At Sappho on this summery Sunday reading is it. Students, lecturers, travellers, shoppers, Goths and glam girls eyeball newspapers, books and screens. A middle-aged guy with John Lennon glasses and a soft linen shirt sips red wine and cracks open the creamy pages of a biography from the stack of books he’s just purchased. I’m
Don’t expect easy allegory here with the odd boy at the centre of this novel equating directly with Jesus. This is not what happens. There are, however, intriguing parallels. For example the boy, David, writes of himself — Yo soy la verdad, I am the truth. Yet David might equally be a precocious fantasist whose
The Stella Prize has announced its first shortlist, including two authors among contenders for other grand prizes. Michelle de Kretser is also in the running for the ALS Gold Medal with Questions of Travel and Carrie Tiffany is in the long list for the Women’s Prize for Fiction with Mateship with Birds. Read more about six
The shortlist for the 2013 ALS Gold Medal has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: Darkness on the Edge of Town Jessie Cole (Fourth Estate) Questions of Travel Michelle de Kretser (Allen & Unwin) Montebello Robert Drewe (Hamish Hamilton) Lost Voices Christopher Koch (Fourth Estate) The Fine Colour of Rust P. A. O’Reilly (HarperCollins) The ALS
Take a close look: The pretty picture accompanying this post is of a circus tent made out of a book. This gorgeous treasure in its elegant simplicity provided a tiny beam of happiness in a crazy, mixed up week. Life’s a circus. Life’s a roller coaster. Life’s a see-saw. I’ve felt all of these things
The 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange prize) longlist includes Australians Carrie Tiffany and M. L. Stedman. The Women’s Prize for Fiction is the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman. Now in its 18th year, the prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women
Canberra author Felicity Volk has won the Carmel Bird Award for her story “Go, You are Sent Forth”, which explores a retired nun’s wish to experience sexual intimacy. The award was judged by Amanda Lohrey (recent recipient of the Patrick White Literary Award) and presented by Marion Halligan (made a Member in the Order of
If you’ve ever longed to be a fly on the wall with some of the world’s greatest poets of the last 50 years or so as they crafted their poetry, listen up: You must read Poetry in Person. I’ve scattered some of its diamonds here in this two-part post but if you love poetry and
The popularity of Pearl London’s classes reveals how fascinating it can be to hear poets speak about their drafts and to learn first-hand how a great poem is made. As Poetry in Person details, students and poets were eager to be involved in London’s course at the New School in New York which, for much
Random House recently announced its 20 bestselling Vintage Classics for 2012 but the two books I’ve most coveted from this retro series didn’t make the list. Both are books I’ve been meaning to read for ages. That is: Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road and Raymond Carver’s What We Talk about When We Talk about Love. It won’t stay
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