From a time before Covid, when authors could hold live book launches, comes this video of the event on Darwin, filmed by my grandson Arlo Steinberg. Enjoy the nostalgia! For more videos go to Dina Davis Author on U tube at youtube.com/@DinaDavisAuthor. Since then the book has sold hundreds of copies in Australia and overseas. My greatest reward has been […]
The Northern Territory of Australia has the lowest rates of Covid 19 in the country. Here’s why: Signs like this one encouraged residents to observe social distancing, even after there’d been no new cases for some weeks. Public swimming pools, gyms, schools, sports arenas were closed from the very beginning. Office workers, teachers, and even doctors worked from home. But […]
Did you know that Darwin is a Mecca for writers, artists, and all souls creative? In my three months in the Top End, I have been published in the NT Writers Anthology, been shortlisted for a literary prize, participated in a left-of-centre Writers’ Group called ‘Write Now’, been invited to Government House for […]
We were greeted this Dry season by a lively green frog jumping out of the toilet bowl. Forget your city ways, it croaked, you’re living with Nature in the Top End. I was not inclined to agree until said frog had been safely deposited outside, where it glared at us from the arm of a chair while we ate our […]
No wonder I’m having trouble putting pen to paper, or bum on seat. Here in tropical Darwin a strange soporific haze hangs over me, and what seemed once imperative now gets relegated to the ‘maybe later’ pile. Somehow the joyful and terrifying task of writing recedes into dreamland. You might think this is a good thing, drifting around in Lotus Land, […]
DARWIN, NT, FEBRUARY 2014 Here in February the air is heavy with moisture, sweat, and an all-encompassing blanket of sticky heat. There’s that special Darwin smell, a mixture of wet earth, tropical air, and the ubiquitous spices of lemongrass, curry leaves, cumin and chile. We could be somewhere in south-east Asia. “Fecund” is the word to describe Darwin in the Wet. […]
DARWIN, JULY, 2013. Clear blue skies, balmy days, cool nights. Temperature in Darwin today 29deg top, 16 low. Cool for Darwin. Locals are shivering. Out come the doonas, bed socks,flannelette sheets. It’s not uncommon to see hoodies and fleecies being worn, when the temperature is in the low thirties. In the dry, the breeze off the Arafura Sea is cool and refreshing. Gone is the stillness, stickiness, and heaviness of the humid build-up. The rains of the Wet have dried up, leaving almost empty water-holes and a sky so blue and clear it’s like a child’s painting. Another name for the Dry is the ironically named Mother-In-Law Season. Granny flats are suddenly occupied by families who’ve driven or flown the 4000 kms to be with their loved ones. Grey nomads in their vans and motorhomes invade the caravan parks, and NSW, Victoria, and Queensland number plates fill the streets. The letters page of the NT News abounds with snide suggestions such as ‘Southerners Go Home’ while the front page inevitably bears an image of the latest crocodile scare. We from Down South are greeted in a friendly fashion with ‘Must be the Dry; you’re here again.’ I hasten to defend myself, assuring Darwinites that I’ve been here in the Wet, the Build-up, and the Knock-Em Down seasons, as well as the Dry. Admittedly it’s supremely satisfying to be revelling in warm sunny days while those at home are freezing. […]
A Link to Ein Gedi Was Hughes personifying his lover, Assia Wevill, as the mythical Leopard? In many of the poems in his sequence, ‘Capriccio’, from which I’ve taken the title of my novel-in-progress, he describes Assia as a predatory animal, yet sometimes he’s tender too.
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Dina Davis Author 