Susan Hawthorne
(photograph by Susan Kelly)Susan Hawthorne is the author/editor of thirty books of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Her latest book, Lesbian: Politics, culture, existence (Spinifex Press), interweaves her thinking about these subjects over a fifty-year period. She has worked in Indigenous education and has taught English as a second language to Arabic-speaking women. For fifteen years, she was an aerialist in two women’s circuses. She researched the torture
of lesbians on which her novel Dark Matters is based.

If you could go anywhere tomorrow, where would it be?

I would climb into my old HiLux with Renate Klein, my partner, and Nala, our dog. We would take a long drive across the northern route towards Broome, passing through remote areas where we could sleep in the back of the car and gaze at the luminous night sky.

What’s your idea of hell?

Being enclosed in a burqa every day.

What do you consider the most specious virtue?

Using the excuse that kindness is the reason for denying that a woman is a woman.

What’s your favourite film?

Old Yeller (1957), a film about a dog who protects a family and is killed because he has rabies. I was six or seven when I saw this film and remember my strong emotional reaction: many tears.

And your favourite book?

Les Guérillères by Monique Wittig. When I read this in 1975, it changed my perspective on how a novel could be written. Her prose is breathtaking.

Name the three people with whom you would most like to dine.

Lesbian friends Suzanne Bellamy, Lisa Bellear, and Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, who have all died. Suzanne Bellamy, artist, thinker, and Woolf and Stein scholar, would be able to encapsulate the events of recent years with imagination and flair. Lisa Bellear, Indigenous photographer and activist, would say lots about the Voice referendum.  Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, Chilean singer, poet and publisher, would speak about the current wars and how as a lesbian one might survive capture and torture.

Which word do you most dislike, and which one would you like to see back in public usage?

I dislike the word ‘gender’ because it is meaningless unless referring to grammar. The word ‘lesbian’ is one of my favourites, out of favour but the most accurate description for women who love/have sex with women.

Who is your favourite author?

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle). Her epic poem Helen in Egypt showed me how one could take an old story (Helen of Troy) and create a very different perspective, beginning the poem in Egypt.

And your favourite literary hero, or heroine?

Christa Wolf’s character Medea, in her novel Medea, is furious, and while murder is an extreme reaction, her rationale is impeccable. Those who are betrayed suffer the most.

Which quality do you most admire in a writer?

Writers who take new directions. The modernist women writers were intent on breaking new ground. Examples include Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, with six first-person characters; Gertrude Stein’s work is still avant-garde; Andrea Dworkin’s Mercy should be as well known as Ulysses.

Which book influenced you most in your youth?

Lassie, Come Home, another dog story, and more tears. I was not a great reader, and it was one of only two books I read when I was twelve.

Name an early literary idol or influence whom you no longer admire.

J.R.R. Tolkien. I read everything, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, even The Silmarillion. Later, I saw the war-filled patriarchal society he was depicting and liked it less. The few female characters were very stereotyped.

Do you have a favourite podcast?

I don’t listen to podcasts often, but I always learn something from Jennifer Bilek’s occasional podcast, The 11th Hour.

What, if anything, impedes your writing?

Junk emails, scam attempts, and general administrative busyness.

What qualities do you look for in critics?

Evidence that the reviewer has read the book and has grappled with the world view of the writer, even if she or he doesn’t like it.

How do you find working with editors?

I love to be edited. It is proof that one’s work is being taken seriously. We all need editing (even those of us who are editors).

What do you think of writers’ festivals?

 I used to love them – I have organised several – but these days they are too commercial.

Are artists valued in our society?

In some sectors, but in the mainstream they are not. Nor are artists sufficiently supported by governments who are prepared to spend billions on sport and war, while music, art, literature are neglected.

What are you working on now?

I am writing an epic poem entitled Ulyssea. I have begun writing, but completion is a long way off.