Commentary

Naked at the Typewriter

by Margaret McClusky •

May 1988, no. 100

Commentary

Naked at the Typewriter

by Margaret McClusky •

May 1988, no. 100

Just one of the interesting things I found out from reading Tom Shapcott’s The Literature Board: A Brief History (reviewed by Evan Williams in the April ABR) was that I appeared to be just about the only person in Australia who’d never received a Lit. Board grant. Well, me and Sasha Soldatow, who’s a minor celebrity because of Private – Do Not Open (Penguin $8.95 pb) but much more famous for never having received a grant in over a decade’s application. One year he even included a naked photo – of himself – with the standard form. That only seemed to contribute to his perfect score: twelve out of twelve knock backs. And that’s just one thing you won’t find in Tom Shapcott’s book, teeming though it is with statistics for every occasion.

Margaret McClusky

Margaret McClusky taught for a few years after graduating from the University of Melbourne and then wrote, produced and directed theatre for schools. She wrote scripts for radio, film and television and reviewed film, theatre and literature. She was an administrator with the Australian Film Commission before concentrating on writing fiction.