Amra Pajalic
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PhD Milestone

28/10/2019

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Feeling on a high. Just survived my first conference presentation at a La Trobe conference, completing my milestone for my PhD in Creative Writing. Undertaking this PhD I want to push myself and experience everything that I can as a student. Doing this conference presentation was incredibly intimidating.

I had prepared my speech about my research about Srebrenica as a setting and the historical war landscape that was the backdrop to my novel and practiced it a few times. I thought about creating a PPT but thought this might lead to some technical difficulties that would throw me off my game and wasn’t sure what to put in the presentation.

I showed up today and spent the morning watching presentations by Cinema Studies students who created incredible presentations with visuals and beautiful colours, my heart sinking with each one. In the break I hot-footed it to the library and created a PPT, embedding quotes and photos of the books that they were from, visuals of people from Srebrenica and the city itself to immerse the viewers in this world.

As my session approached the nerves developed and I regretted signing up to present like this. I was nervous about how I would run the PPT slides with my speech and how it would gel. Finally it was my turn. I presented. The slides worked and the speech. I, of course went over time, and had to quickly end it.

Lessons learnt:
  • I need to trust myself in knowing my topic and not rely on a pre-prepared line-by-line speech. Instead I need to create slides with important quotes and narrate the context in between.
  • Next time I’ll insert notes in the PPT and print a handout with my slides and notes to make it easier to track.
  • A woman had a clicker that she used for her presentation which was genius. Must research and find one for myself.

Here are some photos. I’m including the one where I cover my face with my speech-a sin I tell my students off for and they will find it hilarious to see me doing it.

#phd #phdlife #academia
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Upcoming event: Brunswick Bound Fri 4 Oct

1/10/2019

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Register

I am appearing at Brunswick Bound this Friday. To register for this free event please lick here.

Description

​On the first Friday night of each month, Brunswick Bound Upstairs hosts a night of local author readings.
It's your chance to discover a new author and for authors to discover new audiences.
In October, the event will feature authors Amra Pajalić (Things Nobody Knows But Me), A. S. Patrić (The Butcherbird Stories) and Gerii Pleitez (On The Sunday, She Created God).
Each author will read from their work and there will be a short Q&A afterwards.
Light refreshments will be served at the event.
Amra Pajalić is a Melbourne-based author of Bosnian background. Her debut novel The Good Daughter (Text Publishing, 2009) won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Civic Choice Award. Amra has appeared on panels at conferences and literary festivals including at the Wheeler Centre, Melbourne Writers Festival, Williamstown Literary Festival, Reading Matters Conference Panel, and the VicTESOL Conference. She was funded by Artists in Schools to be an Artist in Residence in 2010, 2011 and 2012 in high schools, and in 2014 received funding from Creative Victoria to be mentored by Alice Pung to work on her memoir. She works as a high school teacher and is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at La Trobe University.
A. S. Patrić is a bookseller and teacher of creative writing. He is the author of two short story collections, Las Vegas for Vegans and The Rattler & other stories, and a novella called Bruno Kramzer. His debut novel Black Rock White City was published to critical acclaim in 2015 and won the Miles Franklin Award in 2016. His second novel Atlantic Black will be published in November 2017 and a new collection of stories The Butcherbird Stories will be out in 2018. Alec lives in bayside Melbourne with his wife and two daughters.
Gerii Pleitez is a fearless new literary voice. Her debut book On The Sunday, She Created God is a transgressive coming of age story that is both brutal and beautiful. A punk, postfeminist, punch in the face. Gerii's visceral poetic imagery strikes at the heart of what it is to be young, to desire and to want purpose in a world which if often without. She is also the founder of Kara Sevda Press, Australia's first publisher dedicated to illuminating the voices of local women of colour. The imprint is the cutting edge of modern literature and publishing; underground, digitally distinct and iconoclastic in it's ethos. On The Sunday, She Created God was the first book released on the imprint and will be folowed by a journal publication featuring work from women of colour to be released in 2020.
Check out the Brunswick Bound blog to read our First Chapters Q&A with each of these authors and our website for other First Chapters event details.
We acknowledge that the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation are the traditional owners and storytellers of the land on which we meet, share stories, learn and read together.
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    Author

    Amra Pajalić is an award-winning author, an editor and teacher who draws on her Bosnian cultural heritage to write own voices stories for young people, who like her, are searching to mediate their identity and take pride in their diverse culture. She writes memoir, young adult and romance under the pen name Mae Archer.

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  • Home
    • Blog
    • About Me >
      • My Newsletter
      • Press Kit >
        • Alma's Loyalty Media Kit
        • Sabiha's Dilemma Media Kit
        • The Climb Media Kit
        • The Cuckoo's Song Media Kit
      • Articles
      • Book Me >
        • Aspiring writers >
          • Six things writers should do
          • Young Adult Books
          • Writing tips for young people
      • News & Events
      • Za Bosance
      • Resources for Teachers >
        • Remote Learning >
          • Narrative Writing
          • Poetry Writing
          • Fun activities
          • Spelling activities
    • My Books >
      • Young Adult >
        • Cuckoos Song
        • Sassy Saints Series >
          • Sabiha's Dilemma >
            • The Good Daughter
          • Alma's Loyalty
          • Jesse's Triumph
        • The Climb
      • Memoir >
        • Things Nobody Knows But Me
        • Growing up Muslim in Australia
        • Meet Me at the Intersection
        • Rebellious Daughters
      • Romance >
        • Return to Me
        • Hollywood Dreams
      • Dark Fiction Horror >
        • WomanOnTheEdgeShortStory
    • Contact
    • Pishukin Press
    • Grant Writing Course