A fevered imagination
Dear Editor,
In his review (ABR, December 2004–January 2005) of my recent book on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Herzl’s Nightmare: One Land, Two People, Colin Rubenstein comments that I write ‘well’. I’m intrigued by that observation as I find it near impossible to believe that he’s actually read the book. His judgements about it range from the fanciful to ... (read more)
Australian Book Review
The nexus between ABR and La Trobe University has always been strong, and our summer issue is a good example of this, with a long essay on George Orwell’s enduring influence by Robert Manne, Professor of Politics at La Trobe University (pictured in the next column with Professor Michael Osborne, Vice-Chancellor (centre), and Peter Rose, Editor of ABR). Two years ago, La Trobe University be ... (read more)
Judith Bishop wins the ABR Poetry Prize
The judges of the ABR Poetry Prize certainly earned their pastrami on rye this year! Could the short list have been closer, the final choice more difficult? Doubtful. Morag Fraser, Peter Rose and Craig Sherborne agree that a number of the six short-listed poems (which appeared in the March issue) would have made worthy winners. Such is the tyranny of compet ... (read more)
Painting by numbers in ADB
Dear Editor,
Beverley Kingston’s riposte (ABR, March 2006) to my review of the ADB Supplement 1580–1980 (ABR, February 2006) accuses me of ‘reflecting the traditional bias of those early volumes in considering the work of the stock and station agent more worthy than that of the cookery teacher’. I do not. I pointed out that the same space allocated to a writer ... (read more)
Lifting the flap
Dear Editor,
I had always believed that the only thing worse than a bad review was not to be reviewed at all, to be ignored. Now I find that there is something even more galling: to be reviewed by someone who is more concerned to air his and other people’s opinions on the subject than to address the book or books concerned. Nicholas Brown has some interesting things to say abo ... (read more)
Reading the tea leaves
Dear Editor,
Patrick Allington (May 2008) astutely discerned an essential characteristic – I consider it a flaw – of The Best Australian Political Writing 2008, which was edited by Tony Jones of the ABC. He did not quite nail it down, however: I think that the book would have been better described as the ‘best’ political journalism because that, overwhelmingly, is ... (read more)
An evening with J.M. Coetzee
ABR (in association with La Trobe University and the City of Melbourne) is delighted to be able to invite all our readers, but especially our subscribers, to what promises to be one of our major events for the year, when the masterly novelist and critic J.M. Coetzee will read from his work. This rare opportunity for Victorians to hear the Nobel Laureate and author of ... (read more)
When did you start reading ABR?
That must have been in the mid-1980s (so long ago!). I was running the marketing department at Oxford University Press in Melbourne. A certain future ABR Editor was right next door, marketing the science and medical books. During my years at OUP, the Editor at ABR I had most to do with was Rosemary Sorensen.
Why does cultural philanthropy matter to you?
C ... (read more)
Ross Clark Wins The 2008 ABR Poetry Prize
The menace of lantana has not prevented Ross Clark from carrying off the fourth ABR Poetry Prize. Mr Clark wins $3000 for his poem entitled 'Danger: Lantana', which was published in the March issue with the four other shortlisted poems.
Ross Clark is no stranger to the ABR Poetry Prize. His poem 'Full-Bucket Moon' was shortlisted in last year's competit ... (read more)
Two Essayists Share $10,000 Prize
This year’s Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay has been won by Rachel Robertson and Mark Tredinnick. This is the first time that the Calibre Prize – a joint initiative of ABR and of the Copyright Agency Limited – has been shared (last year’s winner, in the inaugural year, was Elisabeth Holdsworth).
One hundred and twenty-seven essayists entered the ... (read more)