Erik Jensen on Kate Jennings

This dazzling short book plunges the listener into the world of acclaimed novelist, memoirist, poet and pioneering feminist Kate Jennings.

Award-winning writer Erik Jensen explores the crisp, pungent prose of the novel Snake, as well as the painful history behind it. Weaving in his interviews with Jennings in New York, he shows how poetry, politics and family were transmuted into a work of art that depicts rural Australia in a funny, cutting and unforgettable way. As Kate Jennings is rediscovered by a fresh generation of writers and musicians, this book explains why her work retains its power and originality.

In the Writers on Writers series, leading writers reflect on another Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative, crisp and written from a practitioner's perspective, the series starts a fresh conversation between past and present, between writer and listener. It sheds light on the craft of writing, and introduces some intriguing and talented authors and their work.