Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings Debut Spotlight feature. For February that debut is Gutsy Girls by Josie McSkimming (UQP), an intimate story of sisterhood, finding creative power and blazing your own trail by the sister of renowned poet Dorothy Porter.
Can you tell us about your journey to publication?
My journey to publication wasn’t very easy, but I don’t think I’m unusual in that. I was used to writing academic writing, I’ve written an academic book, and I really wasn’t sure about publishing a book like this. However, my wonderful cousin Nigel Featherstone introduced me to his agent and they championed this book to various publishers. Eventually, it found a home with the sensational UQP. But it did take some time I have to say!
It’s a difficult thing to capture the essence of a person on the page, and you do it so beautifully. What was the biggest challenge for you in writing this book?
There were many challenges in writing this book. I was writing about loss and grief, which is of course very emotionally challenging for anybody who has been through the very painful process of losing somebody they love. But the challenges were also related to all the people who were still alive. I had many people who I interviewed for this book, and spoke to in some detail, who are still alive. So, I wanted to write about those people ethically, respectfully and carefully, which I did try and do.
I also immersed myself in my late sister’s writings; her books (published, unpublished), her diaries (written every day from when she was fourteen until before her death at fifty-four). There was a lot of diaries to get through. So, these were some of the significant challenges.
Can you tell us about the interview process and collecting stories from Dorothy’s life—how long did this take?
The collecting of the interviews was kind of fun and engaging for me. I am a psychotherapist by profession, so I love interviewing and talking to people. The joy was that I did know most of the people I interviewed, even if I had not spoken to them for many years. Some of them I’ve known since I was a small child, so I was reconnecting with my sister’s old school friends, her lovers, her partners, so many people who were significant to her. The process probably took more than twelve months, but of course I was reading and thinking all between those interviews and transcribing them.
What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
I’m hoping that there are a few themes that will appeal to people. Of course, firstly, anybody who has known grief and loss, as I said before, I hope [that they] will find my own journey to be somewhat interesting and engaging for them as they consider their own grief.
This is a book about sisters and siblings, the way that sisters relate and the idea that relationships with sisters are not static, not unchanging, and that over time they can become significantly different, ebbing and flowing on that continuum of closeness and distance (which is my experience).
Also, for those people who have been caught up perhaps in high-demand religious communities or find themselves caught up in very rigid fundamentalist beliefs—that was my story. So, it’s also a book about emerging from that and recasting your identity following your exit.
So there are a few strands to this book and, of course, right at the heart of it all are Dorothy’s poems.
What books have you loved lately and what’s on your TBR pile?
I absolutely loved this book by Niall Williams called Time of the Child. It was given to me as a Christmas present by my sister Mary. It’s [by] an Irish writer, and the sense of place and sense of character was sublime. The story was compelling and wonderful and sad—it had everything going for it my view.
I also loved Gideon Haigh’s book My Brother Jaz. This is a story about losing his brother and it’s quite a gut-wrenching but beautifully told story. I just wish it was a bit longer! It is concise and lucid and very emotional.
I am currently reading Stone Yard Devotional [by Charlotte Wood], which I’m sure most people who are reading this have already read. What a book! Luminous, interesting, imaginative, [a] page-turner, but also just quietly meditative. So, I’m really liking that one.
On my to-do-list, I have Sarah Holland-Batt’s book that won the Stella Prize, a poetry book The Jaguar. I have Han Kang’s book Greek Lesson (by the writer of The Vegetarian), and I have Long Yarn Short by Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, which is—as a social worker [this] particularly appeals to me—about the story of her removal from her family at age ten.
So that’s my list!
You can pick up a copy of Gutsy Girls at your local bookstore today.
View this post on Instagram
