Intercultural Collaborations - Josh Peterken

I had a lot of fun with the renga exercises we did in class recently. It was a nice change to not worry so much about the direction of a piece and just write something without any pressure. I'm sure a few other people enjoyed that too, because somehow the character of my story became a bird. I don't know if it gets much worse in terms of thematic changes. The story was initially about one of feeling at home in a new place, even if you aren't familiar with it, similar to my own experience moving from Adelaide to Melbourne. By the end of the story, I struggle to find a coherent theme without salvaging. Possibly it could be read with a theme of overcoming adversity, with the bird succeeding in taking the metal can. Or a story about seeing things from a new perspective? I'm not entirely sure. I wonder how the bird character came to be. Was it just a bird metaphor gone wrong, or the piece up until then just severely misread? Did somebody just decide to completely change the ...

Prompt: What can and can’t you ask somebody that you are interviewing? When we try to get an understanding of somebody’s habitus, is there anything that is off-limits? How do we find those boundaries? “How many people have you fucked?” “Excuse me?” I ask them. My eyes bulge out, but they look at me with so much confidence. Like they’ve asked this question a million times before. “How many sexual partners have you had in the past?” They ask me again but reframing the question. I stutter in space for a few seconds. “D-does it matter?’ “Well no,” They say with a sly smile, “I’m just curious is all. Curious about you.” I don’t want to answer, but I feel being quiet would be somehow rude, despite the question. “What do you think?” “I dunno, you seem like the kind of ‘sex after marriage’ bullshit preacher sorta person,” “The fuck?” That audacity. Something began to brew in me, I push it down further. “So, am I right?” “I don’t think you need to know, how is it relevant?”
They gi...

Prompt: How long do you need to spend in a place to understand it? When does a place become “home”? Sometimes you know where your home is, even if you’ve only been there once. That was what it was like for me. My family lived in Perth for the majority of my childhood. Sixteen years in a city I never felt like I understood, even though I grew up there. Sure, the sights were familiar. I knew where everything was. It was a comfortable childhood of familiarity. But it never felt like home. Just now, we’ve crossed the border between Victoria and New South Wales. Mum and dad have done it many times before. Not me. This is the first time I have been in New South Wales. The road trip to our new state has taken almost a week. We are tired and frustrated with one another. 
Something changed within me as we crossed the border, looking at the sign which reads “Welcome to New South Wales”. Somehow, I knew this was home. It would always be home to me. The state where my mother grew up, where my c...

This piece is the product of an interview with Saaro. Due to the fact that the task included being a reluctant interviewee, I didn't gather heaps of information but did manage to get a few gems which have inspired this piece. My tactic throughout the interview was to be as specific as I could with the questions and to have many different questions prepared. One of the most fascinating facts I learned was that the first poetry Saaro wrote was about an imaginary cat in primary school, which inspired this piece. I wanted to explore childhood moments which influence a desire for creative writing, as well as the self-doubt that can creep up when sharing one's own work. The piece has been written with an intention to blend the themes and styles of Saaro's writing and my own, particularly through the use of both prose and poetry. My Cat When Mrs Konheim told all the second-graders that they would be writing poetry, Ena imagined running to the library and picking out a bo...

I imagine that there would be numerous advantages to the creative process gained through the knowledge of multiple languages. While I personally don't speak multiple languages (although I can still count to 100 in German and could tell you what some  of the Japanese hiragana characters are), as somebody who enjoys writing in the fantasy genre it would be remiss of me not to mention the fact that Tolkien, the man responsible for the immense popularity of the genre today, spoke many different languages, learned both throughout his childhood and later education. He then went on to invent his own Elvish language, which can be learned today. But I believe that one of the biggest advantages of studying language, in terms of creative writing, comes less from the actual language itself, and more from the cultural studies that come with it. You can't learn a language without also studying the culture behind it. To speak another language fluently one needs to have spent time in the co...

Who can write whom? Who can't write whom? When you write about a different culture or your own, are there certain things you should write about or shouldn't write about? There's been a lot said about cultural appropriation over the last half decade or so. I understand it, to an extent. But I think sometimes we go too far with it. If an object, food, story, etc. has significant cultural meaning, it needs to be respected. A few months ago, a teenager sparked controversy when she wore a traditional Chinese dress to prom in the United States. There was nothing malicious about her wearing the dress. The girl wore the dress out of love for its history and to show respect to cultures different from her own. The reaction was way over the top. It's okay for people to think it was in bad taste. But this teenager was cyber-bullied and threatened. Isn't the world a better place when we are all sharing ideas and parts of our cultures? As long as the "appropriation...