Brunswick Bound Books

Ender Baskan is the author of the novel A Portrait of Alice as a Young Man published by Vre Books.  His work revolves around the condition of the contemporary psychosphere.  Poetics, revolution and the Australian Dream are some of his prime obsessions.  He is currently writing postcards.  Ender is the recipient of the 2014/15 Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship for Prose.   Ender will be reading from A Portrait of Alice as a Young Man at First Chapters on Friday 7 February.   1. Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a piece from your published work.  Tell us what we can expect from the piece you have chosen? The piece is from my novel A Portrait of Alice as a Young Man . It is fiction but its not a novel in the classic sense. What starts off as a road novel turns into a meditation on the question of how can we be in Australia. The narrative is like a rocket on the space shuttle, I need just enough of it to get through the str...

James Harding  was a drug addict and debt collector who operated within the chaotic world of organised crime in Melbourne. Now he is the proud father of five children, a mentor and public speaker who harnesses his experiences from the ‘dark side’ to assist others to be the best version of themselves by encouraging them to unlock their hidden strengths and self-belief.       James Harding will be reading for us from Hard Cuddles at First Chapters on Friday 6 September. 1.       Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a piece from your published work.  Tell us what we can expect from the piece you have chosen? I have chosen to read the chapter about the pacific islander   that came to my rescue one cold and lonely night. It’s an emotional story that is based on faith, serendipity and divine timing. It is the story that I often reflect on and is where the idea of using my life experience to help others originat...

Louisa Deasey  is a Melbourne-based writer who has published widely, including in  Overland ,  Vogue ,  The Australian , and  The Saturday Age .  Her first memoir,  Love and Other U-Turns , was nominated for the Nita B. Kibble Award for women writers. Louisa will be reading from A Letter From Paris at First Chapters on Friday 7 June . 1. Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a piece from your published work.  Tell us what we can expect from the piece you have chosen? I’m going to read a little that gives you a taste of the unanswered questions I had about my father my entire life, and why I never looked into his life until this A Letter From Paris arrived. 2. How would you describe the kind of books that you write? Memoir. I studied Creative Non-Fiction at RMIT and have always loved the personal essay. Both my published books are memoir – even though A Letter From Paris has a lot of biography and history, too! I ...

Justin Heazlewood is an award-winning writer, musician and comic.  As the Bedroom Philosopher he has released three albums.  He was a senior writer for frankie for five years. His books include The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries and Funemployed . Justin will be reading from his new book Get Up Mum at First Chapters on Friday 6 July. We asked Justin some general bookish questions because we were interested in finding out more about him and this is what he had to say. 1. Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a chapter from your published work.  Tell us what we can expect from the chapter you have chosen? It’s written in the voice of a twelve year old ‘Heazy.’ It’s the infamous Heazlewood family slide night. Pop and I loved getting out the slides and clicking through. I like it as the opening scene of the book because ‘time’ is a theme and looking back is a default. 2. How would you describe the kind of books that you write? Personal. Funny. Honest. Champio...

I have to admit to being a little surprised that I enjoyed How Not To Be A Boy  as much as I did, but in my defence, it's just that Robert Webb wasn't really on my radar. My boyfriend has always been a huge fan of The Peep Show (the show in which Webb starred with David Mitchell), but I could always take it or leave it - I mean really, two gormless human beings trying to navigate the world as "men" - it is, at times, truly excruciating viewing. But the brilliance of this book stems from that very juxtaposition - what does becoming an adult have to do with being a man? And further, how are we helping our children prepare for their adult lives when we are still perpetuating the boy/girl tropes? Robert Webb does a great job of navigating these topics in this hilarious, candid and very moving memoir.  His is a story is about how cruel and incredibly crippling the guidelines he was given for being a man have proven - excruciating, indeed. There is no doubt Webb has...

This is a book about a very complex person. A complex person doing a complex job. Meet Sandra.  Sandra is a trauma cleaner. Written by Sarah Krasnostein, this book is on a level with Susan Falludi's In The Darkroom and anything by Helen Garner . The Trauma Cleaner  is an exercise in empathy, whilst at the same time a compelling page turner. When we meet Sandra she is cleaning the home of "Kim", a person most of us would consider irredeemably lost.  Her house is self-vandalised on the outside and the interior shows levels of self-neglect that Krasnostein regards as a type of "living death".   Sandra is not only able to reach Kim, but also relays her a sense of dignity in the process. A remarkable gift, considering what Sandra herself has suffered. Sarah Krasnostein's investigation into Sandra's story - her real story - is a remarkable achievement.  Sandra is the most unreliable source of her own narrative, and who can blame her.  Gender tran...