Introducing Steven Conte
Posted by: Reading Victoria Moderator
1 December 2008
Steven Conte is next Summer Read author blogging from 1 – 5 December.
Steven Conte was born and raised in rural New South Wales. He has lived and worked in Europe, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, and his first published short stories drew on his experiences as a traveller. He has supported his writing with numerous jobs, including barman, taxi driver and life model. In 1998 he moved to Melbourne and in 2000 began a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne, developing the manuscript that became The Zookeeper’s War. He graduated in 2005 and now lives in a Melbourne university college where he works as a student advisor.
His book The Zookeepers War is one of the books on the Summer Read shortlist.
The Zookeepers War tells the story of an Australian woman, Vera, and her German husband Axel who are zookeepers in wartime Berlin. When the zoo’s staff are drafted into the army, forced labourers are sent in as replacements. They become the zoo’s only hope as tension mounts in the closing days of war. This powerful story confronts the brutality of war and the challenges on many levels as a result. The Zookeeper’s War this year won the inaugural Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction.
As part of the free Summer Read events across Victoria, Steven will be appearing at:
• Radcliffe’s in Echuca on Thursday 15 January 2009, 8 – 9pm
For more information phone Echuca Library 5482 1997 or online at http://summerread2.eventbrite.com
• Sam Merrifield Library, Moonee Ponds on Thursday 22 January 2009, 7.00 – 8.00 pm
For more information phone 8325 1950 or book online at http://summerread3.eventbrite.com
What Steven says about summer reading
“Last June I took my first northern-hemisphere holiday in 15 years, and so my most recent summer reading was only half a year ago. I was in Morocco when I came across an old copy of a novel I’d first read as a teenager, The Girl in a Swing by Richard Adams, who also wrote Watership Down. I remembered liking the novel, so I swapped it for another and took it with me on a trip to the Sahara Desert. Books are passports to different worlds, and the England and Denmark of The Girl in a Swing gave me cooling relief from the Sahara sun. At the same time, this story of a timid porcelain dealer’s romance with a femme fatale, and its supernatural consequences, transported me back to the teenager I was in the 1980s. Books are like that: teleportation and time travel in one small and affordable device.”
December 6, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I am a life long reader, and books have taken me to many places. I have many titles that are my ‘favourites’, and this list changes from month to month. As a lonely child growing up in an isolated area I read as much as I was allowed to. As a teenager I read everything I could to learn more about the world. As a young mother I read a lot of science fiction (no prizes for guessing that I didn’t much like being a housewife!). As my children grew I read with them, and to them. In our family books are reading are a constant topic of conversation. Now as a grandmother I am reading to my grandson, and still reading for myself.
I mainly read novels and for me the truly great reads, the ones I can’t wait to get back to are often those that take me somewhere else.
Some of my current favourites are :
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - this is one of the best books I have ever read about Germany during WWII. It is humane, thoughtful and wonderfully written.
Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennet - this book is a little gem. Small enough to be read in one sitting, it speaks about the transformative power of literature, and it is laugh out loud funny as well.
The Dancer by Colum McCann - a fictionalized life of Rudolph Nureyv told in a variety of voices. Shocking, tender and brutal in it’s examination of the ruthless heart of a dancer.
The Lions of Al Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay - this is a fantasy set in a world that resembles Europe during the times of the Moorish invasions. This book has everything, compelling characters, a gripping narrative and a wonderful love story.
I have not even started on my many favourite mystery writers.
Too many books (not really), and too little time 9that’s the problem).
December 1, 2008 at 8:40 pm
It is amazing how transporting a work of fiction can be. To be in the Sahara desert reading about England and Denmark in the 1980’s and feeling like you are right there, is truly the magic of reading. It’s why I pick up a book. When you keep learning, and keep experiencing other worlds, you can’t help but broaden your own.
Can’t wait to start the Zoo Keepers War Steve, hopefully I go go from putting my kids to bed and doing the dishes, to being transported to Berlin during the second world war. Can’t wait!