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Hidden Author

The Update - November 15, 2016

ABR Arts 15 November 2016
Wagner’s Ring Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (Opera Australia) opens on Monday, 21 November – the first of three full cycles. Neil Armfield’s production was first seen in Melbourne in 2013. Pietari Inkinen, who led the Ring in 2013, is once again conducting. Many of the Australian singers reappear in the same roles, but there are some significant – and auspicious – new princ ... (read more)

Steven Herrick

Reading Australia 02 November 2016
Steven Herrick is a poet and author. He has published twenty-two books for adults, young adults, and children, and is widely considered to be a pioneer of verse novels for children and young adults. He left school in Year 10, before returning some years later as an adult, and then going on to study poetry at the University of Queensland, where he gained his B.A. in 1982. In 2000 he was awarded t ... (read more)

Shaun Tan

Reading Australia 02 November 2016
Shaun Tan is an author and illustrator, originally from Perth, Western Australia. He studied Fine Arts and Literature at the University of Shaun Tan (photograph by Stefan Tell)Western Australia, and graduated with joint honours in 1995. His illustrated books deal with social, political and historical subjects through surreal dream-like imagery. He has received numerous awards, including the CBCA ( ... (read more)

The Update - November 3, 2016

ABR Arts 02 November 2016
Queensland Theatre Season 2017 Queensland Theatre’s 2017 season kicks off with several productions that explore themes of politics, race, religion, romance, film, and business. Already the program’s diversity has generated much interest. According to Artistic Director Sam Strong, ‘some performances have already sold out’. One highlight is Joanna Murray-Smith’s adaptation of Ingmar Berg ... (read more)

Episode #9 Colin Golvan on new threats to Australia's literary culture from the Productivity Commission

The ABR Podcast 31 October 2016
In this week’s ABR podcast Peter Rose talks to Colin Golvan QC – a lawyer specialising in intellectual property – about new threats to Australian creativity, chiefly the proposed removal of restrictions on parallel importation, as recommended by the Productivity Commission. Colin Golvan's article 'The god of cheaper prices: New threats to our literary culture from the Productivity Commiss ... (read more)

Letter to the Editor - November 2016

November 2016, no. 386 24 October 2016
TRUMPERY Dear Editor,Sandy Thorne seems to think Donald Trump can restore America to prosperity and its past greatness (Letters, October 2016). All great nations rise, decline, and fall. If Caligula can put his horse Incitatus forward as a Senator, I suppose it’s possible that the American people just might vote in Donald Trump as president. As Bob Dylan sang ‘The answer is blowin’ in the w ... (read more)

News from the Editor's Desk - November 2016

November 2016, no. 386 24 October 2016
OUR NEW LAUREATE Australian Book Review is thrilled to name Robyn Archer as our new Laureate. She joins David Malouf, who became the inaugural Laureate in 2014. Robyn Archer is primarily, and famously, a singer. She made her professional début in 1974 as Annie 1 in the Australian première of Brecht and Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins (a role she reprised in the 1990s). Other celebrated roles h ... (read more)

The Update - October 18, 2016

ABR Arts 18 October 2016
Art Issue – 10 November ABR will celebrate the launch of our bumper Arts issue with a special event at the Monash University Museum of Art (Caulfield) at 6pm on 10 November. Find out what the likes of Jacki Weaver, Leo Schofield, and Robyn Archer rated as the outstanding arts productions of the year. At this event we will also introduce our new ABR Laureate, who will join inaugural ABR Laureate ... (read more)

The Update - October 4, 2016

ABR Arts 04 October 2016
Voices from America Nina Stemme and Stuart Skelton in The Metropolitan Opera's Tristan und Isolde (photograph by Ken Howa ABR Editor Peter Rose was in the United States recently to conduct a literary/arts tour of the northeastern United States. In addition to visiting sites that produced some of America's greatest literary figures, the tour party also attended a performance of Tristan und Isolde ... (read more)

Letters to the Editor - October 2016

October 2016, no. 385 23 September 2016
Feeble times Dear Editor,Alan Atkinson's study of national conscience and how it has functioned in Australia is timely ('How Do We Live With Ourselves?' September 2016). Returning to the eighteenth century, he argues that such a thing as a national conscience might exist but that it is 'especially feeble' at present. Naturally, this feebleness is seen and expressed in Australia's policies on offs ... (read more)