Q&A with Miles Franklin winner A.S. Patrić
Congratulations on being named this year’s winner of the Miles Franklin! How did you react when you got the news?
It’s near the end of winter in Melbourne so my wife and daughters were all home on a Monday because of a shared cold. The news came via a phone call near lunchtime and when I hung up and told my family, there was lots of hugging, cheering and dancing around our kitchen. And then, since it was a secret until the official announcement, the news that Black Rock White City was the winner of the Miles Franklin Award became a whispered family joy for two weeks.
Black Rock White City is your first novel, but also your fourth book to be published. You’ve previously published two story collections, The Rattler and Other Stories and Las Vegas for Vegans, we well as one novella, Bruno Kramzer. Can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey – do you remember the first piece of writing you ever had published?
The first thing I had published in a literary journal wasn’t too long ago actually – a piece in 2009 called ‘Some Kind of Blues’. That particular story was the catalyst for writing Black Rock White City – which is a startling fact for me. Startling because I’ve written and published a lot of stories in a short span of time, but with no grand plan. I can see in hindsight that Black Rock White City, those two collections and the novella, are all part of a creative whole, all coming together at the same time, between 2009 and 2015. Prior to all that, I had spent over seven years writing a ridiculously long novel set on a very small Greek island.
What advice would you give to emerging writers starting out today?
The way I think it works is you read and then you write, and if you can become a better reader, your writing improves. Keep evolving as a reader and your writing will also continue to develop. The problem is that most writers put the cart before the horse, assuming it’s all about the work done at the page. Similarly, the secret of becoming a good musician isn’t just about spending untold hours practising scales and playing various songs, but developing an ear for music. It’s about learning how to really listen.
Black Rock White City follows two Serbian refugees who’ve come to Australia to escape the Bosnian War, but discover they can’t leave their past behind completely. Do you feel it’s important for stories like these to be told in Australia? What do you hope readers will take away from your novel?
It’s tedious for everyone involved if the same voices and same stories continue to be heard year after year. Diversity of perspective invigorates our culture and our national literature. Black Rock White City is not a politically motivated novel in which the plight of refugees are brought to light as much as it is a story driven by characters that felt real and vital to me. Readers might get an insight into the different histories that are woven into our growing society, or the ramifications of war for individual lives, but what I hope they take away from this book is a story that feels as compelling and as full of life and love as it did for me when I was writing it.
Your publisher, Transit Lounge, is a small independent publisher. What do you think are the benefits of working with a small press?
I’m delighted to have another novel coming out in October next year with Transit Lounge called Atlantic Black. For me Transit Lounge means freedom and integrity. Other publishers might produce 30 different titles in a given month where Transit Lounge will produce one, but it’s one book that has the total commitment and complete attention of the publisher. In the larger publishing houses there are marketing departments wrangling with the creative departments over which books should be published, how they should be edited and which demographic is targeted, with decisions beyond the author’s control, all calibrated by what has been successful in the past. Originality is by definition a break with the past and corporate culture can be crippling to the artistic impulse, but essentially, great literature is about the integrity of a singular aesthetic vision.
As well as your work as an author, you’re a bookseller at our St Kilda shop. Do you think these two roles have impacted on one another? In what ways?
Writers are often told the novel is dead yet working in a bookstore brings you into direct contact with so many readers that are deeply devoted to fiction — it’s daily evidence that literature is not only alive, it’s jungle rampant. Thousands of new books struggle to find sunlight on teeming shelves every year. Within that analogy booksellers would be gardeners looking for ways to bring work they love best the air they need to thrive. And so many booksellers are genuinely creative people in their own right. That bookish environment is always inspiring to me and my writing.
And finally, we love getting recommendations! What is the last Australian book you read and enjoyed?
I recently finished a great one by Ryan O’Neill, a really smart and funny book called Their Brilliant Careers.
