NON-FICTION, ESSAYS & FEATURES 

FINDING BEAUTY IN BROKEN THINGS
A New York Times feature on artist Karla Dickens, 12 April 2019

LAUGHTER AS AN ETHICAL CHOICE
A Guardian essay on laughter in literature - edited version of a speech to the Bendigo Writers' Festival 2018

READING ISN'T SHOPPING
​The Sydney Review of Books - edited version of the Barry Andrews Memorial Address, 2018 

NOBODY LOVES YOU MORE THAN ME
An online interactive documentary for SBS, written in collaboration
with photographer Anne Zahalka, SBS 

AFRAID OF THE DARK
A Guardian essay on women and anger

REMEMBERING GEORGIA
Tribute to friend and writer Georgia Blain. 

ART CAN TRANSFIGURE HATRED: On turning  bleakness into art, published at Literary Hub.

THE BONES' MUTE PROTEST: Introduction to Text Publishing's new edition of 1984

THE WRITER'S EPIPHANY: Lessons The Writer's Room interviews taught me - The Guardian Australia

GEORGIA BLAIN: Portrait of the writer Georgia Blain and her new novels - The Sydney Morning Herald / The Age

PORTRAIT: Theatre director Anne-Louise Sarks - The Saturday Paper

PORTRAIT: Painter Ann Thomson - The Saturday Paper

SHIRLEY HAZZARD'S THE TRANSIT OF VENUS: An edited version of my Sydney Ideas lecture is now online here at the Sydney Review of Books.

COOKING AS MEDITATION: A short essay in Womankind magazine, Issue 3. 

CREATIVE MINDS: On my relationship with Alison Manning of A Mind of One's Own, Slow Living Issue 21.

'I HAVE HAD MY VISION': On writing, editing & collaboration,
The Sydney Review of Books, May 2014

Amy Witting's hard-won composure under fire, The Australian, February 2014

My unwired week - on disconnecting, Good Weekend, September 2013

The Writer's Cottage - ten tenets for a writing retreat, 10_tenets_for_a_creative_retreat.pdfSlow Magazine #16, Spring 2013

At home with myself - on homesickness, Good Weekend, July 2013

In the punch line - on stand-up comedy, Good Weekend, April 2013

Carless in the city - Slow Magazine, Autumn 2013 

Creature comforts - gourmet pet food, Good Weekend, January 2013

Bus route 423: On abandoning car ownership, The Monthly, Dec 2012

Back from the dread: On dreams and fairy tales, Good Weekend, November 3 2012 

The Aunt's Story - The Hoopla, 3 July 2012

The whole story: on offal - Good Weekend, Feb 18 2012 

For the love of oysters - SBS Feast magazine, March 2012

The Sitting Act: On the bond between portrait painter and subject - The Monthly Dec 2011-Jan 2012

The likeability problem -  Newswrite Magazine Dec 2011

The Write Tools #32: On the usefulness of close observation. Darkly Wise, Rudely Great blog

This dog is not a human being...(right?): Good Weekend, 2011

Give a Little Bit; first published Good Weekend magazine, Dec 4 2010

The End Six writers talk about finishing a book, Australian Author magazine, December 2010.

Forgive Me, Forgive Me: The Ethics of Using Other People's Lives in Fiction; Meanjin Quarterly, Summer 2009

Profile Lizzie Farey, artist Craft Arts International, March 2008

Party Piece First published Sydney Morning Herald, January 2006 

Cooking to impress First published Gourmet Traveller, 2004 

Nature writing in Australia First published Good Reading, 2004

SPEECHES

THE LADY AND THE UNICORN  and THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS
Speech at Art After Hours, Art Gallery of NSW 2018 - text
Speech at Art After Hours, Art Gallery of NSW 2018 - audio 

​WRITING LESSONS FROM KATE JENNINGS:  In praise of
​Kate Jennings' Save Me, Joe Louis.

STELLA AWARD ACCEPTANCE SPEECH: On the importance of art

INDIE BOOKSTORES: Acceptance speech for the 2016 Indie Book of the Year Award. 

SHIRLEY HAZZARD'S THE TRANSIT OF VENUS: An edited version of my Sydney Ideas lecture is now online here at the Sydney Review of Books.

'I HAVE HAD MY VISION': On writing, editing & collaboration - keynote speech to participants in the Residential Editorial Program at Varuna, the Writers' House, May 2014

Seven Enviable Lines - a panel discussion at the Emerging Writers' Festival Roadshow, November 2012

On reading - Adelaide Writers' Week, 2010

Obsessive, compulsive, instinctive & strange: Why writing a novel is (not) like falling in love - National Library of Australia conference, September 2006

Speech to Arts Faculty graduates, Charles Sturt University, 2005