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Hidden Author

The Update - November 24, 2016

ABR Arts 24 November 2015
Prime Minister's Literary Awards The 2015 PMLA shortlists have been a long time coming, as many authors, booksellers, and publishers will attest. How fitting – after the debacle of 2014 (with its absurdities and subsequent justifications) – that it will be Malcolm Turnbull and not Tony Abbott who will announce the winners of these six lucrative prizes – sometime in December, we understand. ... (read more)

News from the Editor's Desk - November 2015

November 2015, no. 376 29 October 2015
21 Days: An Odyssey Our survey of neglected novels published in the Fiction issue (September 2015) has attracted much attention. Peter Rose, lauding Rodney Hall's novel Captivity Captive (1988), wrote: 'The book might have been written in a day – one inspired day.' Well, not quite. Rodney Hall, in an email, told our Editor that Captivity Captive was written in twenty-one days. It seems he barel ... (read more)

Kerryn Goldsworthy is Critic of the Month

November 2015, no. 376 29 October 2015
WHEN DID YOU FIRST WRITE FOR ABR? The first thing I ever wrote for ABR was published early in 1985; it was a review of Helen Garner's The Children's Bach. My association with ABR has lasted much longer than any of my romantic entanglements. WHICH CRITICS MOST IMPRESS YOU? The best thing I can do here is quote lines of criticism that I've never forgotten. Terry Eagleton on Wuthering Heights: 'th ... (read more)

Letters to the Editor - October 2015

October 2015, no. 375 28 September 2015
CHILDHOOD SEX! Dear Editor, Shannon Burns’s splendid ABR Patrons’ Fellowship essay, ‘The Scientist of His Own Experience: A Profile of Gerard Murnane’, is rich in insights and pithy observations, plus some rather fine photographs (August 2015). Much of it resonated for me, as Murnane’s first editor; this was soon after I had arrived at William Heinemann from Penguin, aeons ago. When G ... (read more)

News from the Editor's desk - October 2015

October 2015, no. 375 25 September 2015
Environmental times For the second year in a row, generous support from the Bjarne K. Dahl Trust has enabled us to devote much space to environmental subjects. The highlight is a long article by award-winning author Ashley Hay, the second ABR Dahl Trust Fellow. We also survey key scientists and environmentalists about the need for action. To celebrate this issue, ABR and the Dahl Trust will h ... (read more)

Open Page with Tim Flannery

October 2015, no. 375 25 September 2015
Why do you write? For me, writing is the beginning of so much. It’s how I methodise my thoughts. How I explore issues. My books really are co-explorations with my readers. Are you a vivid dreamer? Oftentimes yes. My dreams can be repetitive: the same very specific geographies, the same themes. In the past few weeks they’ve been all about the last illness and death of my father, who passed ... (read more)

News from the Editor's desk - September 2015

September 2015, no. 374 26 August 2015
Jolley Prize Welcome to our annual Fiction issue. Among the highlights are the three 2015 Jolley Prize shortlisted stories. This is the sixth time that we have presented the Jolley Prize, which is worth a total of $8,000. After reading more than 1,200 entries submitted by writers around the world, the judges – ABR Deputy Editor Amy Baillieu, poet–academic Sarah Holland-Batt, and author Paddy ... (read more)

Open Page with Stephanie Bishop

September 2015, no. 374 25 August 2015
What drew you to writing? I can’t remember not writing – it is something I have always done. As a teenager I was strongly encouraged by some wonderful teachers and started to become much more serious about it. I have always felt this need, this pressure, to translate experience into language. ... (read more)

Open Page with Michelle de Kretser

July-August 2009, no. 313 01 July 2009
Why do you write? It’s an excuse to hang around books, which is all I’ve done, one way or another, over the course of my career. Are you a vivid dreamer? Yes. It’s like going to the cinema for free every night. I so look forward to it. But they are strictly private screenings. Where are you happiest? (1) Reading in bed, with a dog at hand. (2) In a green place, with warm rain falling. ... (read more)

The Peter Porter Poetry Prize

Competitions and programs 29 July 2014
The Peter Porter Poetry Prize is one of Australia’s most prestigious prizes for a new poem. The Prize – open to all poets writing in English – is named after the great Australian poet Peter Porter (1929–2010). The Prize was first awarded in 2005 (Stephen Edgar) and was renamed in 2011, following Peter Porter’s death. Past winners include Tracy Ryan, Judith Bishop, and Anthony Lawrence. ... (read more)