Susan Hampton began her writing life as a performance poet. Her latest book is a memoir called Anything Can Happen, published by Puncher & Wattmann in 2024. It recently won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction.

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

Kyoto, maybe a hundred years ago.

What’s your idea of hell?

Rabid autocrats or a mosquito plague.

What do you consider the most specious virtue?

I’m so non-virtuous that I tend to admire all the virtues – they seem unattainable.

What’s your favourite film?

Babette’s Feast. Plus, on television, all of the Ozark series.

And your favourite book?

When I was six, it would have been a Phantom comic: Ghost Who Walks. I no longer have favourites in that sense – I have phases. Currently, it’s all about Georges Simenon’s Maigret novels. Then there are Annie Ernaux, Claire Keegan, Percival Everett, Rachel Cusk, and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. Not that I can read much of it at a time. I need long breaks.

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

Cathy Wilcox, Simone Young, Penny Wong. 

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

I would retire ‘awesome’ and ‘robust’. ‘Stupefaction’ deserves a comeback.

Who is your favourite author?

To refresh my brain, I read Michael Connelly’s crime fiction. When I was writing my memoir, I learned a lot from him about keeping the action moving, even if at the level of tone or rhythm. I learned a lot about narrative.

And your favourite literary hero or heroine?

I don’t really have one. I did like Frankie in Carson McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding (1946). I liked Patti Smith in the memoir Just Kids (2010).

Which qualities do you most admire in a writer?

Lack of mannerisms.

Which book influenced you most in your youth?

I didn’t read much. We were told to go outside.

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

I liked Richard Ford the first time I read Let Me Be Frank With You (2014). Years later I read it again and found the voice disaffected, bored almost with the trashier side of American popular culture, the weather events, the radio, the public discourse. First time round, what I noticed was Frank as a patient witness to the pain or disorder of others.

Do you have a favourite podcast?

Conversations on Radio National.

What, if anything, impedes your writing?

Myself. I need to get out of my own way. It’s the same with anyone. Don’t intervene. Don’t editorialise.

What qualities do you look for in critics?

Intelligence.

How do you find working with editors?

Fine. I enjoy it.

What do you think of writers’ festivals?

I rarely go. But when I do, it’s usually better than I thought it would be. Good and sometimes adept discussion.

Are artists valued in our society?

Sometimes.

What are you working on now?

A short novel narrated by a hospital orderly.