Available Formats
On Helen Garner: Writers on Writers
By (Author) Sean O'Beirne
Black Inc.
Black Inc.
29th March 2022
Australia
General
Non Fiction
Biography: general
Hardback
96
Width 120mm, Height 189mm, Spine 25mm
242g
A brilliant essay by one of Australia's most exciting literary talents, which offers new insights into Garner's entire body of work and her life as a writer. What I love, what I need, first in Helen Garner's writing is a particular kind of closeness to self - the good, greedy, mistaken, emotional, fierce, sceptical, changing and disrupting self ... But I also love that she's always fighting to come back, enough, as well- find enough of a law, a rule, a family, a home. In a brilliantly argued and very personal essay, Sean O'Beirne looks at the whole of Helen Garner's writing life so far - from Monkey Grip to the recently published Diaries - while trying to come to terms with the demands, and the rewards, of Garner's extraordinary, radical individualism and honesty. In the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on another Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work. Published by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.
Sean O'Beirne grew up in Melbourne's outer suburbs and studied arts, law and acting. His first book, the satirical short-story collection A Couple of Things Before the End, was shortlisted for the QLD Literary Awards and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. He is also the author of On Helen Garner.