The Rot, new work by Evelyn Araluen, Australian poet

Showing all posts about Australian literature

The Rot, new work by Evelyn Araluen, Australian poet

5 November 2025

The Rot, by Indigenous Australian author Evelyn Araluen (Instagram page), follows up 2021’s Dropbear, which won the 2022 Stellar Prize.

The Rot is a recalcitrant study of the decaying romances, expired hopes and abject injustices of the world. A liturgy for girlhood in the dying days of late-stage capitalism, these poems expose fraying nerves and tendons of a speaker refusing to avert their gaze from the death of Country, death on Country, and the bloody violence of settler colonies here and afar.

Sydney’s Writers’ Walk to become longer, celebrate other artists

3 November 2025

Located along the shoreline of inner Sydney suburb Circular Quay, Sydney’s Writer’s Walk commemorates well-known authors and playwrights, who are either Australian, or visited the country at some point, with circular plagues set into walkways in the area.

Local writers include Miles Franklin and Peter Carey, while the international cohort is made up of the likes of Rudyard Kipling, and Mark Twain, who were in Australia in 1891, and 1895, respectively.

The Walk was established in 1991, and in 2011 an additional eleven plagues were added, but plans are afoot to add to the Walk in the near future. This makes sense. A bevy of new Australian writers have emerged in the last decade and a half. Numerous notable authors, who were omitted originally, are also in the running for a spot, as are songwriters, who may also be included.

The Sydney’s Writer’s Walk is one of a number of such commemorative walkways in the Sydney area. Others include the Australian Film Walk of Fame, located in Randwick, and the Australian Surfing Walk of Fame, at the beach suburb of Maroubra.

Average at Best, a memoir by Astrid Jorgensen, Pub Choir founder

29 October 2025

Brisbane based Australian musician and singer, and founder of Pub Choir, Astrid Jorgensen (Instagram page), recently published her memoir, Average at Best.

Average, says Jorgensen, is underrated, given how difficult it is to be the best:

By its very nature, ‘best’ is rare and elusive: you’re not going to get much of it in life. And I sure don’t want to miss out on deeply experiencing the fullness of my one precious existence, searching for the sliver of ‘best’.

One of Pub Choirs’ feats was, in August 2023, to assemble nineteen-thousand people across Australia to sing the ever popular Africa, a song recorded by American band Toto in 1982.

The Transformations, a new novel by Australian author Andrew Pippos

22 October 2025

The Transformations, the new novel by Sydney based Australian author Andrew Pippos (Instagram page), will be published next week, on Tuesday 28 October 2025.

This is a story for the times, if the synopsis is anything to go by:

In the fading glow of Australia’s print journalism era, The National is more than a newspaper: it’s an institution, and the only place that George Desoulis has ever felt at home. A world-weary subeditor with a bookish sensibility and a painful past, George is one of nature’s loners.

But a late-night encounter with an unorthodox and self-assured reporter, Cassandra Gwan, begins to unravel both of their carefully managed worlds. As the decline of the newspaper enters a desperate stage, George and Cassandra struggle to balance their turbulent relationship with their responsibilities to family, and the compromises each has built their life upon.

The Transformations follows up Pippos’ debut, Lucky’s, published in 2020, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin literary award, among others, in 2021. Lucky’s, which sits in my e-bookshelf, was a great yarn about a life well lived, and I’m looking forward to reading this new work from Pippos.

Tasma Walton, Robbie Arnott, jointly win ARA Historical Novel Prize

17 October 2025

Authors Tasma Walton (Instagram link), based in Western Australia, and Robbie Arnott (Instagram link), based in Tasmania, have been named joint winners of the 2025 ARA Historical Novel Prize, with their novels I am Nannertgarrook, and Dusk, respectively.

I’m yet to pick up I am Nannertgarrook, but read Dusk earlier this year. It seems to me members of literary award judging panels must have their work cut out for them when novels of the calibre of Dusk are among shortlisted titles.

Suzanne Leal won in the Children and Young Adults category with her novel The Year We Escaped. Awarded annually, the ARA Historical Novel Prize celebrates the work of Australian and New Zealand historical novel writers, with prizes valued at a total of one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars.

Michelle de Kretser, Rick Morton, among 2025 Prime Minister’s Literary Award winners

7 October 2025

de Kretser, who’s novel Theory & Practice (which I’m currently reading), and Morton’s book, Mean Streak, about the previous Australian government’s controversial Robobot debt recovery scheme, are respective winners of the fiction and non-fiction categories.

Others recipients, who were announced last Monday, 29 September 2025, include The Other Side of Daylight: New and Selected Poems, by David Brooks in poetry, and The Invocations, by Krystal Sutherland in young adult. See the full list of winners here.

Entries for final Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship open October 2025

15 September 2025

The fellowship was created in 2011 to honour the memory of late Australian writer and biographer Hazel Rowley, who died in the same year. Past recipients of the fellowship, which supports the work of Australian biography writers, include Mary Hoban, the inaugural winner, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Matthew Lamb, and Mandy Sayer, for her book Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters.

When Rowley’s sister Della, together with Lynn Buchanan and Irene Tomaszewski, established the fellowship, they envisaged it would run for ten years, but after fifteen have decided to call time on the award. The organisers however are reportedly open to other parties taking on the fellowship, and would be prepared to assist anyone willing to do so.

It is to be hoped this will happen. Literary awards and fellowships are vital in supporting the work of Australian writers, many of whose annual earnings are well below the average salary.

Long running Australian literary journal Meanjin closes December 2025

5 September 2025

The final issue of the eighty-five year old quarterly magazine, will be published in December. The Melbourne University Press, which funds the publication, says the decision to stop production of the journal was made on financial grounds.

A veritable potpourri of Australian authors have written for Meanjin in the past. The move, as one author says, will be a blow to the present and future of Australian literature.

The 2025 Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Awards shortlists

19 August 2025

Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser, winner of this year’s Stellar Prize, Highway 13 by Fiona McFarlane, and Juice by Tim Winton — which I’m presently reading — are among titles shortlisted in the fiction category of the 2025 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

Award categories also include non-fiction, Australian history, poetry, children’s literature, and young adult. Six-hundred-and-forty-five entries were received this year, indicating Australian writers are busy. The winners will be named on Monday 29 September 2025, at a ceremony in Canberra.

Picnic at Hanging Rock, a film by Peter Weir, released fifty years ago

9 August 2025

Yesterday, Friday 8 August, marked fifty years since Picnic at Hanging Rock, trailer, premiered in Adelaide, South Australia. They story about some students of a girls’ school who go missing during a picnic, continues to captivate, and baffle, film watchers.

The Sydney born Australian filmmaker Peter Weir has made a slew of top-notch movies. These include Gallipoli, Dead Poets Society, and The Truman Show, but Picnic at Hanging Rock is by far — to my mind at least — his most enigmatic.

The screenplay was based on the 1967 novel of the same name, by late Australian author Joan Lindsay. Much of mystery enveloping the film stemmed from the belief it was based on actual events. The story is in fact fiction (thankfully).

I re-watched Picnic at Hanging Rock a few years ago, and soon after saw a lesser known Weir feature, The Plumber, which is truly bat shit mad/disturbing. Take a look at the trailer. If not already, Weir’s work should be required learning at Australian film schools.

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