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An informative overview of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, from the people at Real Life Lore, and an attempt to answer the question: why is Russia invading Ukraine? There’s a slew of issues here, historical, economic, and cultural, meaning there’s no simple answer. This video was made over a week ago, so some of the information presented may have changed.

Reading suggestions from Jason Steger, books editor at The Sydney Morning Herald, this time for the month of March. I have my eye on Loveland, by Melbourne based Australian writer Robert Lukins.

Blue Mountains based Australian historian and writer Naomi Parry Duncan has been named winner of the 2022 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship.

The fellowship, which is awarded to Australian biography writers, commemorates late British born Australian writer and biographer Hazel Rowley, who died in 2011.

For anyone interested in reading more about the present situation in Ukraine, Serhii Plokhii, Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, recommends five books that explore the history, and relationship, between Ukraine and Russia.

It is a situation that probably could be recognized anywhere in the world — because what we see is the process of disintegration of one of the last world empires. The Russian Empire started to fall apart when the Austro-Hungarian, the Ottoman and other empires were falling apart. The Bolsheviks held it together, but it still fell apart in 1991, almost overnight. Everyone was surprised. It was a miracle that there was no major war or bloodshed. Now we realize that the war was just postponed.

Alarming news for members of book cataloguing website Goodreads, of which I am one. Be sure to regularly backup your account data, as it may be irretrievably lost in the event of a website glitch, as was the case recently for Nelson Minar.

Goodreads lost my entire account last week. Nine years as a user, some 600 books and 250 carefully written reviews all deleted and unrecoverable. Their support has not been helpful. In 35 years of being online I’ve never encountered a company with such callous disregard for their users’ data.

Unlike the Miles Franklin Literary Award, which honours only works of fiction by Australian writers, the Stella Prize recognises writing across all genres, be it fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, graphic novels, biographies, historical writing, short story collections, novellas, and poetry.

In addition to the fiction and non-fiction works named on the Stella Prize longlist for 2022, Stone Fruit by Montreal, Canada based Australian cartoonist Lee Lai becomes the first graphic novel to be included on the longlist.

But it is the poets who have a made a mark this year, claiming four of the twelve slots on the longlist. Take Care by Eunice Andrada, Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen (cover featured above), Homecoming by Elfie Shiosaki, and The Open by Lucy Van, are all in contention for the prize.

If one of the poetry titles wins, or Lai’s graphic novel, it will be a first for the Stella. A shortlist consisting of six titles will be unveiled on 31 March 2022.

Australian actors Cate Blanchett, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Sarah Snook, and Nicole Kidman, missed out being recognised in this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, after being nominated in a number of SAG categories. Here’s hoping those in line for an Oscar fare better on 28 March.