Paula Xiberras
I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Shady Cosgrove the author of ‘What the ground can’t hold’. The first thing that strikes you about Shady is her bubbly personality which contrasts with the seriousness of her latest book.
Shady has visited Tasmania a couple of times, doing the walk from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Claire and loves Hobart and Launceston.
Before you ask, Shady is her real name. Shady tells me that it comes from a small hippie settlement in Seattle. Shady says there is, the not always welcome allusion to ‘shady grove’ if you take away the ‘cos’ of course! Shady realises that the word shady also has connotations of shonky, which this shady most definitely is not.
Shady’s story found its genesis in Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generation and with it the idea of bringing together a number of people who had been affected by a different event in a different place, (in this case the focus is people who have all been affected by Argentina’s ‘dirty war’). and explore their interconnections. Shady, in her book “What the ground can’t hold”, investigated the idea of succeeding generations, that, as they were not directly involved believed they did not necessitate to apologise . However Shady addresses the question of the need to take responsibility for the privilege we benefit from today.
Shady visited the cabin in the Andes that she knew would be the setting of her story and where her protagonists would be held captive by the weather conditions. The subject of names again achieves prominence when we meet one of her protagonists, Wolfe, an ambivalent character that is tracking down his brother-in- law and nephew. He has some of the characteristics of his animal namesake in his sometime predatorial nature. The two male protagonists Pedro and Wolfe, are the subject of the Aussie Emma’s romantic interest and we watch as she more closely aligns with fellow searcher Wolfe.
After a long gestation process, like her characters in their enforced capture, with the challenging task of writing from multiple viewpoints and seven years of writing and 10 drafts, Shady feels like she is emerging back to the world and metaphorically out from under that snow.
Shady is sub dean of creative arts at Wollongong University and says that through her writing her students have proved invaluable help in constructively commenting on her writing and giving her encouragement.
Next up Shady is going to be living in New York for her research into her new book which will be looking at our throw away culture and recycling.
‘What the Ground can’t hold’ is out now published by Pan Macmillan
