Trudy White
Trudy White was born in Melbourne, and as an adult has lived in lots of different suburbs around the inner city. She studied art and design at Box Hill TAFE, then went on to art school and majored in painting. She started writing stories and producing hand-made story books during her Bachelor of Arts degree. After art school, she kept making pictures and writing and doing further study, including painting, beekeeping, plant science and writing.
WHEN DID YOU START WRITING?
'When I was a kid, I loved reading and I liked to spell out words in my head when I was falling asleep. I drew all the time but I didn't start writing consistently until I was doing my painting degree and I started making books using printmaking techniques. I would also go to another part of the uni where there was a room of typewriters and type out small stories.'
WHO OR WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST INSPIRATION FOR YOU TO BECOME A WRITER?
Georges Perec, a French author. When I read his stories, something opened up inside my head like a new room that I could go into.
WHERE DO YOU DO YOUR WRITING?
'I need to write somewhere nothing will disturb me. I have to concentrate really hard to get anywhere. Sometimes I write in a notebook when I'm sitting in bed, or on a computer at my desk. If I really need solitude, I go to the State Library and write in the domed reading room.'
WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST MEMORY?
'Crawling backwards down the steps in our house. We had shaggy tan carpet.'
WHAT ARE THE BEST AND WORST THINGS ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
'The best is that you can play with the sound and rhythm of strings of words. You can explore the way words and pictures interact. You can try out lots of things you wish would happen in real life, like being able to talk to animals or go to a city you have dreamed up. You work long hours but those hours are slow, full of contemplation and solitude.'
WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT?
'Showing my first book to my grandma.'
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
'Listening to music – especially live musicians, the way dogs love to run, working itself inspires me – when you get really involved in a project and it makes its own momentum, discovering you can buy steam-sterilized owl pellets by mail order.'
WHEN YOU'RE NOT WRITING WHAT DO YOU DO?
'Spend time with my friends, play with the cat, try to play the guitar, lie on the floor and listen to music, go to the beach, look at books, think about my work, daydream, sleep.'
WHAT ARE YOUR WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?
'A picture book, some paintings, and an illustrated poetry novel for adults.'
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