Bridgetown writer Joanne Patmore longlisted for Savage Daughter in Best Australian Yarn 2024

Early encounters with a prolific Australian writer would be a reminder to a Bridgetown writer it is never too late to pursue a life of words. Joanne Patmore from Highlands, Bridgetown, was one of the 50 finalists in the Best Australian Yarn 2024 competition. Patmore said she was “surprised” to find out her short story Savage Daughter had been selected after only taking writing up again after retirement. Now 66, Patmore said the last time she wrote a short story was at Curtin University in 1976, while studying to be a teacher. While there, she was under the tutelage of Monica Elizabeth Jolley AO — an English-born Australian writer who moved to WA in 1959. Her early influence would later spark Patmore’s desire to be a writer. “She must have been in her 50s then, and she’d only just started to get published and for things to take off for her,” Patmore said. “I put that in the back of my brain, and I thought it’s never too late. You can start if you’re in your 90s, it’s never too late.” Learning about The West Australian’s competition through her niece, she entered the short story, reflecting life in the 1970s. The theme highlights a “different” time for women in the South West and is “loosely” based on real places and real stories using fictional characters, Patmore said. “I like writing about places I know,” she said. “I went to school at St Joseph’s convent in Margaret River. My parents lived on a farm in Warner Glen, east of Karridale. I grew up there and so I feel the South West is my blood. “My tie to Bridgetown is that my great, great grandparents are buried in the pioneer cemetery and their house is still standing.” She told the Times while the story draws on the places she knows, she was also inspired by the song Savage Daughter. “It’s written in the 70s. And it talks about ‘I’m my mother’s savage daughter, I won’t cut my hair, I won’t lower my voice’ — which is great empowerment for women,” Patmore said. “I started to think about growing up in the bush, when all that female empowerment was taking off — we weren’t really aware of it.” Writing about the 1970s and 1980s had become a focal point for Patmore to highlight the struggles and ordinary lives of people in the South West region. She said the story was set in a time when the “constraints” for girls and women were prevalent, despite not recognising it at the time. “It was a different time and things were starting to take off for girls. In those days, if you were a teacher, you had to resign if you got married,” she said. “My generation was really the first group of girls that had choices. I went to university — that was a choice. My sister’s a pharmacist, and that was a quite a rare thing in those days.” Patmore worked as a teacher and met her husband living in England 15 years ago which gave her the “writing bug” again. She went on to complete a masters in creative writing, eventually entering competitions and signing a book deal. “I was (there) at 60. I was the oldest person in the class, but it didn’t matter,” Patmore said. Her debut book Black Wattle — set to be published next year — came about when entering a manuscript competition. “I didn’t get anywhere in the actual competition, but there was something in what I wrote that the editor liked, and she approached me and she’s worked with me,” Patmore said. “It’s really difficult if you are starting out in the writing business to get your foot in the door — it is quite competitive. That’s why I think competitions are good.” Patmore said the Best Australian Yarn was a “huge boost” to her confidence and a “marvellous idea” to encourage people to read and write stories. “Short stories ... are the way of the future because it only takes a little while to read a short story,” she said. “Everyone is so busy, they don’t get time to sit down and read a long novel. You can read a story in a few minutes. Patmore is not slowing down anytime soon — she has already finished a second novel, she said.