Epigraph: 'I felt chastened by the world.' - Nick Cave
'Charlotte Wood's book deserves its spot on the shortlist for the Booker Prize.'
'The six finalists include five books by women – the highest number of female writers shortlisted in the prize’s 55-year history'
'For the first time in the award’s 55-year history, five of the six nominated titles are by female authors.'
'In the opening pages of Charlotte Wood’s new novel, the narrator takes a detour to the cemetery outside the town where she grew up. She is there to visit her parents’ graves for the first time in 35 years, although that process is complicated by her difficulty locating them and by the discovery somebody left “ugly plastic flowers” by their headstones. As she walks away the narrator recalls the phone call she received to tell her that her mother’s headstone was ready, “my outsides unaltered but everything within me plummeting. Like a sandbank collapsing inside me.”' (Introduction)
'Space for Questions' uses quotes from Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional together with related questions to probe the book's themes. The content is suitable for use by book clubs.
Charlotte Wood Thinks Restraint Is Underrated
Michael Williams
(interviewer),
2023
27121142
2023
single work
podcast
interview
'Charlotte Wood became a mainstay in Australia’s literary firmament in 2015 following the release of her award-winning novel, The Natural Way of Things. Her latest book, Stone Yard Devotional, is her most personal yet. It’s a meditation on grief, solitude, what it means to live a good life, and what we owe one another. This week, Michael sits down with Charlotte to discuss her new book, and she shares the psychic catastrophe that informed its final form.' (Production summary)
Charlotte Wood on the Difference between Hope and Courage
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2023
27247492
2023
single work
podcast
interview
'Charlotte Wood has won the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister's Literary Award (as well as many other awards). She is the author of ten books - seven novels and three non-fiction works. Her latest novel is Stone Yard Devotional, which she describes as an 'interior' and 'austere' work, and her most personal work of fiction to date.' (Production summary)
'In 2022, Charlotte Wood had just finished the first draft of her new novel, Stone Yard Devotional, when she received the terrible news that her older sister had breast cancer.'
