Sally Breen | Writer
Sally Breen
Reviews
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25.01.2022 A new piece from me in the bloody marvellous Bareknuckle Poet journal. Dedicated to victims of domestic violence - this is my view of an alternative future.
25.01.2022 Really looking forward to reading at the opening night of Writers Activation in Southport tomorrow eve. So great that an organisation like this has emerged on the Gold Coast. If you believe in words and you're local well you bloody well should go. Who knows what could happen if all the writers on the GC found themselves in just a few rooms????
25.01.2022 True to form even in his love letters ... 'I don't want to know what you are wearing; it confuses me so much that I cannot deal with life.' Franz Kafka
24.01.2022 Heres hoping this one lives up to the hype ...
24.01.2022 My latest in The Conversation on the joy of crowds. Oh how we miss them
24.01.2022 Brand spanking new website for Sally Breen live now. Read a selection of previously published works you might have missed, peruse the blog and check out my moody pics - must be 18 years or over - . I usually really dislike getting my photo taken but Gold Coast photographer and writer Aaron Chapman Studio put me at ease - he also designed the website. Have fun exploring - enjoy, like and share and click on me
24.01.2022 The Breen Reviews You Know You Want This - Kristen Roupenian Yes, this is the same person who wrote Cat Person - the only short story to ever go viral. And viral it did. Carried away on a #MeToo tailwind it's probably one of my least favourite stories in this collection. The irony of many Twitter followers loving and relating to that story without realising the joke was mostly on them. Relating to Margot or Robert meant you were a bit of an insipid self-obsessed loser but ...maybe that was the point. The other stories in You Know You Want This are far more interesting and will probably never be read by 80% of the millions who went into a Twitter spack about Cat Person. Kristen has, in an era of - this story is really about me - an ability to actually imagine which is kind of how I like my fiction. Her stories are also fucking dark and a little bit sick. So are her characters. Not matter what they identify as. A funny and really unsettling human soup. My favourites are Biter about a woman who likes to bite people and has since she was a kid and The Boy in the Pool - an eerie resurrection of a teen celebrity crush at a hens night. These stories start out seemingly normal, mostly 'now' and then veer into something more primal and strange. The other story I didn't like was The Good Guy which was the longest and an even worse attempt than Cat Person at capturing contemporary male malaise. Skip it. The rest are damn good. See more
22.01.2022 Ill be heading to the Australian Short Story Fest in Melbourne in October. Fantastic line up of authors pulled together by the dynamo Julia Prendergast and her team. Less pollies and personalities and celebrity chefs than most writers fests these days and more ... writers. Of fiction. Come play #AASF2019
21.01.2022 Writerly friends. Disconnect the Netflix and write me a story. Just over a week remains to submit entries to Meridian: Asia Pacific Writers & Translators (APWT) Drunken Boat Anthology of New Writing. Ill be editing the creative non-fiction submissions and would love to see what youve got - categories also open in poetry and fiction. There is no theme and no agenda. I want voices that knock me outta my seat. Got a piece that couldnt find a home in one of those old school journals you rarely take out of the packet? I wanna read it. Meridian will be launched at #APWT2020 and distributed worldwide - all the details here
21.01.2022 The Breen Reviews - 'White' Bret Easton Ellis I was in a bar in my early twenties when one of the first publishers I ever met scolded me for naming Bret Easton Ellis as one of my favourite writers. American Psycho had yet to be published. She said Ellis was overrated waving her arm though the air her rose gold bracelets jangling. Elliss record stands. So does hers. And Ellis won. For me Ellis is up there with the Marquis de Sade and Oscar Wilde ferocious dandy stylists ...of their times writers who refused to pull their punches. It landed De Sade and Wilde in jail Ellis fared better but American Psycho still came wrapped in plastic and generated typhoon levels of hysteria. Interestingly for a text written by Ellis, White seems to have generated barely a ripple in what Ellis refers to as the post empire bubble. Apart from the laughable interview where some NYT staff writer with a Trump obsession tried to back Ellis into a group think corner theres been very little reaction. Maybe thats what happens when you very calmly and adroitly point out the ridiculousness of the machine it greets you with silence. Which is a shame because that nobody staff writer missed the point about White entirely this isnt a book about Trump this is a book about the importance of artistic and intellectual freedom in an era when its routinely AND insidiously compromised. A roll call of anti-PC musings from the mind of an artist, someone who once wrote a perfectly pitched and timed fake memoir (Lunar Park), an artist who prefers aesthetics to ideology and freedom of speech over identity politics. He makes a lot of sense. And while this is certainly not the best thing hes ever written its kind of wonderful to hang out in his mind for a while especially if you grew up in the 70s and 80s, Ellis writes beautifully about generational politics and film, his musings on his millennial lovers Trump induced meltdowns are hilarious and heartbreaking and his teenage fantasies about Richard Gere in American Gigolo sublime reflections on how much cinematic immersion has infused his writing. He can swing from surreal descriptions of his own artistic stasis, to accidentally ordering drugs on Twitter, to the outrage storms generated by Kayne West and Charlie Sheen all of it wrapped up in his often bemused but in the end very sharp critique of the thought police. As someone who really enjoyed Elliss take down of Ramona Koval at the Byron Bay Writers Festival years ago (he refused to answer any of her breathlessly condescending and judgy questions instead talking about how gay Music Max was) that interview is still available on the internet BTW not everyones cup of tea as Ramona described him, I liked this book. I certainly know who Id rather have a cup of tea, or a very, very dry martini with. See more
21.01.2022 For those who may not have seen this on other channels - my Friday essay inspired by Rusty. Once again the comments are worth the extra reading time - whenever I write for the Conversation I seem to inspire action from a lot of angry blokes in dark rooms who like to inform me of the error of my ways - he he love hurts
21.01.2022 For those of you in the region an invitation to join David Malouf, Matthew Condon, Nigel Krauth, Phillip Edmonds, Tory Jones, Stuart Cooke and myself at Writing Gold Coast - a symposium and reading event dedicated to ideas related to writing place in fiction and non-fiction at Vibe Hotel Surfers Paradise and Griffith University Gold Coast
20.01.2022 I was lucky enough to catch Brazen Hussies at the Brisbane International Film Festival on the weekend - here's my take - catch it if you can. An important chronicle of a revolutionary time in this country's history #feministas #BIFFest2020 #BrazenHussies
20.01.2022 Only 2 and already one of the best lit fests in Oz - come hang out
18.01.2022 Some new creative non-fiction from me about the big stain of American saturation Trumps First Day in Office in Meanjins Autumn edition. Here's an extract: 'Everything has changed in our small corner of the world but not because of Donald Trump. America hasnt made one iota of difference. And here is Ashlee Judd on a microphone and Madonna is being investigated by the CIA and I think about how my mum rates a movie by how many aliens it has in it ... and all these humans on Facey so cashed in, so drawn down into their caves or their private palaces or hells, a gap that is mostly, or maybe exactly, the same thing and no one saying anything about the fact, that maybe, we might have deserved it.
18.01.2022 Getting pumped for this event - heading back to India tonight - twice in one year seems like a dream. In a programming stroke of genius I'm on a panel called Ask Me Anything - Love Me Tinder. What could possibly go wrong? #blrlitfest
17.01.2022 The Flora Burn - the new book - is ready to be unleashed
16.01.2022 A creative non-fiction piece I had published in Meanjin last year 'Trump's First Day in Office' is now available to read on-line. About the frenzied and futile obsession with American politics that plays out on social media when what really matters is so much closer to home
16.01.2022 Writing about home from a long way away - the distance exemplifying just how beautiful the city is and how divisive
15.01.2022 Here’s hoping this one lives up to the hype ...
15.01.2022 A new collection of creative non-fiction I recently put together 'Weep At The Base of the Fire' featuring new and collected works made the semi-finalist list of US based Journal Magazine's Non-Fiction Collection Prize. Close but no cigar - time to re-jig some and find a home for it
14.01.2022 My study. Just wrapped the first full draft of book three. Big gaps to fill in The Midnight Zone world but something is happening. Something.
12.01.2022 Had some fun on the radio this morning - a 2SER Sydney interview on my recent piece in The Conversation on writing on the road - one should probably not swear on the radio but oh well its gonzo #APWT19
08.01.2022 In 2012 I took up an Asia Link writing residency in Hanoi Vietnam - ranking right up there as one of the best experiences of my life. I wrote a personal essay Small Bird Song about my time there and I'm happy to say you can read it now in the new issue of the Asia Literary Review. For a girl who grew up in the 80s supped on Platoon and Full Metal Jacket on loop the idea that the Vietnamese might call that conflict the American War was just the start of my full tilt inversion. If you're interested you can download the e-book here. My piece is accompanied by a poem '4th' by Quan Barry which just knocked me out
08.01.2022 Hard to believe its been eight years since I launched this baby out into the world. An ode to my father and 80s childhoods and 90s grunge and all my fellow casuals. You know who you are. And shes not dead yet. More news about The Casuals coming soon Pop Art gives me nightmares. The image of the woman with the cardboard cut out head voice bubbling the refrain; Oops I forgot to have a baby. I forgot to have a baby. And a husband. And I lived. Quite well with all the dreams and the nightmares ... Ive always wanted more than one body in which to live. Sally Breen The Casuals
08.01.2022 The crystal shards have taken shape! I wrote about this development in my article on the GC for the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com//the-gold-coast-sun-drenched-s Not sure about the starship enterprise hulls at the base of each building in copper red - they seem to weigh down what are otherwise elegant and striking buildings
07.01.2022 The #balibenefit campaign is in full swing. Thank you to those how have donated and all our partners on the ground. Read on for news of how your contributions have helped. If you are in a position to donate please consider doing so here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/bali-benefit
07.01.2022 Bali images. Cat at Ubud Yoga House. Yellow classic martinis because why? Frangipanis. Pools. Boys on bikes. Books from UWRF including Megan K Stacks incredible Every Man in This Village is a Liar
06.01.2022 An extract from my new novel The Sea Inside You has just been published in the journal Meniscus as a stand alone piece 'Captivity.' Click on the button and scroll through the PDF to read it. I'd be really interested in hearing any thoughts on this taster before I unleash her in full on the world
06.01.2022 So this is going down tonight on the GC - I'll be reading some new work
05.01.2022 Looking forward to getting down at what has gotta be one of the best fests in the world. #UWRF2019
05.01.2022 You can read 'Solitary Vice - We See You' by (me) here. The essay was written to accompany the remarkable work of nine artists in the latest offering from THE WALLS. The virtual exhibition launches this evening from 5pm. Come hang with us - it's BYO obviously I've really enjoyed this process, in what are surreal times, viewing and engaging in these artworks on line, talking to the artists on the phone, over Zoom, in emails and my reactions to all this and their work is in the essay. Just click the link TEXT on this page to read it and enjoy the show
04.01.2022 En route home thinking of home - in the desert of Dubai and craving sea. It's been very interesting even a little surreal to be considered a cultural concierge. The collection launches in July. Bit of a love letter to the city
03.01.2022 A piece of short fiction from me included in the annual Hemingway foundation collection Hemingway shorts. This is a re-worked version of my entry to the Burstow award (runner up) so I'm very glad it's found a home here with the big man. I've photographed it so you can read it in full. Please let me know how you like it
02.01.2022 Many of you know of my long standing connection to Bali - I am asking you tonight to assist me in helping to alleviate the devastating situation Bali is in due to the COVID 19 crisis. Some of you might ask - why Bali - when this crisis is global. Firstly, Bali is so heavily reliant on tourism, the economy has been completely decimated by the global shutdown and secondly the personal and professional connections I have developed there for nearly a decade mean I can facilitate ...this campaign in a direct and positive way with organisational partners on the ground including: Teratai Dharma Centre, Rumah Belajar Komunitas Mahima and the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. You can read more on the campaign site. I know many of you have had experiences in Bali that you will never forget - please if you can, pay the generosity of spirit you have experienced there forward. A little goes a long way #BaliBenefit https://au.gofundme.com/f/bali-benefit
02.01.2022 "We wanted to be in Wim Wenders movies without realising we were Wim Wenders movies, everyone impossibly beautiful only because we were impossibly young. Drugstore Cowboy hair. Striped Ts and unlaced Docs."
01.01.2022 Listening to yourself talk is weird. But I loved doing this interview, my first foray into podcast land with my dear friend Vanessa Moody a graduate student of mine and now founding director of The Right Remark. We're talking about memoir, writing, editing, getting banned from Dubai and how not to get sued when writing about your friends and enemies. I'm having a rant basically and trying not to swear. You can listen here: https://therightremark.com/podcast/
01.01.2022 When The Conversation asked me to write an article for this series I thought the choice would be tough but The Cure became more and more of a sure thing. Big romance. Heady memories. There's an open call on this too if you want to have a shot. What call would you make?
01.01.2022 Writing about travel post travel when all youve got is a shiny basket full of recall and itchy feet
