December 2018, issue no. 407

The Calibre Essay Prize is open!

We welcome essays of all kinds

The Origins of Dislike by Amit Chaudhuri

Reviewed by Robert Dessaix

Les Murray as one-off fluke

Peter Goldsworthy lauds the Collected Poems of Les Murray.

Burning Planet by Andrew C. Scott

Reviewed by Billy Griffiths

Books of the Year

34 critics and authors nominate their favourite books of 2018.

A tribute to Dorothy Porter

Andrea Goldsmith’s tribute to her late partner Dorothy Porter.

Germaine Greer and Anne Summers

Zora Simic reviews new works on two pivotal Australian feminists.

David Marr's My Country

Glyn Davis on David Marr’s new collection of a life's writing.

Welcome to the December issue of ABR!
Highlights include:

Books of the Year
34 critics and authors, including Michelle de Kretser, Fiona Wright, Beejay Silcox, Gregory Day, and Gideon Haigh, nominate their favourite books of 2018.

Review of the Month
Glyn Davis on David Marr’s new collection of speeches, essays,
and stories, My Country.

Les Murray as maverick angel
Peter Goldsworthy lauds the Collected Poems of Les Murray.

Germaine Greer and Anne Summers
Zora Simic on a Germaine Greer biography by Elizabeth Kleinhenz and Anne Summers’ new memoir Unfettered and Alive.

The ARC controversy
Professor Joy Damousi on the controversial vetoing of eleven ARC grants, and brief statements from a further thirteen academics.

David Malouf's new poetry
Judith Bishop on David Malouf’s new collection, An Open Book.

A tribute to Dorothy Porter
Andrea Goldsmith’s moving tribute to her late partner and
Australian poet Dorothy Porter.

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Kate Murphy reviews 'Shifting the Boundaries: The University of Melbourne 1975–2015' by Carolyn Rasmussen

Kate Murphy

During the 1960s and 1970s, student radicals protested that their places of learning were getting too close to industry and government. In 1970, Monash University students occupied the uni More

Rémy Davison reviews 'Crashed' by Adam Tooze

Rémy Davidson

In 1996 the pre-eminent political economist Susan Strange published her final book, The Retreat of the State. Strange had dedicated most of her career to studying the ability of t More

Robert Dessaix reviews 'The Origins of Dislike' by Amit Chaudhuri

Robert Dessaix

There is something oddly Jesuitical about this arresting, if not quite thrilling, collection of essays in defence of Modernism (and so modernity). It may be Krishna that Amit Chaudhuri cha More

Paul Humphries reviews 'The Best Australian Science Writing 2018' edited by John Pickrell

Paul Humphries

I first encountered Stephen Jay Gould when I happened on one of his books in a bookshop during my late teens. Its unusual title, The Panda’s Thumb, caught my eye. The lead artic More