Why do you write?
Goethe said his themes were symbolic: it could have been any subject, but he wanted to write it all the same. Something is missing: I always feel this. Then I see how a pattern can be woven across the abyss.
Are you a vivid dreamer?
What qualifies as dream? I daydream a lot. Massage produces visions: are they dreams?
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Hidden Author
2014 winner
The Calibre Prize, created in 2007, has quickly established itself as Australia’s major prize for an original essay, generating brilliant new essays and fresh insights into culture, society, and the human condition. Click here for more information about past Calibre Prize winners.
Australian Book Review has much pleasure in announcing the winner of the 2014 Calibre Prize for an Out ... (read more)
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Hard times at the ABC
Why is it that the ABC – which can produce lavish and lamentable ‘entertainments’ such as Randling and Angry Boys – can’t find the money to maintain decently resourced radio drama or book readings. From January 2013, Radio National’s popular Book Reading – now in its sixty-fourth year – will disappear. The ABC has also announced significant cuts to radio dra ... (read more)
True grit
Dear Editor,
Melinda Harvey’s piece on Michelle de Kretser’s Questions of Travel (October 2012) is precisely the kind of review that makes a reader like myself write to editors. As the last line makes clear, her review is positive, but her first and penultimate paragraphs betray how much academia must be jettisoned to arrive at enjoyment. The struggle to embrace an observational no ... (read more)
Boyd and beyond
Coming ABR events include another Fireside Chat – this time with Wayne Macauley, author of The Cook (Text), which has been shortlisted for several prizes, including the Melbourne Prize Best Writing Award. This Fireside Chat will take place at Boyd on Wednesday, 10 October (6 p.m.).
In our first collaboration with Melbourne’s hugely popular City Library, on Flinders Lane, ABR ... (read more)
Patrick White in Adelaide
Dear Editor,
In his article on the theatre of Patrick White (May 2012), David Marr implies quite strongly that White had nothing to do with the theatre between John Tasker’s production of Night on Bald Mountain for the Adelaide University Theatre Guild during the 1964 Adelaide Festival and Neil Armfield’s production of Signal Driver, commissioned by Artistic Directo ... (read more)
ABR subscribers can read all previous prize-winning and shortlisted essays to the Calibre Essay Prize. If you aren't a subscriber, digital subscriptions begin at only $10 per month. Click here to become an ABR subscriber.
2024
Tracey Slaughter ‘why your hair is long & your stories short’
Tracey Slaughter won the eighteenth Calibre Essay Prize, worth a total of $10, ... (read more)
Calibre Essay Prize
Australia’s leading award for an original essay is intended to foster new insights into culture, society, and the human condition. All non-fiction subjects are eligible for submission. The prize is worth a total of $10,000, and is supported by Peter McLennan and Mary-Ruth Sindrey.
Peter Porter Poetry Prize
ABR’s prestigious international poetry prize is named i ... (read more)