Feature
Meet the artists of Carey’s Literature Festival As part of the 2021 Carey Celebrates Literature Festival, we interviewed four Australian guest authors and artists to find out more about their creative processes, inspirations and motivations.
Leanne Hall is an award-winning Young Adult (YA) and children’s author. She has published four books and many short stories for Meanjin, The Age, Best Australian Stories and the anthology Growing Up Asian In Australia. Leanne talks to Year 9 students Anna, Nadia and Suri (pictured below with Leanne) about her latest book, The Gaps, and her experiences as a writer. How did you begin your journey into writing?
How would you describe your process of writing a novel?
I always liked writing but I was also trying to be a sensible person with a professional career. That didn’t really work out for me though, so I began to send off short stories and a few were published. Then I entered a novel I wrote into a writing competition which really kickstarted my career. It was a long journey getting myself to admit that I wanted to be an author though.
It’s a bit of a hit and miss. When I first started, I had a lot of questions like ‘What’s the best process of writing a book?’ But I’ve realised the process is different each time, I just tailor mine to fit. I try not to treat writing like an office job anymore.
What is the hardest part of writing? Probably that you have to do it alone for such a long time. Staying connected to others and the outside world is probably the biggest challenge.
Do you enjoy writing YA novels? I think there’s a lot of expectations put onto teenagers. They tend to have strong feelings and opinions at an age where learning and growth is constant – it’s a turbulent time of life. That’s why teenagers make good characters.
’I always liked writing but ... It was a long journey getting myself to admit that I wanted to be an author.’ How do you think writing has impacted your life? I never dreamed that I would be a published author and it’s completely changed my life. I don’t have much but I’m doing what I love most. I’m very grateful for that.
What inspires you to write? Do you get inspired by the books you read? Since I’m an avid reader of all genres, I get lots of inspiration from the books I read. I borrow ideas from different forms of visual media. Although I’m not artistic, I find that looking at visual art, especially photography, is a great source of inspiration. My recent novel The Gaps is mostly inspired by my own teenage years though. The Gaps is based on the disappearance of a girl at the school; how is this related to your teenage years? Yeah, unfortunately. A similar incident occurred at my high school. Out of all my novels, I think this one is probably the most personal. 12 | Torch
Leanne Hall
