Showing all posts about Australian literature
Vale John Bryson Australian author
18 February 2022
Sydney based Australian author John Bryson died earlier this month, at the age of 86. Bryson, a former lawyer, wrote several books, including Evil Angels: The Case of Lindy Chamberlain in 1987, a title that proved instrumental in exonerating Lindy Chamberlain, who had been wrongly convicted of murdering her baby daughter in 1980.
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Australian literature, John Bryson
Positive representations of disabled people in Australian fiction
7 January 2022
Social Queue by Kay Kerr, and Stars In Their Eyes, a graphic novel by Jessica Walton and Aśka, are among works of fiction by Australian authors featuring central characters with disabilities. In Social Queue, Kerr’s autistic protagonist Zoe navigates the world of dating, while in Stars In Their Eyes, queer disabled teen, Maisie, finds love at a fan convention. These works are welcome: in the past people with disabilities who have been part of a story have often assumed the antagonist’s role.
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Australian literature, writing
Adam Thompson sells his wine rack and other stories
20 December 2021
Good Weekend magazine asked nine Australian novelists to write about the year that has been. Tasmanian author Adam Thompson, whose debut book Born Into This, was published this year, wrote about selling his now disused wine-rack, a story that resonated with me, as I too no longer possess one.
It took two years to get rid of all the grog – and the lovely wine rack. I kept it close at hand to remind myself that it’s my choice not to drink, because I could, at any moment, if I wanted. I don’t need that reminder any more. And I’ll try to forget the anniversary, too. Let it all slip by, content in the knowledge that I’ve moved on.
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Adam Thompson, Australian literature
Minds Shine Bright writing competition 2022
20 December 2021
Entries are open for the Minds Shine Bright writing competition, until Monday 28 February, 2022. An initiative created by Melbourne based Australian writer and film maker Amanda Scotney, Minds Shine Bright seeks to encourage excellence in writing, particularly fiction. If you’re a writer of fiction, poetry, or script-writing, looking for some recognition, and a financial incentive, this may be the opportunity you’re looking for.
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Australian literature, fiction, writing
Another win for Amanda Lohrey’s novel The Labyrinth
16 December 2021
It’s been a good year for Tasmania based Australian author Amanda Lohrey. In July her novel The Labyrinth won the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and yesterday the same novel was named winner of The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for 2021, in the fiction category, with the judges describing the novel as a work of considerable literary artistry.
‘The Labyrinth’ is shadowed and haunted by strangeness. It is a novel in high realist mode that also has romance elements, if only in the way it encompasses a tragicomic mood and a certain formal audacity that brings to mind the moodiness and restless shifts of late Shakespeare. ‘The Labyrinth’ has a gravity that outstares everything that may seem grey or gaunt in a literary endeavour where autumn seems to sink to midwinter. It is a work of considerable literary artistry.
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Amanda Lohrey, Australian literature
A book may be a writer’s baby, but babies are not books
15 December 2021
A writer’s second book, and having a second child, are similar experiences – difficult – says Australian author Anna Downes, writing for The Sydney Morning Herald. But don’t go thinking books are the same as babies, well, not most of the time anyway.
The difference with books is that one day you must let go. Once your novel is published, its success or failure in the world is out of your hands. You can’t control where it goes or with whom, can’t protect it from criticism. All you can do is love it, be proud of it, celebrate its birthdays, spend time with those who adore it, and maybe rescue it from a dark corner once in a while. Because your work is finally done. Your book comes through you, but it is not part of you. It is not who you are.
Downe’s second novel The Shadow House was published in September this year.
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Anna Downes, Australian literature
Paula McLean’s Stella Forever Fund donation
2 December 2021
Future recipients of the Stella Prize, a literary award recognising the work of Australian women writers, can except to see their efforts acknowledged for years to come, following a one-million dollar donation to the Stella Forever Fund by former Stella Deputy Chair Paula McLean.
McLean’s donation is a part of the Fund’s objective to secure a total of $3 million in prize money by April 2022, when the next Stella award winner will be announced. The announcement is being presented as a ‘matched funding’ initiative, meaning that every donation made up to $1 million will be matched by McLean, as a way to kick-start an even greater circle of giving around this important literary prize.
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Australian literature, literary awards, Stella Prize
Walkley Book Award 2021 longlist
27 November 2021
Nine non-fiction titles make up the longlist of this year’s Walkley Book Award, including Witness, by Louise Milligan, The Winter Road, by Kate Holden, and Lowitja: The authorised biography of Lowitja O’Donoghue, by Stuart Rintoul.
The Walkley Book Award celebrates Australian writers who take enduring subjects from news, eyewitness accounts, investigations and history. Their books bring readers immersive detail, clear analysis and new revelations.
The Walkley Book Award differs from the Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism, which are possibly the better known of the Walkley prizes. The shortlist will be announced in December, and the winner will be named on 11 February 2022.
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Australian literature, writing
Stella Prize 2022 entries close tomorrow
20 October 2021
Well, that was fast. Entries for the Stella Prize 2022 close tomorrow, Thursday, 21 October 2021. It seems like only a week or two ago when I wrote that entries had opened, but it’s more like six weeks.
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Australian literature, literary awards, Stella Prize
The Luminous Solution, by Charlotte Wood
8 October 2021
The Luminous Solution (published by Allen & Unwin, September 2021) is new work – non-fiction this time – from Sydney based Australian Stella Prize winning author Charlotte Wood, she of The Weekend fame.
A rich inner life is not just the preserve of the arts. The joys, fears and profound self-discoveries of creativity – through making or building anything that wasn’t there before, any imaginative exploration or attempt to invent – I believe to be the birthright of every person on this earth. If you live your life with curiosity and intention – or would like to – this book is for you.
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