ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

Lucy Treloar is one of five authors on this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist, for her splendid debut novel Salt Creek.  (See my review).  Treloar has also won the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year at the ABIA awards, and the Dobbie Award for a first published work.   That’s quite a splash for a debut author, so it was time to find out more about her, and I was delighted when amidst a whirlwind of tours and author appearances, she found time to participate in Meet an Aussie Author.

1. I was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where my parents lived for a few years. I always wonder if that’s why I feel comfortable in Southeast Asia.
2. When I was a child I wrote letters to my parents about the injustices of being a third child; bad poetry; and descriptions of people.
3. It was books rather than people that inspired me – all those books that had been transporting me for my whole life. I wanted to be part of that world of creation.
4. I write in my office at the Meat Market arts centre in Melbourne. If not there, in bed.
5. I mainly write in the morning, but also whenever I have an idea – even sometimes out shopping (the back of a shopping receipt will do at a pinch).
6. Research is so fascinating that it’s amazing I get any writing done. It always suggests possibilities that I couldn’t have imagined.
7. I keep my published work/s just here and there: in my studio, or shelved at home in different sections (children’s books, journals…). The system is not very systematic, so I’m not completely sure about this.
8. On the day my first book was published, I felt sick, self-conscious and exposed. I avoided bookshops for months so I didn’t have to worry about sales.
9. At the moment, I’m writing a contemporary fiction set somewhere else. I can’t say more because I’m worried someone else will have the same idea.
10. When I’m stuck for an idea/word/phrase, I stare into space, file my nails, get distracted by my own breathing, and try again.

I am very impressed by the tidiness of Lucy’s studio, (and relieved that no one can see the state of my desk at the moment!) I have a lovely coffee table book called American Writers At Home, and I reckon Lucy’s studio is a good candidate for an Australian edition.  But I’m also curious about those images on the wall.  (Click on the image to enlarge it.)  Are they prompts for Salt Creek, or for this intriguing new novel?  We shall have to wait and see…

You can buy Lucy’s novel from Fishpond: Salt Creek and there’s an audio book read by Ulli Burve too: Salt Creek.

Have you read it yet?  Did you love it as much as I did? (I am so torn between wanting it and Alec Patric’s Black Rock White City to win the MF!)