Mutes and Earthquakes: Bill Manhire's Creative Writing Course at Victoria

1997

'If this book is a celebration, it is also meant to be useful. I hope it will work as a stimulating prompt book for anyone who wants to write. Alongside the poetry and fiction and drama, there are commissioned essays on creative writing by Joy Cowley, David Geary, Dinah Hawken, Fiona Kidman and Damien Wilkins, who have generously included a number of their own exercise ideas. A few secrets are being shared. There is also a chapter which outlines many of the exercises used in the Victoria course. Most of these exercises are cross-referenced to particular poems and stories. Thus the book itself behaves a little like a workshop. Writers present their work, while I link and interrupt and perhaps hold forth a little. If you read Mutes & Earthquakes, dipping in and out, flipping to and fro, you will find yourself eavesdropping on a busy conversation. And if you are prompted to do some writing of your own, you may find you are participating in it.' —Bill Manhire