Novel Writing with Helen Hagemann at the Fremantle Arts Centre

  Prose Class with Helen Hagemann on Friday, 22nd August at 10.00am. Class to read excerpts from Nick Earls’ Zigzag Street.  Writing Exercises and discussion will revolve around creating the light and poignant elements in your novel, narrative or short story. 

Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre

Cost: $25 OOTA $30 Non-OOTA

Nick Earls (born 8 October 1963 in Newtownards, Northern Ireland) is an award-winning novelist from Brisbane, Australia. He writes humorous popular fiction about everyday life, and is often compared to Nick Hornby. (These days the genre is called “Lad Lit” as opposed to “Chick Lit.”) The majority of Earls' novels are set in his hometown of Brisbane, a fact which led to his high local profile, and his fronting of a major Brisbane tourism campaign. Zigzag Street, his second novel, won the Betty Trask Award in the UK 1998 (sharing with Kiran Desai's Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard) and Perfect Skin was the only novel nominated for an Australian Comedy Award in 2003. 48 Shades of Brown was awarded Book of the Year (older readers) by the Children's Book Council of Australia in 2000, and in the US it was a Kirkus Reviews selection in its books of the year for 2004. 48 Shades of Brown and Perfect Skin have been adapted into feature films, with Solo un Padre, the film adapted from the Italian edition of Perfect Skin, a top-ten box office hit in Italy in 2008. 48 Shades of Brown, Zigzag Street and Perfect Skin have all been successfully adapted for theatre, and the Zigzag Street play toured nationally in 2005. The True Story Of Butterfish was also performed as a play. He recently published a collection of stories Welcome To Normal.

    Zigzag Street is a classic tale of a 28 year-old Richard Derrington living in inner-city suburban Red Hill, Brisbane. There are some serious laugh-out-loud moments and a male take on the whole dating/relationship scene. Recently dumped by his long term girlfriend Anna, he lurches from one debacle to another as he struggles to come to terms with his bachelor life. In between 'renovating' the home that belonged to his recently deceased grandmother, Rick falls for his boss Hilary, plays bad tennis with his best mate Jeff, and tries his best to care for Greg, his late grandmother's stubborn ginger cat. He eventually meets up with Rachel Vilikovski which gets off to a bad start with his uncontrollable, bowel gas.