Angela Crawford
Watching the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II gave Castlemaine author Carmel Bird the inspiration for a short story in her latest collection of works.
“I watched the funeral on television and I saw that on the bunch of flowers on her coffin there was a little green spider,” Bird told the Express.
“It was a green orb weaver, and next to it on the coffin was the orb and the sceptre.
“Inspired by the spider, I decided to write an interview between a television interviewer and a spider.
“It’s called Margaret Orb-Weaver, The Interview.”
The story is one of a series Bird has published in her latest release, Love Letter to Lola.
The author will be in conversation with journalist Jane Sullivan at the Bendigo Writers Festival this weekend.
“What Jane and I have planned to do is for Jane to be the interviewer and for me to be the spider,” she said.
Bird has been a regular at the festival and looks forward to the sharing of ideas.
“I love the buzz and meeting new writers, and old writers, writing friends that I know from interstate and Melbourne who I don’t get to see, writers I’ve never heard of before and young and emerging writers,” she said.
“And that part of View Street comes to life with books, the Latrobe building and across the street at the Capital, the location is so beautiful and so historic and so booky.”
Love Letter to Lola is a collection of short fiction and a reflection on the writing of those stories.
“Love Letter to Lola is the first story of the book and Lola is an extinct blue macaw … there are several stories about the extinction of species in this book,” Bird said.
“I grew up in Tasmania and my father had actually seen the thylacine, which died in the Hobart Zoo in 1936, and with the death of that animal, the thylacine as a species died out.
“For several years now, scientists have been in the process of bringing back the thylacine from extinction.
“They’re nearly there, they have a little bit if its DNA and they are somehow creating an embryo.
“There is a little animal called the dunnart, which is a relative of the thylacine, and they believe they can implant an embryo into it.
“The horror of the extinction of animals has interested me since I was a child.”
Bird will be on stage at La Trobe Art Institute at 2.30pm on Sunday, May 7.
Bendigo Writers Festival takes place at various venues across the weekend.
To view the full program of events and secure your seat, visit: bendigowritersfestival.com.au
