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"I watched the glaze of headlights, the windscreens of oncoming cars: a series of trapezoids with the silhouette of a single male driver. One pulled up in front of me; I reached over and opened the door, slid in. The smell of an unfamiliar car. A middle-aged man looking at me. 'Hi', I said. 'How are you?"...
'There was no single moment when someone looked at Kate Holden and said, 'Why don't you have some?' No one made her try heroin. There was only the sense, with her friends setting out on this forbidden adventure, that she would lose something if she didn't. Just once: to know. So this book is the story of a journey. From a loving family home to the streets of St Kilda; from a shy, bookish life to the ambivalent glamour of an inner-city brothel, Kate Holden describes with breathtaking lyricism and poignancy her travels in an unknown world. Contains explicit sexual scenes.' (Source: Vision Australia Information and Library Service)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Radiant Badlands
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Lifted Brow , September no. 19 2013; (p. 16-19) In Sydney I grew up with my parents' stories as the ghostly backbone of the city, the warmth of the vanished art and drug culture shimmering just out of reach in the laneways behind Oxford Street or somewhere in the sandstone prison walls of East Sydney Tech. A decaying Martin Sharp print, a wedding present from the artist, leaned up against the wall of my dad's shed; he would tell stories about taking me as an infant to visit Robert Klippel, who burst into tears when he heard my name. My mother would invoke her time spent in the hippy-era Greek Islands, tales complete with run-ins with Leonard Cohen as well as a man who was later arrested as part of the Manson Family Killings. -
Books of the Week
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 29 July 2012; (p. 37)
— Review of In My Skin : A Memoir 2005 single work autobiography -
Memoir as Suicide
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , October vol. 14 no. 2 2010; 'Anecdotal by necessity, this essay through an act of confession considers the advantages and disadvantages of memoir as a genre for the contemporary writer who is also an academic. Employing the ruminative techniques of the lyric essay in order to question the reliance of confessional prose on anecdotal narrative, the prose style deliberately mingles genres in fragments that attempt both to stalk the subject - confessional ethics - and to free it from a narrative entrapment where content is supreme to textual expression. Considering also the notion of creative writing as therapy, and the vanity of the self-directed gaze, any resolutions are avoided as intimacies reveal the thorny negotiations of writing and revelation.' (Author's abstract) -
Six Great Cover Ideas
2008
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 67 no. 3 2008; (p. 19-24) -
Sticky Business
2007
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 15-16 December 2007; (p. 12-13) Kate Holden discusses the 'sticky business' of reading and writing about sex.
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Pillow Talk
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 274 2005; (p. 27)
— Review of In My Skin : A Memoir 2005 single work autobiography -
This Week's Selections
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 10 September 2005; (p. 10)
— Review of In My Skin : A Memoir 2005 single work autobiography -
Of Extraordinary Lives
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 17 September 2005; (p. 5)
— Review of In My Skin : A Memoir 2005 single work autobiography ; Hoi Polloi 2005 single work autobiography ; Layla's Story 2005 single work autobiography -
Noted
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , September no. 5 2005; (p. 64)
— Review of In My Skin : A Memoir 2005 single work autobiography -
In Short : Non-Fiction
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 1-2 October 2005; (p. 23)
— Review of Between Dark and Dark : A Memoir 2005 single work autobiography ; Pray for Me in Santiago : Walking the Ancient Pilgrim Road to Santiago de Compostela 2005 single work autobiography ; In My Skin : A Memoir 2005 single work autobiography ; The Gentle Art of Persuasion : How to Argue Effectively 2005 single work prose -
The Face : Kate Holden : Writer with a Past
2005
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 24-25 September 2005; (p. 3) -
Descent into Hell
2005
single work
column
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 9 October 2005; (p. 10) -
I'll Tell You All - Except My Name
2006
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 18-19 November 2006; (p. 28-29)Kate Holden explores her curiosity at the use of pseudonyms by women writers of erotic literature. She concludes 'Playfulness, coyness, mystique and titillation are part of the erotic. In the age of bold women and admirable authors, though, it seems a shame to be so shy. It may be that "Anonymous" has the allure of teasing seduction, but a tease can go on only so long before it starts to look like apprehension.'
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Whispered Truths Unleashed by a Stranger's Sorry Tale
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 16 June 2007; (p. 3) -
Sticky Business
2007
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 15-16 December 2007; (p. 12-13) Kate Holden discusses the 'sticky business' of reading and writing about sex.
Awards
- 2006 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Newcomer of the Year
- 2006 shortlisted Kibble Literary Awards — Nita May Dobbie Award
- St Kilda, Caulfield - St Kilda area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,