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Nalini Haynes talks to Tabitha Bird, the author of A Lifetime of Impossible Days. (Nalini’s review is here and the podcast is above as well as on iTunes and Spotify.
Tabitha Bird is a writer and poet who lives and works in the rural township of Boonah, Australia. She set her debut novel there.
Tabitha grew up in a garden in a bayside suburb of Queensland, Australia, where she hid and told stories to ferns and weeds alike. Stories gave her something to hope in and a way to escape her childhood traumas. Eventually, she did unexpected things like get older and teach primary school. There she read stories to children like their lives depended on it. To this day she is quite sure that lives do depend on stories and stories on lives.
The first whisperings of her own story was from that forgotten child she once was. She found writing in a very dark place. When all of life was a downpour, the gift of writing story was the creation of a place to heal and to overcome. Stories were her reconnection. The hint or a trail back to who she was.
Tabitha’s Chihuahua arrived during this time. Her name is Lion. Yes. Lion. A big-hearted, brave thing who has no idea she’s only pocket-sized. She has been my loyal writing buddy for the past nine years. There are two Chihuahuas in A Lifetime of Impossible Days and one of them is called Lion.
Today she is writing her next book from a small rural township in Australia. Her hope is that through her words she might be blessed enough to champion others into wild acts of bravery and self-love.
Tabitha believes in magic and tells us why.
Books Tabitha recommends:
- The BFG by Roald Dahl
- A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
- The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
- Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
- The Geography of Friendship by Sally Piper
- Lost and Found by Brooke Davis
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Books Nalini refers to in their discussion:
- Hugh Mackay’s books. All of them.
- Ilsa Evans’s books. Specifically Broken and her first trilogy Spin Cycle, Drip Dry and Odd Socks.
If I referred to other books and forgot to include them, feel free to comment. If you can’t hear the name of the book, please just tell me how far into the podcast it is then I’ll look up the details and add it to the list.
