost unparalleled. Next week, I return to UTS, teaching my favourite: Theory and Creative Writing. I’m really looking forward to it.

A favourite of mine is Albert Camus’ The Outsider. Lucian Robinson’s Guardian review of a new translation (by Sandra Smith, Penguin Translated Texts) reminded me how much I loved it. It also reminded me just how important translation is. Two of the most … Continue Reading »

I have the Kindle Keyboard 3G. I also have a Nexus 7 (the Android tablet from Google), and I’ve just had a look at the new iPad Mini. And then there’s the new Kindle, the Paperwhite. The question is, which one is best?

3G Keyboard	Nexus 7	iPad Mini	Paperwhite

I should say that I am looking here at e-reading only. If you want to consume a wider variety of media, the tablets are best. They’re fast and have a wider variety of uses. But thinking about reading … Continue Reading »

Titles I’ve looked for over the years in electronic format are finally appearing. One such is The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot. There were the Selected and the Collected and the Four Quartets and of course The Wasteland, but not all in one volume. Now they are. Another is Proust’s mega-novel, In Search of Lost Time, which I started (in print) four years ago, and am still only a third of the way through now. When I decided to read it back then, I had the idea I’d pick up an e-reader … and I figured Proust would be a great opening choice.

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The 2012 Sydney University Anthology of new writing and photography, Sparks, is edited by Master of Publishing students of the University of Sydney. The all-important final proofing is happening now, and the anthology will be launched at 7pm on the 15th of November at the Co-op bookshop in the University of Sydney. Visit the website for updates.

So doesn’t go the old song which I learned, partially, to play on the guitar, many years ago. I say partially because I only ever knew the refrain — it was the days before YouTube and I never got round to actually listening to Ray Charles and those ladies who made it famous. The funny thing is the whole thing is the same descending progression, fairly repetitive really.

Anyway, Jack Kerouac, that novel, the long stuck-together-fax-sheet-roll-of-paper one. I first read the book in 1986 when I bought it in a second-hand bookshop in Edinburgh …

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Here’s a guest blog post made on Momentum Books on July 12, 2012.

Following a heated discussion on Twitter over whether ebooks should follow the form and function of their print counterparts, Joshua Mostafa and Mark Rossiter agreed to a battle of ideas on our blog with the question “Should ebooks look like print books?” 

Anyone who frets about the form in which a text is displayed, by claiming for example that a beautifully produced print edition is superior to the same text presented electronically in a conventional-enough layout, is missing the point.

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Am reading from this excellent anthology from Coeur de Lion publishing. I picked up my e-copy on Amazon, but you can also find it on Smashwords and on the CDL website. I’ve read two stories so far, ‘Beautiful’ by Cat Sparks and ‘Hatchway’, Simon Petrie.

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This is a snapshot* of my e-library, built up over the last year or so. The question is … does a pretty picture like this replace the joy of having physical books in a bookshelf? Does the utility of the ebook replace the tactility of a pbook?

Post originally written 2011, pic updated 9 July 2012

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Read Me is the 2011 University of Sydney student anthology and it launches in late October. Submissions for 2012 are open soon.