Read Around Canberra

Canberra writer and creative-writing teacher Susan Hampton will lead four reading groups in a fascinating series of in-depth literary discussions over 10 sessions in 2009. Susan has selected an interesting collection of books that represent a variety of themes, times, characters, nationalities, styles and genre which are likely to interest participants and trigger stimulating discussions.

Books for 2009

Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyin
The Gathering by Anne Enright
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Bel Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Boat by Nam Le
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville
The Death of Ivan Illyich by Leo Tolstoy
Home by Marilyn Robinson
The Lover by Marguerite Duras

Cost & Details

Four groups have been organised. Please note that all groups will now start in March:

Dickson Library community room on the 1st Tuesday of the month commencing 3 March 2009, 7.30pm-9.30pm.

Kippax Library community room on the 1st Wednesday of the month commencing 4 March 2009, 7.30pm-9.30pm.

Civic Library community room on the 1st Thursday of the month commencing 5 March 2009, 7.30pm-9.30pm.

Woden Library community room on the 1st Saturday of the month commencing 7 March 2009, 2.00pm-4.00pm

The 10 sessions cost $130. This is payable in advance. The books will be supplied by ACT Public Library and will be sent to the library where your group meets four weeks before a session date. Early booking is essential to gain a place in the group of your choice.

Please download the registration form here

For more information, please contact our Customer Information Centre.

About the Author

Susan Hampton is a teacher, writer and freelance editor who lives in Canberra. She has written seven books including poetry, fiction and and non-fiction, and her work is collected in many anthologies. Several of her books have won national awards. Her work has been translated into Spanish and Chinese.

Susan has been Writer-in-Residence at ANU, UC, ADFA, Darwin, Charles Sturt University (Wagga Wagga), Wollongong and UNE Armidale. Recently at Sydney University she taught editing to post-graduate students turning theses into books.

She has been teaching and training in professional writing and editing for thirty years. She edits non-fiction, fiction and poetry. Two of the non-fiction books she edited have won major prizes: The Poison Principle (Macmillan) by Gail Bell, and Stravinsky’s Lunch (Macmillan) by Drusilla Modjeska.

Her latest book, The Kindly Ones, won the 2006 Judith Wright Award from ACTARTS, and was shortlisted for the NSW and Victorian Premiers’ Awards for poetry, the Age Book of the Year Award, and the ACT Book of the Year Award.