by Anna Blanch on November 25, 2010
For Americans, Thanksgiving is a holiday that celebrates survival of the pilgrims in the harsh climes of the New England. But it’s a holiday that, as an Australian expat, I have also come to appreciate and to celebrate. While the stories of pilgrims and Indians have little relevance to me, there is something about this […]
Tagged as:
American culture,
Australia,
friendship,
holidays
by Anna Blanch on November 11, 2010
In some ways this post may seem somewhat superficial. I’ve been thinking about those things i’m thankful for. I like approaching November and December as an opportunity for thanksgiving, being grateful, and turning my mind to preparations for Christmas. I bought my first Christmas present of the year yesterday, but more about preparing my heart, […]
Tagged as:
Australia,
family,
friendship,
woman
by Anna Blanch on November 3, 2010
The first time Les Murray’s poem, “Church,” was published, in 2005, it was accompanied by an interview with the poet. Valentina Polukhina asked: “You are regarded as an eccentric Australian voice, a rural poet speaking for an urban culture, a Roman Catholic speaking for a largely secular people. Are you comfortable with such perceptions?”. In […]
Tagged as:
Australia,
poetry,
Transpositions
by Anna Blanch on July 21, 2010
Living here in St Andrews is a little different to the rest of Scotland – for one, noone notices my accent here, or at least accents are a dime a dozen and so noone comments on it. But, just like when i was in Texas, in the ol’ US of A even though the language […]
Tagged as:
Australia,
Scotland
by Anna Blanch on July 19, 2010
20th BIENNIAL CONGRESS OF IRSCL 4-8 JULY 2011 Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Brisbane, Australia Call for PapersChildren’s literature has always been responsive to the tenor of the times. Texts for children and young adults take up the social, political, and humanistic interests and ideologies of the past and present, as well as speculate about […]
Tagged as:
Australia,
cfp,
children
by Anna Blanch on June 29, 2010
I’m now posting each Tuesday over at Transpositions. I started over there a couple of weeks ago, but the blog only went “live” this week. My fellow collaborators are a great bunch, with a wide range of different interests across the Arts and theology. It makes for an interesting and lively discussion. You can find […]
Tagged as:
Australia,
Blog Reviews,
Sport
by Anna Blanch on May 31, 2010
There’s something about words crafting images that have a way of causing those words to in turn wind themselves around your heart. T.S. Eliot consider poetry to be the only form where one can adequately (and then not even) explore the human relationship with God. Before Eliot’s time, earlier in the nineteenth century poetry itself […]
Tagged as:
Australia,
poetry,
religion
by Anna Blanch on April 11, 2010
I leave Australia tomorrow to begin a drawn out journey back to Scotland (via the US). The weather here has been beautiful and a much welcomed respite from the Scottish winter. I’ve struggled to take a mental as well as a physical break from work – and as such I’ve decided that apart from this […]
Tagged as:
Australia,
family