A WRITING SUMMER

With my first swim of the season, summer has officially started, whatever the calendar might say. But instead of allowing myself to slide into that state of pleasurable lethargy in which reading gradually begins to take precedence over writing, I am plotting an intense summer, brimming with creative activity. For one thing, it is a Festival year, and to my immense pleasure I have been invited to participate in Adelaide Writers' Week. Life doesn't get much sweeter.

As a way of channelling the energy generated by this exciting prospect, I will be leading a series of workshops in partnership with the South Australian Writers' Centre, enabling Adelaide's cafe culture to provide the ambiance (and the caffeine buzz) for a small group of creative writers keen for an injection of inspiration. It's been a pet theory of mine for a while now, the notion that, since the French Impressionists advocated painting en plein air with such startling results, artists have something to teach writers about getting out of the house and up close to their subject. Without a doubt, the city of Adelaide - basting in its own juices by late January - will provide a shimmering landscape for us to work with.

The Writers' Cafe sessions will run for six weeks from January 23rd up until Writers' Week opens on February 28th.

Places will be limited, so please get in touch as soon as possible if you are interested in participating (you can email me by clicking; here ), book through the SA Writers' Centre, 2nd Floor, 187 Rundle Street, Adelaide 5000. Tel: (08) 8223 762 Email: sawriters@sawc.org.au

Amid all this frantic action, I am also planning a small reading sabbatical over Christmas and New Year. What will I be reading? Below is the current list, a mix of new fiction and second-hand bookshop finds that have been piling up beside my bed at an alarming rate.

• Love and Summer, William Trevor
• Summer Lightning, Olive Senior
• A Spell of Winter, Helen Dunmore
• Noah's Compass, Anne Tyler
• Earthly Possessions, Anne Tyler
• The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
• Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
• All I Knew, Peter Goldsworthy
• Jetty Road, Cath Kenneally

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