Pitching essays & Kris Kneen on literary mafia, online events & erotica

It’s that time in the ‘publication journey’ where Kate has to start pitching some loosely book related articles to help with promo. She’s determined to do it better this time around and asks Katherine for help.

They chat about some excellent recent examples including this one from Mcsweeneys and the excellent Debut in the Age of Corona themed essays Anna Downes has written before The Safe Place is released.

Then Kate speaks with Brisbane writer and bookseller, Kris Kneen.

Kris Kneen is a Brisbane writer and bookseller. They are the author of the best-selling memoir Affection, the Thomas Shapcott Award winning poetry collection Eating My Grandmother, and novels including An Uncertain Grace, shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the Norma K Hemming Award and the Aurealis award and Wintering, their latest novel, which has has been longlisted for the Colin Roderick Award and shortlisted for the Davitt Award. They are currently developing a TV series, and have previously written and directed broadcast television documentaries with SBS and ABC TV.

The conversation covers:

• managing online events at Avid Reader
• Krissy’s pandemic themed project Lust in the time of Coronavirus
• the different approaches to writing for screen and for the page
• writing and publicising memoir
• coffee dates with Ellen van Neerven
• hanging with the Brisbane Literary Mafia
• how good sex writing shocks the reader into a different bodily state
• how to use sensory detail for sensual writing

Kris’s erotic reading list:

• Anais Nin
•  Vox – Nicholson Baker
• The Blue of Noon – George Battaille
• Little Cat, Maidenhead – Tamara Faith Berger

Kris’s advice as a bookseller to other authors:

• Be a book browser
• Go to your local indies, get to events, talk books
• Engage on social media
• Join your local bookstore book club
• and be nice!

And as an author…

• It’s not you, it’s the pandemic!
• But be lateral – maybe there are opportunities for you 

Kris’s debut book recommendation:

The Inland Sea – Madeline Watts

The Adversary – Ronnie Scott

Find out more about Kris on their website or follow on Twitter.