Benjamin Law is a Brisbane-based writer and a frequent contributor to frankie, The Monthly and Qweekend. He has also written for The Walkley Magazine, Sunday Life, Cleo, Crikey, The Big Issue, The Griffith Review, The Courier Mail, Travel and Leisure: South East Asia, The Australian Way (Qantas), the AAP and others. His essays have been anthologised in The Best Australian Essays twice, and his debut book The Family Law (2010) was shortlisted for Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs). He’s working on his second book, out in 2012.
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Upcoming Events
2011 Ubud Writers Festival
5-9 October 2011
Sessions and workshops with DBC Pierre, Marieke Hardy, Corinne Grant, Brenda Walker, Rosemary Sayer, O Thiam Chin, Juan Gabriel Vasquez, Alicia Sometimes, Martine Murray, Meredith Costain and Phillip Gwynne.
Full program: ubudwritersfestival.com
Latest Work
frankie,
Jan/Feb 2012
Why Does It Have To Be Like That?
Edited version originally published in frankie #45 (Jan/Feb 2012)
Before I start, let’s make one thing clear. I would rather be run over a bus—a bus that was on fire—than marry my boyfriend. Don’t get me wrong: we’ve been together for a decade and I adore the bastard. But the prospect of a wedding—the stress, the cost, being photographed a million times and making out in front of relatives—just doesn’t appeal to me. The average Australian wedding costs $50,000 and if I had that kind of money, I’d rather buy, say, a round-the-world plane ticket. In fact, doing the math, I could…