Close Reading with Laura Elizabeth Woollett
Edition Three
Welcome to the third edition of Close Reading, a dispatch of literary obsessions, published by Woolgather. Each edition features a guest writer who shares one word, one quote, one lyric, one book, and “one other thing”. This edition is by Laura Elizabeth Woollett, a Melbourne based writer, journalist, and author.
Laura is the author of a short story collection, The Love of a Bad Man (Scribe, 2016), and three novels, Beautiful Revolutionary (Scribe, 2018), The Newcomer (Scribe, 2021), and West Girls. The Love of a Bad Man was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. Beautiful Revolutionary was shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. West Girls was longlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize and is shortlisted for the South Australian Literary Award for Fiction.
In this edition, Laura shares words of home, humour, atmospheres, lost books, and found podcasts.
Illustration by Lachlan Conn
One Word:
Parhelion
A parhelion is a bright spot in the sky appearing on either side of the sun, formed by the refraction of sunlight through ice crystals high in the atmosphere. Also known as a 'mock sun' or 'sun dog'. I've never had the chance/confidence to use this word in real life, but I love the way it looks and sounds (and the thing it refers to).
One Quote:
My Husband
"A house isn't a home without a cat"
— My husband
Feb-July 2025 (while living overseas without our cat).
One Lyric:
The Past Is A Grotesque Animal
“I fell in love with the first cute girl that I met
Who could appreciate Georges Bataille
Standing at a Swedish festival
Discussing Story of the Eye.“
— Of Montreal
I heard this 11:53-minute song from Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (2007) for the first time when I was about 16 and it totally blew my mind. As well as teaching me the word ‘parhelion’, it made me want to be a cute girl who appreciated Georges Bataille, so I got myself a copy of Story of the Eye (which also blew my mind). It’s a special thing when a work of art makes me ravenous to consume all the other art that it references.
One Book:
L’Amante Anglaise
I recently made the mistake of putting my copy of this out-of-print novella by Marguerite Duras (best known for The Lover and Hiroshima Mon Amour) in a pile of books to donate while moving house. It was this yellowy Pantheon edition from the 80s, picked up from a used book store in San Diego. Anyway, I immediately felt the loss, and stooped to shopping for a replacement on Amazon. Revolving around a woman’s murder of her disabled cousin, it’s written in the form of police interviews so is pretty much all dialogue (and was eventually adapted for stage). I always adore Duras’ writing, but I have a particular love for experiments in perspective and empathetic fictionalisations of true crime. This is such a troubling, intimate exploration of human darkness and our mundane capacity for violence.
One Other Thing:
Rehash Podcast
Hosted by Canadian best friends Hannah Raine and Maia Wyman (a.k.a., @broey_deschanel, who's also a fabulous film critic), this podcast is all about social media and internet phenomena. They've done several seasons, each about a broad topic (sex on the internet, beauty on the internet, subcultures), with Hannah and Maia alternately presenting episode topics to one another. They're both incredible researchers who bring so much cultural savviness and critical acumen to what they do, while also bringing chemistry and humour. Often with podcasts, it's a toss-up between dry and informative or hosts cackling over their own banter to the point of being unlistenable - but Hannah and Maia are pros (and know how to edit). The 'Murderinos' episode is a personal highlight for me.