At the CAE, we’re lucky to have some of Australia’s best, brightest and most creative teachers sharing their wisdom through our specialised short courses.
Kate Ryan is a widely published and acclaimed writer of fiction and non-fiction whose work has appeared in publications including New Australian Writing, The Sleepers Almanac, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, the Griffith Review and Best Australian Stories.
Kate teaches a variety of different writing and editing courses at the CAE. We caught up with her to learn more about her background in writing, her passion for teaching and what you can expect to learn in her Fiction Writing Masterclass.
Where did your passion for writing start?
I have always loved books and I became a writer by first being a wide reader. I was lucky to grow up in a house of books. Books were in just about every room, and the whole family – my mum and dad and four older siblings – read avidly.
I wrote poems and stories as a child, but this habit fell away when I was a teenager until I came back to it in my twenties. But even during the time I stopped writing creatively, I never lost the sense that books added richness and colour to life. They might offer consolation and humour, relief from boredom and sadness, glimpses into other places and other ways to live, other ways to think, and other ways to imagine myself and the world around me.
How did you get started in the industry?
After an arts degree, I studied writing and editing, and I loved the creative writing subjects I studied including short story writing.
I began my working life as a book editor. I was looking for a way to stay close to books and to keep up my writing practice. Eventually though, I became conscious that full-time editing was leaving me little time to write. So, when my kids were little, I stepped away from working full time in publishing and began writing picture books, and I was lucky to get some published. I still love the way picture books distil a lot of action and emotion into very few words.
Over time, I moved into writing for adults: short fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, a PhD, a novella and several novels.
How would you describe your own writing?
I’m an instinctive writer and I have a strong belief in accessing the unconscious, my own memories, history and feelings in my writing. I think the most compelling narratives are based on, even if indirectly, the exploration of things that are important to you.
In writing my novel The Golden Book, I mined aspects of my own history, my own preoccupations, memories and feelings and gave them to my characters, even though when I started writing I didn’t realise I was doing so.
Why do you teach writing?
Mentoring and teaching other writers connects with my belief that writing is vital to cultural life. And even if writers are yet to be published, or may never be, I see the support and development of their writing as a recognition of them as individuals. In turn, I see mentoring emerging writers as enriching my own writing practice by broadening my knowledge of a diverse range of contemporary ideas and preoccupations.
What are some highlights from your teaching career?
I have worked as a mentor to many emerging writers and it’s always wonderful to see them getting their work published and, in some cases, winning awards, especially because I know the journey to publication can be a long and tortuous one. Some of these writers’ books include Chasing the McCubbin by Sandi Scaunich, Diving, Falling by Kylie Mirmohamadi, The Maddest Place on Earth, by Jill Giese , Nikolai the Perfect by Jim McIntyre and The Secret Library of the Hummingbird House by Julianne Negri.
What do you teach in your Fiction Writing Masterclass?
In this course, new and emerging writers learn to hone a range of micro-skills to enrich their fiction. In each class we will focus on a particular skill or aspect of writing and read and analyse extracts from published writing which employs it. The course will cover the following: description, characterisation, building conflict through dialogue, humour, generating ideas and manuscript submission.
Published writers whose work we will explore include Elizabeth Strout, Vivian Gornick, Jessie Cole, Myfanwy Jones, Peggy Frew, Colm Tóibín and David Sedaris.
Each class will also include practical and fun writing exercises in which you will have the opportunity to test out new skills.
What can people expect from your classes?
It’s important to me to create an open, informal and nurturing atmosphere in my classes so that students feel comfortable to talk freely and have fun.
I’d like students to imagine their way into the published writing we share, explore the techniques writers use and, by extension, begin to do their own writing. It would be great for students to start to feel comfortable sharing their work but only if and when they’re ready. Reading and listening are just as valuable and a joy in and of themselves.
Enrol now in the Fiction Writing Masterclass and view the full range of writing and editing short courses at the CAE.