At 11:17 AM 9/07/00 +0100, you wrote:
I think its time again for a few
voices to be raised against those who are abusing this list with false
identities. It's one thing to pretend to be a 13th century ghost,
another to elicit sympathy by pretending to be a mentally ill young
woman. Several members now have egg on their face, having risen to,
or wasted time responding in good faith to rogue postings. Surely
there must be some way of checking that list members are genuine before
they sign up? And surely these people ought to be removed from the
list without hesitation. Last time I spoke about this, there were
suggestions I was double bluffing or being po-faced. I just want
discussion to continue without clowns and bores taking the
piss.
Roddy
Roddy,
I can see now what you meant by rogue members a while ago. My apologies.
I also feel I need to introduce myself to the list, I'm sorry I didn't do
it two weeks ago when I joined the list, but I've got an excuse -- the
topic people were discussing at the time really interested me so I just
joined the discussion and felt at home. I think I mentioned I'm Romanian.
In Romania I was a university lecturer (20th Century English Literature).
After the Revolution I had the opportunity to go to several conferences
abroad and decided that I wanted a doctorate from an English speaking
country to confirm my professionalism to myself. Australia offered me a
research scholarship. I came to Australia in 1996 and my husband and son
joined me later. We've lived in Australia for several years now. Before
coming to Australia I was busy designing courses, lecturing, going to
conferences etc. However, I did publish a few poems and some
translations. I started writing poems when I was 6 -- lots of flowers,
birdies and stuff only my mum could bear to read. When I came to
Australia I didn't know anyone, no one greeted me in the street, no one
knocked at my door, the phone never rang and I had no idea when my family
would be able to join me. I started writing poems directly in English as
I had to communicate my thoughts somehow. I read my poems at Friendly
Street in Adelaide and from then on everything just happened. My
publications record can be found on the South Australian Writers Database
(it can be accessed through The State Library of SA, the address is:
www.slsa.sa.gov.au)
and last year my first collection (I Say...) was published by Wakefield
Press here in Adelaide. I've never thought of myself as a poet but many
people have encouraged me, maybe most of all Tom Shapcott who believed in
me from the very beginning. So this is it. At the moment I'm doing the
last edits on my thesis -- _A Postmodern Approach to the Contemporary
Thriller In English_ (the thesis explores ideas of popular culture,
textuality and reading practices starting from Derrida's pharmakon).
Beside my poetry I published interviews with Australian writers (McKenzie
Wark in _Meanjin_ and Garry Disher in _Overland_) and I put on the Net a
page about Garry Disher (one of the writers I'm discussing in my thesis).
In my spare time I translated and published work by Adelaide poets in the
Romanian literary magazine Calende.
So, sorry
again for not having said all this a while ago and many thanks to those
who talked to me on the list or backchannel.
Best
regards Ioana
