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This morning’s location: a field outside Castlemaine, Victoria. The air is thick with flies, attracted to the cow dung but ignoring the nearby dinosaur poo, sturdily constructed from papier-mache. “Oh god,” Sam Neill groans – though these words aren’t actually uttered by Neill but local builder Ian Flavell, who has taken on Neill’s role as palaeontologist Alan Grant – and drops to his knees in front of an ailing triceratops.

The film fans who remade Jurassic Park (The Guardian)

This morning’s location: a field outside Castlemaine, Victoria. The air is thick with flies, attracted to the cow dung but ignoring the nearby dinosaur poo, sturdily constructed from papier-mache.

“Oh god,” Sam Neill groans – though these words aren’t actually uttered by Neill but local builder Ian Flavell, who has taken on Neill’s role as palaeontologist Alan Grant – and drops to his knees in front of an ailing triceratops.

Marlon Williams recalls a survey he once read about how often people think about death: on average, once a week. He laughs incredulously. “You know that statistic about men thinking about sex once every seven seconds? That’s how often I think about death.”

‘It’s so politically loaded’: Marlon Williams on ‘finding the gall’ to write an album entirely in Māori (The Guardian)

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon in April 2010 when Will Salter stood on the shore and appraised a reef break on Victoria’s Mornington peninsula. He can tell you the exact time, too: 5pm. As he paddled for 10 minutes towards three other surfers, he could smell remnants from a whale carcass that had washed up months earlier. Seagulls circled.

‘The longer I left it, the more it was going to freak me out’: how Will returned to the water after a close call with a shark

Twenty-two years after Gettin’ Square became a cult favourite, Wenham is back in the thongs and in court for Spit – ‘one of the happiest creative periods’ of his life.

David Wenham on the return of Johnny ‘Spit’ Spitieri: ‘Every second day someone comes up to talk about him’ (The Guardian)

In the back-room office of her Thornbury home, Mandy Beaumont points out one of her most prized possessions. It’s a collection of Murder Casebook magazines in their plastic binders. I lift the cover of one – ‘Body in the trunk’ – and snap it shut. Beaumont doesn’t shy away from the grizzly. When she was young, her mother would take her to the newsagency to pick up the latest binder. The pair still phone each other to dissect the latest breakthroughs. Dad’s taste was pretty groovy by comparison; reading his copy of Henry Miller’s Nexus as a child blew her mind.

Real-life tragedy informs Mandy Beaumont’s serial killer novel (The Age/SMH)

Whenever a new Instagram post goes up of Peter Drew, shirtless and flexing his muscles, you could be forgiven for wondering if that’s a smirk on his face. For six months, the Adelaide artist has baited his followers, dropping hints about a new project that seems to revolve around his newly pumped physique. He calls it The Narcissist: a self-portrait.

The ultimate flex? The activist artist posting his workouts in the name of narcissism

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Previous books

Everything Harder Than Everyone Else

When Jenny Valentish wrote a memoir about addiction in 2017, she noticed that people who treated drug-taking like an Olympic sport would often hurl themselves into a pursuit like marathon running upon giving up. What stayed constant was the need to push their boundaries.

Woman of Substances

Journalist Jenny Valentish investigates the female experience of drugs and alcohol, using her own story to light the way. Her travels around Australia take her to treatment facilities and AA groups. Mining the expertise of 30 leading researchers, she explores the early predictors of addiction, such as childhood trauma and temperament, and teenage impulsivity.

Cherry Bomb

Word is The Dolls got their record deal through nepotism, but if it wasn’t for Nina sleeping with the right people they wouldn’t be anywhere at all. Now her aunt’s career is threatening to take off again and eclipse her own, and nobody likes her new material. A stretch in rehab’s starting to look like a good career move.

Teaching

WORKSHOPS + TEACHING

Workshops + Teaching

“Jenny Valentish teaches her craft with the same real world insights and fearless wit that makes her writing so compelling” — Michael Dwyer, journalism lecturer, Australian College of the Arts College of the Arts.

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MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENT + COACHING

Manuscript Assessment + Coaching

“Jenny gave me so much clarity and an incredible amount of direction that I had lost along the way – too overwhelmed by a project 10 years in the making” – Mel Bampton, Triple J

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MEDIA TRAINING

Media Training

“The media training Jenny provided for my artist was extremely beneficial and made a massive difference in my artist’s ability to engage with media in a relaxed and personable manner” – Nate Flagrant, Flagrant Artist Management

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TALKS + PANEL MODERATION

Talks + Panel Moderation

“She’s smart and experienced, a terrific listener and an excellent speaker: Jenny Valentish is a talented writer who understands how to deliver quality for festival audiences” – Rosemary Sorensen, director, Bendigo Writers Festival

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