Life Stories and Memoirs

This can be presented as a talk, a writing workshop, and/or as social/historical presentation. Based on my literary memoir on the sixties in Australia, All Along the Watchtower, I tell the history of the development of this extensive piece of work – research, interviews, details, what to include and what to leave out, and of course, the constant attention to narrative flow. It is a significant story – there is almost no literature or film that captures the life and times of the rebellious sixties in an Australian context, especially from the perspective of the anti-Vietnam War and counter-culture movements.

Topics:

• the sixties in Australia
• anti-war movement
• social justice
• ASIO
• humorous and terrifying anecdotes
• starting points for your own life story
• structural considerations for memoirs
• research
• drafting and re-writing