Kylie: a documentary about Australian singer, actor, Kylie Minogue

Showing all posts about Australia

Kylie: a documentary about Australian singer, actor, Kylie Minogue

30 May 2026

Kylie, trailer, is a Netflix produced documentary about Australian pop-singer Kylie Minogue.

I was writing about the work of Kylie (her family apparently refers to her as Minogue, for the rest of us it’s Kylie) in the earliest iterations of disassociated.

The Vanishing Wild, a book by Justine E. Hausheer

23 May 2026

The Vanishing Wild, written by Queensland based science writer and photographer Justine E. Hausheer, was published recently. It was the introduction to the book’s subject that caught my eye:

Australia is a country celebrated for its wildlife, yet native species are in crisis. In the last 200 years, Australia has lost more biodiversity than any other developed nation.

That is not an impressive achievement. What on earth are going here in Australia?

Cannon by Lee Lai, becomes first graphic novel to win Stellar Prize

14 May 2026

In winning the 2026 Stellar Prize, Montréal, Canada, based Australian cartoonist Lee Lai becomes the first graphic novelist to claim the Australian literary award, with Cannon.

Lai’s debut graphic novel, Stone Fruit, was shortlisted for the 2022 award, which went on to be won by Evelyn Araluen, with her poetry collection Dropbear.

Dropbear was the first work of poetry to take out the Stellar, and Araluen was in the running for the 2026 award, with The Rot, her follow up collection of poetry.

Wins for Araluen’s Dropbear, and Lai’s Cannon, in the Stellar, are both firsts, and represent a fascinating intertwining of Australian literary award history.

Iluwanti Ken portrait by Richard Lewer wins 2026 Archibald Prize

14 May 2026

Melbourne based Australian artist Richard Lewer has won the annual portraiture award for his painting of Iluwanti Ken. Ken, an elder from Pitjantjatjara country (in the northwest of South Australia), is a well known artist herself.

The announcement was made last Friday 8 May 2026. The works of all Archibald Prize prize finalists are on show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in Sydney, until Sunday 16 August 2026.

The Top Fifty Australian movies of all time, compiled by The Age/Sydney Morning Herald

30 April 2026

Lindy Percival, Nathanael Scott, Daniel Carter, and others:

This list of our 50 best films will likely provoke debate, but with the aid of 24 experts, including directors, actors, critics, curators and authors, what follows is an inspiring reminder of what we’ve seen so far and a heartfelt encouragement to go on watching our stories on screen.

Spoilers: Crocodile Dundee doesn’t feature, though The Castle does, but overall the fifty selected titles are indicative — I think — of the best Australian film.

Bad Boy Bubby, The Devil’s Playground, Ten Canoes, and Walkabout, are among entries listed earlier on. The top twenty is definitely on the money, with the likes of Nitram, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Snowtown, Beneath Clouds, Somersault, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Animal Kingdom, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Samson & Delilah.

Some of these titles are not easy to watch, but are exemplary instances of local film and storytelling.

Australian author David Malouf dies at age 92

29 April 2026

David Malouf, the Miles Franklin and Booker Prize winning author, died last week, Wednesday 22 April 2026, in the Australian state of Queensland.

If you’re unfamiliar with Malouf’s work, Sydney Morning Herald writer Nell Geraets has complied a list of seven “must-read” Malouf titles.

The 2026 Global Book Crawl is in progress

23 April 2026

Nearly missed this, staying focused can be tricky, to say the least, at times like these. The book crawl was established just last year by Federico Lang, who works at Librería Luces, an independent bookstore in the Spanish city of Málaga.

I’m told this year about one-hundred-and-fifty Australian booksellers are involved. The full list of shops taking part globally can be seen here. If book crawl participants collect five stamps in a crawl “passport” — obtainable from any bookshop involved — they become eligible for a reward.

The 2026 event concludes on Sunday 26 April 2026.

RELATED CONTENT

Australia, books, events

Summers starting sooner, becoming longer and hotter, in many places

15 April 2026

Erik Rolfsen, writing for the University of British Columbia (UBC):

A new study by UBC researchers has found that between 1990 and 2023, the average summer between the tropics and the polar circles grew about six days longer per decade. That’s up from roughly four days per decade found in past research investigating up until the early 2010s.

On a day less than a week ago, the maximum temperature in Sydney, NSW, was forecast to reach thirty-three degrees Celsius. That’s nearly a month and a half into what is meant to be autumn in this part of the world. Sure, one swallow does not a summer make, so to speak, and the region can experience unseasonably warm days anytime of the year, I know.

But the UBC findings confirm what many of us have long suspected: summers today are longer and warmer than they once were. The consequences are far reaching though, impacting on health, water supplies, and food production, among other things.

No basic income for Australian artists, but some writers can live in reduced rent accommodation

14 April 2026

Ireland pays a select group of artists a basic income for a three year period, an initiative the Irish government claims is a world first.

At present, the weekly value of the payment equates to about five-hundred-and-forty Australian dollars. You’d be hard pressed to live on that sort of money in Australia, but it’s better than nothing, considering no such scheme exists locally.

But there is a glimmer of hope. For some local creatives at least. The NSW state government is offering writers the opportunity to rent terrace houses in The Rocks area of Sydney, for two-hundred dollars (Australian) per week.

Spots are limited, and creatives still need a source of income, but the initiative is a (small) step in the right direction. To be eligible, a writer must be considered to be a literature practitioner:

In this instance, ‘Literature Practitioners’ are defined as: writers working in any creative form, including fiction, short stories, screenplay/drama, poetry, children’s books, and narrative non-fiction, and illustrators working in children’s books and graphic novels. The Program is open to NSW Literature Practitioners at any stage of their career.

The Titanic Story of Evelyn, a biography by Lisa Wilkinson

13 April 2026

Evelyn Marsden, a steward and nurse on the Titanic’s doomed 1912 maiden voyage, became known as the only Australian woman to survive the tragic sinking of the ocean liner.

Marsden helped distressed passengers, before eventually being told to get into a lifeboat.

Growing up, Marsden used to row in the Murray River, during family holidays, and would set herself the challenge of rowing against the tide. The skill proved invaluable as she helped row the lifeboat she was aboard, with forty other people, against the pull the sinking Titanic exerted on them.

Marsden was born in Stockyard Creek, South Australia in 1883. After the sinking, she married William James, a doctor who also worked for the White Star Line, owner of the Titanic.

They lived in South Australia for some years before moving to Bondi. Marsden died at age fifty-four in 1938, and is buried in Waverley Cemetery, with her husband, who died a short time afterwards.

Marsden’s life is now the subject of a biography, The Titanic Story of Evelyn, written by Australian TV presenter and journalist, Lisa Wilkinson, which is being published tomorrow, Tuesday 14 April 2026.

« older posts