Is it normal to feel a constant sense of awe at how fast the time is passing, and an equivalent sense of anxiety about the things you’d hoped to achieve but haven’t yet? If so, I am the most normal person you’ve ever met. September seems to have passed in a blur of family illness (ear infections, chest infections, sinus infections, pink eye, gastro), a mix of thrillingly warm days and blisteringly cold days, and books.
Books
It began with the Open Book Festival, an annual highlight for me. Although I missed the first day of the festival due to the aforementioned family illness it was wonderful to be back listening to people talking about books and writing. Virtual festivals are amazing because it means you can attend from wherever you are, but there is something about in-person events that generates real creative energy for me. Some of you might know that I got the idea for Feminism Is when I was attending the Open Book fest, and this year I had another idea that I’m letting percolate at the moment. Fingers crossed it turns into a real thing! I also volunteered at the Life Righting Collective table for an hour and met such interesting people.
I came across the incredible Libby App at the end of August and I’ve been putting it to good use this month. I’ve listened to Geena Davis’s Dying of Politeness, Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry, Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead (which I gave up on because I just couldn’t get into it, think it had something to do with listening to such hardship told from the first person. Just too hard!), and now I’m listening to Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died. Having never listened to an audiobook in my life before this month, I have really enjoyed it. Highly recommend the app – all you need is a library card to your local library and the world. is your oyster. I have also been reading a number of books for the next season of the Living While Feminist podcast and am very grateful to the authors and publishers who have sent me copies of their books.
Writing
I have been struggling to write much this month. Managed a poem for Bait/Switch (coming soon!), and started a blog post about Barbie but couldn’t finish it. I wrote each night in my journal, which as a MASSIVE fan of David Sedaris I hope will come in useful at some point in my life. But there was still the sense that some of my creative lifeforce was in hibernation, or that my writing ability is lying fallow right now.
Website update
Unwilling to let the month go by without some energy directed to being a writer I began working on my website and updating some of the content, checking old links, and redesigning some pages. You’ll see now that you can buy copies of most of my books via PayPal on the website. There is also a contact form at the bottom of the page if you’d prefer to EFT. I also discovered that FOUR of my books are available in Kindle version on Amazon. Go get those! Finally, I delved into the archives and organized all the interviews about my writing projects and my gender work over the past decade (plus). You can take a look and listen, here. I’m still in the process of tidying but I think I’m getting there.
My inspiration for cleaning up my site came because I signed up to Pomegranite’s WordPress Basics course. Although I’ve been using WordPress for more than a decade I knew there was lots that I still had to learn, and the course has been fantastic so far.
Studio Faire
I can’t lie – I’m about done with this enduring winter that seems to last forever in the Western Cape. It has had me dreaming about the time I spent in France in the hot summer of 2019. Then I was lucky enough to spend a month at Studio Faire in Nerac in South West France. Here’s a pic of me taken by host, Colin Usher, so you can see how happy that made me!
As their website says, it’s an artist-run contemporary art space providing residencies for artists, makers, writers, musicians, and all other creative practitioners. It was such a warm and welcoming space, my workspace was comfortable and generous, and the town is really lovely. I spent many afternoons sitting in the sun outside and writing and embroidering and just generally enjoying the frenchness of it all. Plus they’re only a few hundred metres down the road from an amazing bakery (hello daily croissants). Colin and Julia have recently started raising funds for a Studio Faire Residency Fellowship to help creative practitioners with limited means receive a funded residency at Studio Faire. If you’d like to contribute to this initiative, you can do so here.
What I’m enjoying
- Hannah Botsis’s substack
- The new season of Sex Ed
- Getting back into reading LitHub more regularly
- Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS (such good 90s vibes).
From this weekend we’re in the last quarter of the year. I hope it’s a time of happiness and creativity and hope for you all.
Jen
Jen Thorpe 