Hidden Author
Sydney Symphony Orchestra Flash Sale
Sydney-based music lovers shouldn’t miss the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s 72-hour flash sale. Design your own concert package and book three performances from twenty different programs in the 2016 season and receive 50% off the full ticket price. Possible combinations include Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony, and Pink Martini ... (read more)
David Williamson (1942–) is one of Australia's most decorated playwrights. Writer of award-winning theatre, film and television, David's works have remained consistently relevant, with new seasons performed yearly. He has won awards in both film and theatre, with The Removalists (1971) earning him the George Devine Award as well as the prestige of being the first foreigner to win the award. The ... (read more)
On the unanimity of arts critics
Peter Wilby – whose column 'First Thoughts' is the first thing Arts Update turns to in New Statesman – enjoyed the current revival of Guys and Dolls in London. 'I had no quarrel with the national newspaper critics' seemingly unanimous awarding of four stars,' he wrote. 'Why, though, was one of them not sufficiently generous to give it five stars and why was th ... (read more)
Women on the podium
When was the last time you saw a woman conduct an opera or a symphony orchestra – that is, one whose name isn't Simone Young?
Conducting remains an overwhelmingly male preserve, especially in this country – to an extent that would be pilloried elsewhere in the arts. The infinitesimal number of women conducting orchestras makes the composition of most company boards or the ... (read more)
Vale Pierre Boulez
Arts Update was in the United States when Pierre Boulez died (5 January). The French composer and conductor, who was aged ninety, had remained active well into his eighties, no longer the enfant terrible who had excoriated musical conservatives and led a revolution in music in the 1960s. Arts Update, inured to the desultory coverage of the arts in most Australian newspapers, wa ... (read more)
Australian Book Review is delighted to announce that Josephine Rowe has won the 2016 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize for her story 'Glisk'. Ian Dickson announced Josephine as the overall winner at the 2016 Melbourne Writers Festival. Anthony Lawrence placed second for his story 'Ash' and Jonathan Tel came third for his story 'The Water Calligrapher's Women'. Subscribers can read all three s ... (read more)
Jack Hibberd (1940–) is a Melbourne playwright and doctor. He graduated from the University of Melbourne with a degree in medicine and went on to become a co-founder of the Australian Performing Group (APG). He has written over forty plays, including A Stretch of the Imagination, A Toast to Melba, Slam Dunk, and Legacy, and penned his most famous play, Dimboola, in 1968. Dimboola holds the recor ... (read more)
The Jolley Prize is now worth $12,500
The ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize is the country's foremost short story prize, and we are delighted to be able to present it again in 2016. Generous support from ABR Patron Ian Dickson has enabled us to increase the total prize money from $8,000 to $12,500, of which the overall winner will receive $7,000 rather than $5,000. The runner-up will receive ... (read more)
In this bonus episode of Poem of the Week Peter Rose interviews two past winners of the Peter Porter Poetry Prize – husband and wife Stephen Edgar and Judith Beveridge – about what it is like being poets in a marriage.
Judith Beveridge and Stephen Edgar have both also been recent Poem of the Week guests and their individual episodes are available via the links below.
#6 - J ... (read more)