Hannah Kent
Hannah Kent
Hannah Kentis a contemporary Australian writer, and the author of the bestselling novel Burial Rites...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionWriter
CountryAustralia
hooked reminds term
I really hate the term 'historical novel' - it reminds me of bodice-rippers. But I'm hooked on research, and I really, really enjoy it.
believe car gone grab light past reading street supposed waiting
I used to have 20/20 vision, believe it or not; that's gone because of all the reading I did when I wasn't supposed to, reading in the back of a car, waiting for each street light to go past so I could grab another sentence.
blindly dead draft ends expected feeling point process walking
I had expected that at some point during the first draft a light would go on, and I would understand, finally, how to write a book. This never happened. The process was akin to blindly walking in the dark, feeling my way only by touch, and only recognising dead ends when I smacked into them.
I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do as a money-making job.
dismiss guided
I don't like to pretend I was guided in any way by the supernatural world, but the more you talk about that, the easier it is to dismiss those notions.
both reader uncovered
There are secrets at the heart of every story; there is something that must be uncovered or discovered, both by the reader and by the characters.
countries
I had an interest in Scandinavian countries because I'd never seen snow.
drawn writers
Most writers are drawn to what is unknown, rather than what is clear in any tale.
applied embark field funding happily local national overseas parish six spent trip weeks
I applied for funding to embark on an overseas field trip in Iceland, and spent six weeks there happily holed up in the national archives, museums and libraries, sifting through ministerial and parish records, censuses, maps, microfilm, logs, and local histories.
certainly connection people
I still don't know why, exactly, but I do think people can have a spiritual connection to landscape, and I certainly did in Iceland.
parents sister
I was a very imaginative child, and my parents were very encouraging of that. My sister and I would put on plays; I would write my own stories.
trying
When I write, I write for myself, and I have high expectations... so I'm just trying to meet those. I'm not going to distract myself with other people's expectations.
begins carrie david good lionel morning room
You know you're going to have a good day when your morning begins with breakfast in the same room as Carrie Tiffany, David Vann and Lionel Shriver.
center truly whom
The mystery at the center of 'Burial Rites' is not who killed whom on the night of March 13, 1828. It is the mystery each of us encounters: Can we every truly know another? Can we ever truly know ourselves?