The Wriggles top the Hottest 100 with Elephant
24 January 2022
Australian children’s pop group and entertainers The Wiggles have taken out the number one spot in Australian radio station Triple J’s annual Hottest 100 countdown, with a cover of Perth based act Tame Impala’s 2012 song Elephant. Topping the coveted listener’s poll is notable for two reasons this year, it is the first time a children’s act has been voted number one, likewise a Like A Version cover song.
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Burnt Out by Victoria Brookman
21 January 2022
Writing that difficult second novel, it might be what many authors consider to be a good problem. Their debut novel has been published, an epic achievement, and now they have the opportunity to write another book. What aspiring novelist wouldn’t want to be in such a situation?
Cali, an author residing in the NSW Blue Mountains may be such a person, in Burnt Out (published by HarperCollins Publishers, January 2022) the debut novel of Australian author Victoria Brookman. Cali’s struggling to write her second novel, in fact she was meant to have turned in the manuscript long ago. In reality she hasn’t even started work on it. But for the moment that’s the least of her worries.
Her home has been destroyed by a bush fire, likewise her possessions, and to top it off her husband has left her. But Cali sees an opportunity amid the turmoil. Speaking to a television news crew, she tells them her manuscript was also incinerated, and goes onto chide politicians and well-off Australians for their inaction in response to the devastating bush fires. Her words immediately strike a chord nationwide.
After seeing her on-air rant, a billionaire offers her a place to stay in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, so she can “re-write” the novel. But will Cali overcome her second book syndrome, or will she find herself overwhelmed by the lies she keep telling everyone, including herself?
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fiction, TBR list, Victoria Brookman, writing
Nick Cave: Nothing you create is ultimately your own
21 January 2022
Is it possible to create something, be it music, literature, painting, an app, well, anything that can be created really, that is uniquely yours, that doesn’t contain even an iota of an idea from a person, or a thought, you consider influential? Probably not, says Australian musician Nick Cave:
Nothing you create is ultimately your own, yet all of it is you. Your imagination, it seems to me, is mostly an accidental dance between collected memory and influence, and is not intrinsic to you, rather it is a construction that awaits spiritual ignition.
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Indie Book Awards 2022 shortlist announced
21 January 2022
The shortlist for the Indie Book Awards 2022 has been announced. Winners in the four categories will be named on Monday 21 March 2022.
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Australian writing, literature
To write your next novel, you must forget your last one
21 January 2022
Sara Freeman, writing for Granta Magazine, with some sage advice for authors embarking on the writing of their next novel, to write your next novel, you must forget your last one:
There’s a kind of necessary amnesia that sets in after you finish writing a novel. Like childbirth, you must forget; the future requires it of you. If you remembered, really remembered, then surely you wouldn’t do it again. Or perhaps it’s that the experience itself of writing a novel is a kind of sustained forgetting, a controlled fugue.
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Step into the River, a short film by Weijia Ma
19 January 2022
A trailer for Step into the River, a short film by Chicago based filmmaker Weijia Ma, about a young Chinese girl who was abandoned by her parents as a baby.
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COVID chasers are not getting COVID out of the way
19 January 2022
When the COVID pandemic started almost two years ago, people would side-step each on the footpath for fear of contracting the virus. Now some people, known as COVID chasers, are going out of their way to become infected, by attending so-called COVID parties, where, I suppose, someone in attendance has the disease. People are of the belief they can get COVID “out of the way”, and get on with their lives.
If only it were so simple. The problem is we’re not dealing with a disease that gives an infected person life-long protection once they recover. While someone who is infected with COVID, and recovers, will develop anti-bodies, the life of these anti-bodies is short lived, lasting anywhere from three to sixteen months. Like all diseases, COVID affects everyone differently. Someone might feel like they have a cold, but another person, especially those unvaccinated, may find themselves in an intensive care ward. There’s the real risk COVID will get them “out of the way” instead.
With the virus spiralling out of control in some areas, the chances are many people will contract the virus. If you became seriously ill, perhaps you could draw some consolation from having made the best efforts to avoid the disease. But how many people would feel that way given they had deliberately tried to become infected? Be careful what you wish for. In the meantime, be safe, and keep reading books.
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Tips for getting published and finding a literary agent
19 January 2022
Sydney based literary agent Jacinta Di Mase talks with Dani Vee and Adrian Beck on the Publishing Insider podcast, and shares tips and advice to prospective authors for finding a literary agent, and getting work published.
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2022 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Awards
19 January 2022
Nominations are open for the 2022 Australian Book Industry Awards ABIA Awards, until Monday 14 February 2022. With a wide range of award categories, it looks like publishers and authors will have little difficulty finding a slot for their work:
- General Fiction Book of the Year
- General Non-Fiction Book of the Year
- Literary Fiction Book of the Year
- Illustrated Book of the Year
- Biography of the Year
- Picture Book of the Year (ages 0-6)
- Book of the Year for Younger Children (ages 7-12)
- Book of the Year for Older Children (ages 13+)
- The Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year
- Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year
- Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year
- International Book of the Year
The longlist will announced on Tuesday 22 March, the shortlist on Monday 23 May, with the winners named on Thursday 9 June 2022.
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Australian writing, literature
2022 Hazel Rowley Fellowship shortlist announced
17 January 2022
The shortlist for the 2022 Hazel Rowley Fellowship has been published. Created in memory of late British born Australian writer and biographer Hazel Rowley, the fellowship supports Australian writers of biographies. Authors submit ideas to the organisers, who select what they consider to be the best proposal. This year though, the field seems particularly tight:
We had an extremely strong field of applications this year, with a wide range of biographical subjects. This made the shortlisting hard,’ said Della Rowley, Hazel’s sister. ‘We received a large number of high-quality proposals. Perhaps as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns, writers were busy thinking about good topics for biographies.
The winner will be announced on Wednesday 2 March 2022.
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