Ashley Kalagian Blunt
In this episode, Ashley Kalagian Blunt takes us through the process behind writing her memoir How to be Australian. Ashley talks about how she puts her own voice on the page, how she structured the memoir in order to best reflect the narrative and character arc, how she plots scenes and specifically focuses on scene turns, the role of truth in memoir, and the lessons from fiction writing that help with writing memoir.
You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of How to be Australian here.
ABOUT ASHLEY
Ashley Kalagian Blunt is the author of two books, How to Be Australian, a memoir, and My Name Is Revenge, a thriller novella and collected essays. My Name is Revenge was longlisted for 2020 Davitt Awards, shortlisted for the 2019 Woollahra Digital Literary Awards, and a finalist in the 2018 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award.
Ashley’s writing appears in Griffith Review, Sydney Review of Books, Overland, Australian Book Review, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian, the Big Issue, Openbook, Westerly, Kill Your Darlings, the Canberra Times, and more.
She is the co-host of James and Ashley Stay at Home, a podcast about writing, creativity and health, and was a judge in the 2020 Writing NSW Varuna Fellowship.
Her Armenian travel memoir was shortlisted for the 2018 Impress Prize for New Writers and the 2017 Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award, and received a 2015 Varuna PIP residency.
Ashley is an award-winning speaker. She’s appeared at Sydney Writers’ Festival, Story Club and the National Young Writers’ Festival, and is a Moth StorySLAM winner.
She also teaches a range of creative writing courses and mentors emerging writers. She has a decade of experience in teaching and curriculum design, working with children and adults, and has a Master of Research in creative writing.
Before moving to Australia, Ashley lived and worked in Canada, South Korea, Peru and Mexico.
Find Ashley online at her Website or on Instagram and Twitter.
Find Ashley’s upcoming writing classes here.
Special thanks to Petronella McGovern and Jen Pritchard for your questions this week.
You can sign up for my newsletter here.
This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.
You can listen and subscribe to the show now on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google or wherever you get your pods.