Short Non-Fiction
“I always ask: what subjects deserve to be more valued than they are? I want to use my skills to save unique stories from oblivion. Although straight history has its merits, I prefer the personal essay. It’s a form that’s not only authentic and true but versatile and funky.”
Among the ‘saved’ stories are…
The Keralan Backwaters: A fragile eco-system under threat from tourism.
Chinese Puzzle in Seven Pieces: A hike in Tasmania’s northeast uncovers the life and times of a 19th century Chinese tin-mining family headed by Maa Mon Chin.
Keeping a Town Beautiful: How the Maleny people in the Sunshine Coast hinterland saved the Obi Obi River from a concrete batching plant.
I Call Myself an Earth Artist: The works of a feminist earth artist practising in Tasmania in the late 20th century.
Minjeeribah Hideaway: Minjeeribah (Stradbroke Island) and memories of Oodgeroo Noonuccal, groundbreaking Aboriginal writer.
Midsummer in Melanesia: Alcohol abuse and the disintegration of an Australian marriage on a tropical island in Melanesia.
‘Living it Up’ was published in Q Weekend to coincide with the jubilee of ‘Torbreck’, Brisbane’s first modernist high rise.
The author has conducted interviews with students of colour in London, Indigenous writer Herb Wharton, working-class women in Central Queensland, and women activists in Brisbane (Writing Queensland, Bjelke Blues). She also writes on writers, the process of writing, the teaching of writing, and the joys of community publishing (Australian Women’s Book Review, Social Alternatives). Lesley pays tribute to the service of writing elders of her home state in her column ‘Chasing the Wild Pineapple’ in Writing Queensland. Writers include Eve Stafford, Herb Wharton, Carole Ferrier.