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Happy Mondays - Rebecca Jensen

This week's Happy Monday is Rebecca Jensen...

What are you creatively working on at the moment?

I’m currently working on a memoir collection about growing up in Western Sydney. I’ve been working on it for over a year now. The process has been quite challenging at times, and very removed from the writing of my first book Gap which was a verse-novel. At first I found myself scared of the idea of writing a whole book of memoirs. I kept thinking, I don’t have enough material to do this! But I’ve slowly re-shaped my idea of what the collection will be. The book will still be a memoir collection, but I’m less attached to the idea of having 12 or 13 ‘stories’ in it. Now I see it more as a collection of very short and some longer pieces of memoir. Having had my first book out last year, I’m very conscious of wanting to get new work out in the world.

Where would we find you on a Monday?

Mondays are the day my partner is home from her job and we are both usually found in our shared IKEA furnished study. I get quite restless sitting in the same place for too long though so I often wander about the house with my laptop and headphones plugged in, looking for inspiration.

Favourite book set in Australia?

There are so many, how do I choose just one? One that comes to mind immediately is Tony Birch’s novel Blood (UQP, 2011). It struck an immediate chord with me. It’s set across rural and suburban Australia; it’s about not being very well-off, about your parents not always being the best influence on you and about siblings looking out for each other – this especially is something very close to my heart. Birch is a masterful writer – his writing has such authenticity and heart and he knows how to keep you coming back to the page.

Arts and cultural experience not to be missed?

The First Coat street art festival in Toowoomba, where I live, has been running for two years and showcases some amazing local, national and international talent. Over three days you have the opportunity to watch street artists transform blank walls all over the city of Toowoomba. There’s something special about watching this happen in real time, watching the artists at work. And of course, once the festival is finished, we are lucky enough to have our streets adorned with beautiful artworks. I think the festival brings out the best of the city and signals an exciting shift in the local creative scene.

What was your first or strongest experience that made you realise the value of the arts?

One of the experiences that still stands out for me today was a Year 10 field trip with my art class to the Art Gallery of NSW in 2003. We visited the Darkness & Light: Caravaggio & His World exhibition. I never had the opportunity to visit art galleries as a child, so it wasn’t until high school that that world really opened up for me and it played a huge part in shaping my love of visual art. I remember being in complete awe of Caravaggio’s skill, the way he used light, the luscious detail and the dark undertones in his paintings.

Rebecca Jessen
Rebecca Jessen lives in Toowoomba with her two cacti. She is the award-winning author of verse-novel Gap (UQP 2014) and the winner of the 2015 QLD Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award. Her book Gap was shortlisted for the 2015 Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for Best Debut Book. Rebecca won the Queensland Literary Award for Best Emerging Author in 2013 and the State Library of Queensland Young Writers Award in 2012. Rebecca’s writing has been published in The Lifted Brow, Cordite Poetry Review, Mascara Literary Review, Verity La, Voiceworks and more. Rebecca graduated from QUT in 2011 with a BFA in Creative and Professional Writing.