Port Stephens author Joanna Atherford Finn is riding the crest of a wave following the recent release of her outstanding literary debut titled Watermark.
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The book, which took three years to complete, is a compilation of short stories strung together to construct a fictional sensation.
Finn, a busy mother of three from Anna Bay, was special guest at a recent Nelson Bay VIEW Club luncheon, where she gave an impassioned talk about how her ideals sat well with the VIEW club mission.
“It was refreshing for me to hear about the support VIEW club members provide to children with learning difficulties, because this is an area that is very close to my heart,” said Finn, who graduated from Newcastle University with a Doctorate of Philosophy and PhD in creative writing.
“I would like to think that very child is provided with the opportunity to explore language and the written word.”
An acclaimed journalist and editor, Finn possesses all the literary hallmarks of a beautiful and gifted writer.
She was runner-up in the Carmel Bird Short Fiction Award 2012 and two of her short stories where published in the ‘Amanda Lohrey Selects’ series.
Finn’s insightful and creative juices are never more succinctly expressed than in the breathtaking masterpiece that is Watermark.
“Originally the stories were stand-alone, but the collection gradually morphed into what is often referred to as a short story sequence,” she said.
“This is a collection that is integrated by recurring elements including characters, settings and themes.”
And while these characters, settings and themes will have readers both absorbed and intrigued, there is a more underlining theme that is symbolized in the title.
Most Australians, from our first peoples to modern day settlers, have had an affinity with water, whether that be our beaches, oceans, lakes or bays. And they are all portrayed in stunning expressions in Watermark.
The publishers, Simon and Schuster, describe it this way:
“Rising and recoiling like the ocean, Watermark cracks open the coastal idyll of a quintessentially Australian seaside landscape to reveal shifting sands, fractured relationships and innocence lost again a backdrop that is constantly changing.”
Finn’s next assignment is a tale about the NSW abalone industry.
Copies of Watermark can be purchased from all good book stores.
