Dim's Write Stuff

From the author who gave us the heart-jolting ,  Exit Through The Gift Shop , comes another show-stopping middle grade drama.  No Words  pulls no punches telling the story of 12-year-old refugee, Aria and moves with the same tumultuous pace as  Master’s  former novel. Don’t equate the tempo of this narrative with a rushed outcome however because Aria’s tale is told with measured sensitivity and precision. It just happens to be in the same voice as your typical upper primary school kid with as much energetic beat and bounce. Which is ironic when the story centres around Aria’s distinct  lack  of voice. Aria hails from old Iran, Persia having fled his country with his older brother and father. There was no time for goodbyes. No time to mourn the loss of his beloved mother. No time to digest the horror of their situation. We learn through the broken recall of Aria that his mother was persecuted for her liberated feminist beliefs. But that is not the main ...

Limelight by the youngest winner of the Australian Poetry Slam , Solli Raphael , is a slip of a book, barely a shiver of autumn breeze, yet between its snappy tri-coloured covers beats an enormous heart of passionate ability. Barely 13, Raphael tentatively turned his attention from writing and performing poetry to recording the evolution that resulted in him being a virtual overnight poetry sensation. For those like me that enjoy poetry from afar, dabble in the most basic of poetic structures and, up until a few literary festivals ago, thought slam poetry involved a shot of tequila and a lot of gratuitous shouting (and had no idea why anyone would want to encourage that sort of activity in a children's writing festival), this book is a revelation. Raphael writes with unfettered, youthful candour describing his passions for sport, music and the arts, namely writing. His zeal translates into an introduction that is both chatty and inspiring. He credits his primary school te...