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Works By

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1 3 y separately published work icon Buried Not Dead Fiona McGregor , Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2021 20874179 2021 selected work essay

'Buried Not Dead is a collection of writings on art, literature and performance, sexuality, activism and the life of the city. In these essays, written over twenty-five years, Fiona McGregor documents performance artists, writers, dancers, tattooists and DJs, some of them famous, like Marina Abramović and Mike Parr, while others, like Latai Taumoepeau, Lanny K and Kathleen Mary Fallon, are less well known. In capturing these figures and the scenes they inhabit, McGregor offers an expansive archive of art and life of a kind rarely recorded in our histories.

'Fiona McGregor’s immersion in her subject matter comes from a deep and enduring involvement in the worlds she represents. She came of age as an artist during an outpouring of performative queer culture, in a community that celebrated subversion, dissent and uninhibited partygoing, and in her writing she observes the shift from that moment towards new forms of cultural repressiveness. McGregor is a participant in her essays as well as a witness – she sees through an artist’s eyes and records what she perceives with a novelist’s insight. In excavating the lives of others, she reveals her own, and shows the possibilities that rest beneath the surface of our culture.' (Publication summary)

1 4 y separately published work icon A Novel Idea Fiona McGregor , Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2019 15527366 2019 single work autobiography

'A unique, intimate portrait of writer’s working life,as experienced by one of Australia’s most highly regarded novelists and artists.

'A Novel Idea is a memoir in photoessay form that follows Fiona McGregor’s life as she writes her award-winning novel Indelible Ink. It is a tongue-in-cheek rumination on the monotony and loneliness of the novelist’s daily life, and the act of endurance the writer must perform.

'Through an extended sequence of photographs taken on a hand-me-down camera, accompanied by terse, evocative captions, the book spans several years of labour and procrastination, elation and despair. The details of the outside world intrude as McGregor works on the novel alone in her Bondi flat, with nothing but a desk, a pin-board, a laptop and a cat, and in studio spaces in Berlin and Estonia.

'McGregor’s voice is wry, vulnerable, at times caustic, capturing the colloquial qualities of her fiction and the durational nature of her performance art via the ephemeral and essential thoughts that take up an author’s days, weeks, and years.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 [Review Essay] Bennelong Fiona McGregor , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Monthly , August no. 136 2017; (p. 64)

'The article reviews the theatrical production "Bennelong," by the Bangarra Dance Theatre at the Sydney Opera House in Australia'

1 Bold as ‘SHIT’ Fiona McGregor , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Monthly Blog , July 2017;

'Susie Dee and Patricia Cornelius deliver the wake-up call Australian theatre needs.'

1 The Privilege of Travel Fiona McGregor , 2013 single work essay
— Appears in: A Country Too Far : Writings on Asylum Seekers 2013; (p. 194-203)
1 Introduction Fiona McGregor , 2012 essay
— Appears in: The Long Prospect 2012;
1 The Scribes' Selection Peter Carey , Favel Parrett , Geraldine Brooks , Alex Miller , Steven Amsterdam , John Tranter , Helen Garner , Brenda Walker , Sophie Cunningham , Fiona McGregor , Richard Flanagan , Elliot Perlman , Nikki Gemmell , Thomas Keneally , Peggy Frew , Anson Cameron , Robert Adamson , Charlotte Wood , Robert Manne , Gig Ryan , Nam Le , Shane Maloney , Luke Davies , A. P. Riemer , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 10 December 2011; (p. 28-31) The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 December 2011; (p. 30-33)
Australian writers and reviewers each nominate their best books of 2011. Some of the books listed are by Australian writers.
1 Once upon a Sydney : Sunday Lunch, Lakemba Fiona McGregor , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The (Sydney) Magazine , May no. 97 2011; (p. 39)
1 Writer on Writer Fiona McGregor , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: Newswrite : The NSW Writers' Centre Magazine , April/May no. 196 2011; (p. 3)
'Fiona McGregor remembers Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.' (Editor's abstract)
1 On the Spot : Fiona McGregor, Author, Performer Fiona McGregor , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 12 June 2010; (p. 5)
1 What I Know About Women : Fiona McGregor Fiona McGregor , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: Sunday Life , 13 June 2010; (p. 38)
2 26 y separately published work icon Indelible Ink Fiona McGregor , Carlton North : Scribe , 2010 Z1679611 2010 single work novel (taught in 4 units)

'Marie King is a 59-year-old divorcée from Sydney's affluent north shore. Having devoted her rather conventional life to looking after her husband and three children - who have now all departed the family home - she is experiencing something of an identity crisis, especially as she must now sell the family home and thus lose her beloved garden. On a folly she gets a tattoo.

'Marie forges a friendship with her tattoo artist, Rhys, who introduces her to an alternative side of Sydney. Through their burgeoning connection, Marie's two worlds collide causing great friction within Marie's family and with her circle of rich friends.' (From the publisher's website.)

1 Quaker's Hat Bay Fiona McGregor , 2010 single work short story
— Appears in: Meanjin , March vol. 69 no. 1 2010; (p. 197-208)
1 4 y separately published work icon Strange Museums : A Journey through Poland Fiona McGregor , Crawley : UWA Publishing , 2008 Z1536126 2008 single work prose travel
1 The Question of Decadence Fiona McGregor , 2008 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 67 no. 2 2008; (p. 77-89)
'As Fiona McGregor travels through Poland for performances wuth SenVooDoo, she reflects on perceptions of decadence in religion, politics and the arts.'
1 Eleven Lives Fiona McGregor , 2007 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 67 no. 3 2007; (p. 148-161)
1 101 Tin Drums Fiona McGregor , 2007 extract essay (Strange Museums : A Journey through Poland)
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 188 2007; (p. 30-37)
1 Meal Tickets (from: Strange Museums, a work-in-progress) Fiona McGregor , 2007 extract prose travel
— Appears in: Heat , no. 14 (New Series) 2007; (p. 113-129)
1 Indelible Ink Fiona McGregor , 2006 extract novel (Indelible Ink)
— Appears in: Griffith Review , Spring no. 13 2006; (p. 132-138) The Best Australian Stories 2006 2006; (p. 32-40)
1 Mutant Fiction : Indelible Ink Fiona McGregor , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Heat , no. 11 (New Series) 2006; (p. 217-228)
Fiona McGregor discusses the writing of her work-in-progress, Indelible Ink.
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