Walkley-Award winning author Jane Caro AM says the best leaders are those who can put themselves in other people's shoes to experience what life might be like, and that reading and writing enables this.
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Mrs Caro is one of four high-profile Australian writers visiting Armidale, Glen Innes, Tenterfield, Dorrigo and Kyogle for the free Writers on the Road event on from August 20 to 24, as part of the Byron Bay writers festival.
She will be presenting her latest book 'The Mother' which deals with coercive control as seen through the perspective of a mother whose daughter's marriage is not what it appears from the outside.
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"My main character Miriam reflects us in our disbelief and desire not to believe or think these things can happen," Mrs Caro said.
"But when the scales fall from our eyes, what we are faced with when trying to protect the ones we love, in Miriam's case it is her daughter and grandchildren, is to help them escape from a really terrifying situation."
Caro did extensive research during the Covid lockdown to ensure the thriller was as accurate as possible so readers could recognise red flags in their own, or others', relationships.
"Coercive control is about controlling someone so that one partner becomes dominant and makes all the decisions and will coerce the other into doing exactly what they are told to the extent they create fear... even terror," Mrs Caro said.
"This includes things like what they wear, who they can and can't see, where they can and can't go, control over finances, whether they can or can't work, and whether or not they have children."
As part of her research for the book, Mrs Caro said a judge handed her a judgement about a murder case which summed-up just how "insidiously the convicted murderer began to close the net around the woman he eventually murdered."
Statistics show that one woman is murdered by her current or former partner every week in Australia, according to White Ribbon Australia.
Mrs Caro said she is happy to talk about her book and related issues during the tour but if people want to ask about public education, feminism, the state of the world, or her recent Senate run, then she is more than happy to oblige.
Other writers on the road for this event include Nigel Featherstone who has authored two novels Bodies of Men and his most recent The Heart is a Wild Thing.
Mr Featherstone said he wrote the draft for The Heart is a Wild Thing in about ten days after mulling on the idea for about 15 years.
The story follows that of Patrick, 45, who falls in love after leaving his home in a rural NSW village, where he was his mother's carer, to live in the treeless expanse that is the Monaro.
"He falls in love with a man named Lewis and the love story progresses from there and ends up in the Opera House in Sydney," Mr Featherstone said. "He rediscovers his boyhood curiosity and happiness."
Mr Featherstone said he's happy to chat to people who want to know more about how to write novels that are set in the country and end up in the city.
Also on the road for the tour is highly-acclaimed author Mirandi Riwoe who will be discussing her book The Burnished Sun which includes a collection of novellas that highlight the intersection of migration and life in colonial Australia. She is also the author of Stone Sky Cold Mountain and the award-winning The Fish Girl.
And for poetry enthusiasts, Huda 'the Goddess' Fadlelmawla is an Australian Poetry Slam winner and two-time Queensland champion. She is currently writing her first book 'The Birth of Goddess' which is set to include a collection of poems that reflect her life as an African-Muslim woman living in Australia.
The Writers on the Road event will be at New England Regional Art Museum in Armidale on Sunday afternoon, the Glen Innes Library on Monday, then the Sir Henry Parkes School of the Arts in Tenterfield on Tuesday.
Dates and Times:
Dorrigo (August 20, 5:30pm to 7:30pm)
Armidale (August 21, 5:30pm to 7:30pm)
Glen Innes (August 22, 5:30pm to 7:30pm)
Tenterfield (August 23, 6pm to 8pm)
Kyogle (August 24, 5:30pm to 7pm)
The event is free, however bookings are essential: https://www.trybooking.com/CAUWA
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