Q&A with a debut author
After my sister died I took some time off writing. I enrolled in an ordination program to become an interfaith minister and funeral celebrant. I had learned from my sister’s death that a funeral does not solve grief but, when done well, the...
Jackie Bailey’s first book is out just in time for the South Coast Writers Festival in June.
Please tell us a bit about yourself.
I live on Dharawal Country in Austinmer with my husband and our daughter. Writing is my passion but it doesn’t pay the bills, so I am lucky to have other passions which (sort of) do! I work as a celebrant, an independent funeral director, and an arts and social impact researcher. When I am not writing, working or hanging out with my family, you might see me panting my way up Sublime Point.
Your book is described as “autofiction” – how much do truth and imagination cross over?
I would say that The Eulogy is 70% true. I first started writing The Eulogy as memoir, telling the story of my sister Allison’s diagnosis with a brain tumour and how our lives unfolded around that.
I wrote The Eulogy as part of a creative writing PhD through the University of New South Wales, and one of my readers suggested I try writing the story as fiction. So I did, and it was liberating.
Fiction allowed me to create a real sense of urgency in the present tense for my protagonist, Kathy Bradley. Fiction also gave me a safe place to talk about all the hard things – race, disability, trauma, poverty.
I could also research and imagine my parents’ childhoods and write about that too. I wrote about my father’s time in the Malayan Conflict and the Vietnam War, and my mother’s childhood under Japanese occupation in Singapore. Basically,
I wrote everything I could remember, and I imagined all the things I could not.
What inspired you to write it?
The Eulogy is at its heart about me and my sister, Allison. Halfway through the PhD my sister Allison was admitted to palliative care. Like Kathy in The Eulogy I arrived at the hospital just in time to see her before she died. I organised her funeral. I delivered the eulogy.
After my sister died I took some time off writing. I enrolled in an ordination program to become an interfaith minister and funeral celebrant. I had learned from my sister’s death that a funeral does not solve grief but, when done well, the ceremony can leave a person with a clean wound, ready for healing. I conducted my first service a month after I finished The Eulogy.
Best part about the writing process?
The best part of the writing process: having done the writing!
A highlight for me has been meeting fellow writers here in the Illawarra, who have become great friends. Also, working with my editor at Hardie Grant Books, Emily Hart. It is such a privilege to have someone else care about your words and help you solve issues that you had thought were impenetrable!
What can readers expect?
Writing The Eulogy was an act of pure hope on my part. I gave my protagonist Kathy a positive ending because sometimes people manage to metabolise intergenerational trauma. For Kathy and me, hope is an act of defiance and an entirely reasonable choice. I hope it is for readers, too!
Where can we buy the book?
Collins Booksellers Thirroul or online through Booktopia. Collins Booksellers Thirroul are also hosting an event with me on Wednesday,
29 June 2022.
South Coast Writers Festival weekend
Jackie Bailey will appear at the South Coast Writers Festival, held over the first weekend in June at venues across Wollongong Town Hall, Library and Art Gallery. Catch Jackie on Saturday 4th at The Music Lounge from 2-3.30pm for her talk on ‘The Eulogy: Challenging the Limits of Autofiction’.
For a full program of events, visit southcoastwriters.org/festival
