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C Piper

www.christinepiper.com I’m a mixed-race Japanese-Australian writer and editor. My debut novel, After Darkness, won the 2014 The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. It's about Japanese civilian internment in Australia (see: lovedayproject.com) and Japan's biological warfare program. My articles, reviews and short stories have been published in various newspapers, magazines, journals and anthologies.
C Piper has written 10 posts for the gist

Old story, new beginnings

Hard to believe it’s been almost two years since my last post. In that time, I did a bunch of print, radio and TV interviews for After Darkness (which has sold thousands of copies and been nominated for several awards, including the Miles Franklin). I wrote a newspaper article about the WW2 internment of Japanese civilians … Continue reading →

A shot in the dark

  (This piece I wrote about winning the 2014 Vogel’s Literary Award was first published on The Wheeler Centre website.) I got the email at five am. Four fifty-seven, to be precise. I had just returned home from a very long day at The Writers Room in New York, where I have a desk. An hour earlier, … Continue reading →

2014 Calibre Prize: The evolution of an essay

‘Unearthing the Past’ traces a springtime walk I took through suburban Tokyo in 2013, on the trail of some mysterious bones discovered in 1989. I met lawyers and activists involved in the struggle to identify the remains and expose the horrors of Japan’s wartime past. Continue reading →

Habits I wish I had a year ago

Now that I’m staring down the barrel of completing my doctorate/novel, I’ve developed several good habits that make me think: “Why, oh why, didn’t I do these years ago?” For the sake of other writers, and as a memo to my future lazy self, I thought I’d share them here. Write every day, first thing … Continue reading →

Stranded: the evolution of a story

Everyone remembers their first time. The first time a story they wrote is accepted for publication. Even though, as a journalist, I’d had fifty-odd articles already published, when my first short story was finally accepted for publication I felt a rush of emotion. Was I happy? Yes, because writing fiction is much more personal than … Continue reading →

A giant leap

“When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping, and the mask falls, so that the real person appears.” Continue reading →

The Artist’s Way and all that jazz

Going on an “artist date” as part of the Artist’s Way turns into a meditation on creativity, jazz, association and the meaning of art… Continue reading →

Inside the Iowa Writers’ Workshop summer fiction course

Someone recently asked me to write about the “inner workings” of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the summer program in particular. As I recently wrote an acquittal report for the funding I received from the Copyright Agency Limited (www.copyright.com.au) to attend the special 3-week May session in fiction at Iowa, I thought it might be … Continue reading →

Doctor of Creative Arts candidate selected to attend Iowa Writers’ Workshop

http://datasearch2.uts.edu.au/fass/news-events/news-detail.cfm?ItemId=27062 Doctor of Creative Arts candidate Christine Piper was selected to attend the Iowa Writers’ Workshop three-week special summer fiction writing workshop in May. Her acceptance into the course was based on a portfolio of three pieces of fiction – one of which her creative doctoral thesis work-in-progress, which she is developing under the supervision … Continue reading →

Iowa Writers’ Workshop

In creative writing circles, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa is known as the writer’s Mecca. Why? Because it’s the top-ranked Master of Fine Arts (creative writing) program in the United States. Here, I talk about the process of applying and being accepted as an international student in the 3-week creative writing program. Continue reading →