What can I say about this semi-reformed punk rocker, recovering academic, occasional criminal lawyer and one-time cartoon character, Bram Presser that hasn’t already been said? Plenty, it turns out, but I will keep most of that to myself.
He is now mostly a writer and stay-at-home dad. He is also a founding member of Melbourne Jewish Book Week and occasionally blogs at baitforbookworms.blogspot.com.
Bram’s debut novel, ‘The Book of Dirt’, won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing and People’s Choice Award at the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and most recently, has been long-listed for the Voss Literary Prize.
Yes, he’s bloody impressive. But he doesn’t let it get to his head – his fabulous partner and gorgeous daughter make sure his feet stay happily on the ground!
Where are you working from today?
I’m locked away in my studio at Glenfern, which is an old gothic National Trust mansion, administered by Writers Victoria.
What are you working on?
Just finishing up a workshop about fact-based fiction that I’m giving on the weekend, plus dabbling in a new short story and the embryonic stages of a novel (mostly research). I’m a little flighty.
How’s it going?
Let’s just say the trick to feeling productive is having a bunch of projects on the go so you can do a bit on a couple of them and pat yourself on the back for the cumulative progress. So, yeah, a bit of back patting going on. But nothing to really show for it.
When you get stuck, what do you do?
I have an armchair in my studio, just underneath the window, and a stack of novels. I also love sitting out in the Glenfern garden and reading. Or I pop home and play with my dog. Who am I kidding? Drive-thru!!!
Who sees your earliest version / draft & at what stage?
My mum. Or a friend that I know will tell me it’s not shit. I tend to show it very early on, while I’m still fragile, so the last thing I want is honesty. Once I get over myself and write seriously, I keep it completely hidden, obsessively revising it, until it’s ready for my editor.
