Author Archive for: ‘admin-abbw’

Where can this family lay their heads?

At first glance this moving children’s picture book seems to retell the journey of the flight into Egypt by Joseph and Mary after Jesus is born. Soon we see it’s a more contemporary tale of a family forced from their home to trudge across a desert in search of a new place to settle safely.

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Sixteen of the best poems I read in 2016

Throughout 2016 I’ve selected and posted lines from the 16 best poems I’ve read during the month. In this post I’m giving you the best of the best of these poems and lines—plus quite a few that didn’t feature in my original series for one reason or another. 1. ‘After a Death’ by Tomas Tranströmer

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Sixteen great quotes from the poetry I read in December 2016

Here’s my project. I read a poem a day, imbibe its rhythms and use this as an inspiration for my own writing. Because it’s 2016, I chose 16 quotes from 16 of these poems to feature on A Bigger Brighter World so you got to enjoy a taste of them too. Sixteen poems a month

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Why Owen Reeder’s Lennie is so legendary and loveable

Stephanie Owen Reeder’s book Lennie the Legend: Solo to Sydney by Pony won the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books in the 2016 Children’s Book Council Awards. In this Q&A she describes her three-year journey with Lennie—the boy who rode a horse on his own from Victoria to Sydney to be at the opening of

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McCreery’s ‘Loopholes’ packed with marvellous morsels to savour

Author and editor Sue McCreery’s New Year’s resolution in 2015 was to write a story a day for a year. Loopholes, her delectable new collection of microfiction released on December 1 by Spineless Wonders, is the result. ‘Can’t you order a tender eye?’ a woman asks of her partner in ‘Monoculus’—and it was from this

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Sixteen fabulous short stories I read in 2016

Some of these stories were published this year but some are much older. All are my top picks from the stories I read in 2016. 1. ‘The Quiet’ by Carys Davies This story, set in a remote Australia, is breathtaking. A young wife reluctantly invites her neighbour into her home and the consequences are both

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Sixteen great quotes from the poetry I read in November 2016

Here’s my project. I read a poem a day, imbibe its rhythms and use this as an inspiration for my own writing. Because it’s 2016, I’ll choose 16 quotes from 16 of these poems to feature on A Bigger Brighter World so you’ll get to enjoy a taste of them too. That’s 16 poems a

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Sixteen great quotes from the poetry I read in October 2016

OCTOBER Here’s my project. I read a poem a day, imbibe its rhythms and use this as an inspiration for my own writing. Because it’s 2016, I’ll choose 16 quotes from 16 of these poems to feature on A Bigger Brighter World so you’ll get to enjoy a taste of them too. This will equal

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Drill into this new edition Aussie dictionary and you’ll strike gold

Is it okay to marry a dictionary? I’d seriously settle for a long honeymoon with the new edition of The Australian National Dictionary in a wood-panelled library that serves Campos coffee and homemade scones. What a treasure! This two-volume tome will take you on an amazing voyage of discovery and reminiscence. Perhaps you’ve never heard

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‘Jewel Sea’ winner evokes the ‘rich tapestry of us’

A Bigger Brighter World reader Harriet Ziegler is the winner of Kim Kelly’s new novel, Jewel Sea, in our recent competition with Kelly’s publisher The Author People. Kelly (pictured) asked readers, ‘What period of Australian history intrigues you and why?’ She also said that the most intriguing answer would win—and that she might even write

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