Last year I was invited to contribute to something a bit out of my normal wheelhouse: an anthology of writings based on the songs of Kylie Minogue. I have written about songs a few times before, most notably on the excellent Stereo Stories website which has a focus on music and memoir. But this was …
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Music and memoir and magic: Stereo Stories
On Friday evening, June 16th I shared the stage of Williamstown Town Hall with a group of wonderful writers and musicians as part of the 2023 Stereo Stories concert. Stereo Stories, the brainchild of Williamstown writer Vin Maskell, is a simple but brilliant concept: each writer contributes a piece of memoir about a song that …
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Willy Lit Fest: Back to where it all started
In June at the Williamstown Literary Festival I’ll be running a session about the Melbourne Circle project, the two-year walk I undertook with my late wife Lynne that resulted first in a blog and then my memoir Melbourne Circle: Walking, Memory and Loss. This will be a welcome opportunity to return to the place where …
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The Museum of Loss and Renewal
In September 2022 I had the privilege of spending a month in residence at The Museum of Loss and Renewal in the village of Collemacchia, Italy. The Museum of Loss and Renewal is a cultural project run by Edwin Janssen and Tracy MacKenna, artists and curators who have established a residency program to enable artists …
Talking psychogeography on Life Matters
I had a lovely conversation with Hilary Harper on Radio National’s ‘Life Matters’ program about walking the streets of Melbourne with my late wife, Lynne. On our two-year walk around and through the suburbs of Melbourne, Lynne and I described a kind of wobbly circle, beginning in Williamstown, passing through 50 or so suburbs on …
Melbourne Circle book published in December
My new book Melbourne Circle: Walking, Memory and Loss was launched on 3 December 2020. You can buy the book here, here, here or ask at your local bookshop. The cover art, by the Melbourne artist Jim Pavlidis, captures exactly what I am trying to express in the book: the sense of magic and mystery …
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Ned Kelly Awards shortlist
The shortlists for the 2020 Ned Kelly Awards have been announced and I’m absolutely stoked that my font-based mystery, Death of a Typographer is on the shortlist for best Australian crime novel of the year. The judges described it as a ‘quirky and original story which is funny and very Melbourne’. Thank you very much! …
Australian Book Design Awards – cover of the year!
I was absolutely thrilled when Stephen Banham won the Designers’ Choice Cover of the Year award at the 2020 Australian Book Design Awards for his brilliant, witty design for Death of a Typographer. The Cover of the Year Award was shared between two books: Death of a Typographer and The Glad Shout, designed by Jenny …
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Ghost signs on Channel 9
This clip recently appeared on the Channel 9 news in Melbourne. It features me talking to reporter Tony Jones about some of the little-known stories behind old Melbourne signage. Some of these signs are described in more detail on my blog Melbourne Circle, and in the forthcoming book Melbourne Circle: Walking, Memory and Loss. They’re …
Melbourne Circle: the book
Melbourne Circle: Walking, Memory and Loss was published in December 2020. It is an account of a journey on foot around Melbourne in the years 2014-16 which I made with my late wife, Lynne. On the way we observed ghost signs, derelict buildings and lost places, and we uncovered countless forgotten stories and characters from …
Nick Gadd - author 