Catherine Cole – September 27 2020

International Day of Older Persons – October 1

Cathy is a writer, reviewer, editor and academic. She holds a Doctorate of Creative Arts, Master of Letters, Graduate Diploma of Adult Education, Bachelor of Arts and Associate Diploma of Writing and Editing. Catherine has been Deputy Dean of the Faculty Creative Arts at Wollongong University, Professor of Creative Writing at RMIT University, Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney, Lecturer at the University of NSW and she has academic relationships with a range of international universities. Catherine is a peer reviewer for the Literature Board of the Australian Council for the Arts, regular book reviewer, participant in Australian and international writers’ festivals and a judge of major national book awards. She has been a writer in residence in China, France, Vietnam, UK and Australia. Her other published works include the crime novels Dry Dock and Skin Deep; the fictional memoir about the French in colonial Hanoi, Vietnam, The Grave at Thu Le; the monograph Private Dicks and Feisty Chicks: An Interrogation of Crime Fiction; and a collection of short stories Seabirds Crying in the Harbour Dark. Catherine edited the anthology, The Perfume River: Writing from Vietnam, and co-edited Fashion in Fiction: Text and Clothing in Literature, Film and Television with Vicki Karaminas and Peter McNeil.

Sleep
UWA Publishing, 2019; ISBN 9781760800
In a small London café, teenager Ruth, and elderly French artist, Harry, recognise something profound in each other. They strike up a conversation that leads to regular meetings and takes them on a journey through their memories of traumatic times. Harry has much to tell about his childhood beside the Canal St Martin in Paris. Ruth has lost her mother to mental illness. How much has the stain of tragedy charged these memories and what use can be made of the pain?
“Gently written and carefully constructed, this novel will carry you through the highs and lows of the protagonists’ life journeys and leave you with a sense of acceptance and optimism.” – Weekend Australian

The Poet Who Forgot
UWA, 2008; ISBN 9781921401046
A D Hope was already a world-renowned poet when young undergraduate student Catherine Cole, wrote to thank him for his poems. Hope encouraged and mentored Cole’s artistic development and the two became friends for over two decades, until Hope’s death in 2000. The Poet Who Forgot is a memoir that examines their friendship and old age, especially Hope’s decline into dementia and Cole’s development as a writer. Hope’s letters reveal the generosity which influenced an emerging writer, while exploring the ways in which we move towards maturity and old age, remembering and forgetting as we travel. The Poet Who Forgot offers supportive and often humorous observations on life, literature, and the writing practice, as well as exciting new perspectives on Hope’s thoughts and considerable literary legacy.