Patti’s approach to life writing has grown out of her love and
knowledge of the art of writing and literature as well as her lifelong
fascination with the way stories construct our sense of self. Because life story
writing also has a psychological and a spiritual dimension – it can be both
healing and awakening - she understands the importance of the magical* art and
craft of the word and the story. She is a writer and knows that there is a
transforming power in the discipline of writing, which lifts the stories of our
lives out of history and therapy and
into Art.
* It is no accident that words and incantations are both
‘spelled’
She is author of five books:
- The best-selling Writing Your Life (writing text) A&U; 1994 new ed 2001,
- The Last One Who Remembers (memoir) A&U 1997;
- Child (novel) A&U 1998;
- Whatever The Gods Do (memoir) Vintage Random House, 2003;
- The Memoir Book (writing text) A&U 2007.
She has been published in literary magazines since the late 1970s. Her articles and personal essays, including travel writing, are also widely published in national
newspapers including the Sydney Morning Herald, in particular The Good Weekend
magazine, and The Australian. She is also included in Some Girls Do A&U 2007, an anthology of Australian women writers' short stories and memoirs about being a teenager.
Her teaching and
manuscript advice to others is not theoretical – it comes directly from
her own daily experience of the joys and
challenges of her own writing.
At the same time, she has a wide knowledge of literature and
writing practice, which creates a well-informed context for her guidance. She
studied English and Education for a year at the University of Auckland, has a BA (Communications) from U.T.S 1981,
majoring in Writing and Literary Studies, two years at the University of Sydney
studying Australian Literature and Writing, and a MA in Writing from U.T.S 1994.
She is also experienced and
skilled at communicating her knowledge of writing, with more than
fifteen years experience in teaching life writing and eight years as a Lecturer in Writing and in Literature
at the University of Technology,
Sydney and theUniversity of Western
Sydney from 1984 to 1992. There, she taught
widely in both disciplines – from Experimental and Creative Writing to
Professional Writing and from Early American Literature, through Post-Colonial
Literatures and Satire to Australian Drama.
In teaching Creative Writing, she became fascinated with the
stories of peoples’ lives and decided to design a course specifically for
people who wanted to concentrate on life writing. She took the course to Varuna
Writers’ House, Australia’s national writers’
residential centre, and it was an immediate success. And so it was in 1991,
Life Stories Workshop was born.
Over the years since then, Patti has offered Life Writing, not
only at Writers Centres around Australia ( Sydney, Armidale, Byron Bay,
Melbourne, Adelaide amongst many others) and for the University of Sydney’s
Continuing Education program, but for numerous community groups. She has
offered specialised workshops for Aboriginal groups, women’s refuges,
environmental groups, mental health outpatients, migrants and refugees and
personal groups such as a circle of grieving friends. She has conducted a
series of workshops supported by NSW
Ministry of the Arts for country NSW and another series funded by Creative
Cultures for migrants and refugees in Sydney’s
west.
Patti
also conducts Life Writing/Memoir retreat courses in Paris every year
in October and in Fiji every second year. Writers can escape the
demands of ordinary life and joyfully concentrate on their writing
under Patti’s teaching and guidance.
Patti
participates in the writing community and is invited to Writing Festivals and Readings. A selection of events includes:
- Harold Park Hotel readings – 1980’s;
- Women Writers’ Weekend 1994 (State Library);
- Spring Writing NSW Writers’ Centre 1994;
- Byron Bay Writers Festival 1997 and 2003;
- Society of Women Writers 1994, 1997,
2003, 2006;
- Song of the Winds Festival 1997, 1998;
- Campbelltown Writers Week 1998; Go Girl Festival 1999;
- Varuna – 10 year of Life Stories 2001;
- Café de la Mairie (Paris) – reading 2001;
- National Biography Awards, State Library 2002;
- Red Wheelbarrow Bookshop (Paris) 2003 - reading;
- Sydney Writers’ Festival, 1989 and 2003;
- Ashfield Library - reading 2003;
- Gleebooks – reading 2003;
- Australian Publishers Association – 2003, 04, 06;
- Lyceum Club, 2005;
- Newtown Writers’ Tent 2006
- Sydney Writers’ Festival 2007 – masterclasses and panel
- West Ryde Library 2007 – reading and seminar
- NSW State Library 2007 Talk
- Wordstorm –Northern Territory Writers’ Festival
2008
She has also been on judging panels:
- U.T.S Short Story Competition 1993, 94, 95;
- Varuna/Creative Cultures Regional Writing Competition 1994;
- Varuna Fellowship Assessments 1993, 96;
- Society of Women Writers Writing Competition 1997.
Her own areas of writing interest are centred
on: memory/narrative spell / narrative and the self/construction of
meaning / constructing the self / memory
and knowledge/ the borders between fiction and fact / cicada dreaming - the
creative process / writing for the senses – body, landscape, place/
neuroscience, memory and consciousness/ Eastern philosophy and consciousness/ human
love/ the mystery of family/chance and luck.
