Welcome to our summer edition! Never before have we published 78 people in a single issue. ‘Books of the Year’ is our major feature – always fun to commission. Find out what leading writers, critics and artists enjoyed reading in 2014. Poetry is a strength this month: we have poems from Felicity Plunkett, American Paula Bohince, and Porter Prize winner Michael Farrell, among others. Dion Kagan reviews that audacious French film Stranger by the Lake, and Ian Dickson admires the STC’s Waiting for Godot. Other highlights include Robert Dessaix on Colm Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary, Robyn Williams on Stephen Hawking, and former agent Mary Cunnane’s defence of the slush pile.
December 2013–January 2014 no. 357
Books of the Year 2013
Books of the Year is always one our most popular features of the year. Find out what 30 senior contributors liked most this year – and why.
More#Queryfail
Mary Cunnane, who has worked in the publishing industry since 1976, laments the laziness and irritation of those publishers who resent and underestimate unsolicited submissions from authors
MoreRobyn Williams on Stephen Hawking
ABR Radio National’s Robyn Williams reviews Stephen Hawking’s memoirs and recalls his two interviews with the remarkable and remarkably long-lived author–scientist.
MoreThe Mad Marathon
Shane Carmody reviews veteran Canberra watcher Mungo MacCallum’s ‘swiftly written, easily read, entertaining, foible-focused’ account of the ‘personality-obsessed non-debate that was the 2013 campaign’.
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