Hidden Author
Before Manning Clark
Dear Editor,
Norman Etherington’s lively review of Mark McKenna’s book on Manning Clark repeats the claim that Clark was ‘the first academic (in 1946) to offer a full-length course in Australian history’ (December 2011–January 2012). R.M. Crawford, the professor who appointed Clark to give the 1946 course, had himself done so in the previous year to twenty or so st ... (read more)
Australian Book Review Fellowships are intended to reward outstanding Australian writers, to enhance ABR through the publication of long-form journalism, and to advance the magazine’s commitment to ideas and critical debate. Some Fellowships are themed - others are not.
ABR Fellowships are funded by the magazine's Patrons and in some cases by philanthropic foundations.
We look for stylish and ... (read more)
Reference vision
By year’s end, it’s not easy to become giddy-headed about our daily cache of new publications, but one book from Cambridge University Press that turned our heads is The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, edited by Philip Goad and Julie Willis. Immense in scale and conception – with 200 contributors, 500 images, and 1000 entries – this will be an indispensabl ... (read more)
Whither anthropology?
Dear Editor,
Emma Kowal’s review of my book (November 2011) is by and large a generous one, and yet it comes to some conclusions that I must reject. My view is not the same as the ‘anti-separatists’, because, as I make clear in my discussion, they do not maintain one view. Some of them are neo-liberals. Others are not. Among the writers I discuss in the releva ... (read more)
Why do you write?
Storytelling in all its forms is one way of having something curious, strange, and comforting to say to others and ourselves when we are faced with the malaise of the real.
Are you a vivid dreamer?
... (read more)
Critical minds
Fifty years ago this month, Max Harris and Geoffrey Dutton published the first issue of Australian Book Review, a stylish, mono, three-column, tabloid-sized magazine of sixteen pages, costing one shilling and nine pence. Auspiciously, the contributors included Robert Hughes (on Sidney Nolan), Randolph Stow (Nene Gare), and Dutton himself on Patrick White’s Riders in the C ... (read more)
Sidestepping the ‘product’
Dear Editor,
Chris Flynn’s commentary (‘Claws out for a Writing Career’, October 2011) discusses the idea that some authors of literary fiction may be considering more commercially viable practices in order to remain relevant. I am a writer, but have also practised as a visual artist for many years. Some thirty years ago, I watched the arts move from a pursui ... (read more)
ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
Claire Aman, Gaylene Carbis, Gregory Day, and Carrie Tiffany are the four shortlisted authors in the inaugural ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. Their stories appear in this special Fiction issue. ABR and the judges – Tony Birch, Mark Gomes, and Terri-ann White – congratulate the shortlisted authors, who were selected from an impressive fie ... (read more)
Declaring an interest
Dear Editor,
No doubt one of the spin-offs for those who commission and read book reviews is the jousting or arm-wrestling following the publication of a review that is contested by an aggrieved writer. An instance of such jousting appears in the Letters column of your September 2011 issue, when Eileen Chanin defended her recent biography Book Life: The Life and Times of Da ... (read more)