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Survivor Authors? Imagine reality TV for writers

If Australia came up with a reality TV series based on writers, what would it consist of?

10 May 2023

Thuy On

Writing and Publishing

Consider all the fun and challenging possibilities of a game show based on writing. Photo: Isi Parente on Unsplash.

Here in Australia there is a surfeit of reality TV programs, with the usual suspects being cooking, dating and renovation style projects, but we don’t have anything that lends itself to the writing life. This is not so surprising; after all writers are, by necessity, solitary and introverted creatures, tapping away at all hours of the day and night, and staring blurrily into a screen or at a scrap of paper hoping for the muse to perch on our shoulders. Writing is not exactly telegenic either; the agonies of trying to find the right words don’t make for an exciting live performance to be streamed into viewers’ living rooms… Or do they?

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Thuy On

Thuy On is Reviews Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the books editor of The Big issue for 8 years. Her first book, a collection of poetry called Turbulence, came out in 2020 and was published by University of Western Australia Press (UWAP). Her next collection, Decadence, was published in July 2022, also by UWAP. Twitter: @thuy_on