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Thanking our Partners (9)
Australian Book Review is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. ABR is supported by the South Australian Government through Arts South Australia.
We also acknowledge the generous support of university partner, Monash University, and we are grateful for the support of Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund, Good Business Foundation (an initiative of Peter McMullin AM), Australian Communities Foundation, the City of Melbourne, and Arnold Bloch Leibler.
View items...Podcast Archive
The ABR Podcast
The first series of the The ABR Podcast featured a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. There is currently a new series of The ABR Podcast.
Poem of the Week
Poem of the Week was a weekly podcast in which a poet reflected on and read a new poem.
Click here to listen via iTunes
Click here to listen on SoundCloud
Click here for more information about Poem of the Week or to read shownotes for individual episodes.
Online Competitions Access to Institutions
Due to privacy reasons, it's unfortunately not possible to enter any of ABR's online competitions while using a shared institutional subscription via a university, school or library.
To enter our online competitions, please access the ABR website from a personal internet connection.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to call us at (03) 9699 8822 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
2020 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
Australian Book Review is delighted to announce the shortlist for this year’s ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, worth a total of $12,500. This year’s Jolley Prize received a record field of 1450 entries from 34 countries, and was judged by Gregory Day, Josephine Rowe, and Ellen van Neerven.
ABR will publish the three shortlisted stories in the 2020 August Fiction Issue. Details are listed below on how to attend a Zoom ceremony on August 13, when we will announce the winner.
Congratulations to the shortlisted entrants, and we thank all those who submitted their stories to the Jolley Prize.
The Shortlist
C.J. Garrow for 'Egg Timer'
C.J. Garrow is a Melbourne writer whose fiction has been shortlisted for international prizes including the Fish Prize (Ireland) and the George Garrett Fiction Prize (USA). ‘Egg Timer’ is his first published work of fiction.
Simone Hollander for 'Hieroglyph'
Simone Hollander is a writer from Monterey Bay, California. Her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington was completed on independent study from Dublin, Ireland. She has won prizes for her short fiction and creative non-fiction, and has served as a delegate on a writers’ cultural exchange to China. Her work can be found in PageBoy Magazine, The Weeklings, The Seattle Review, The Dublin Quarterly, and other literary niches. Simone has worked in public, private, and university libraries. She lives with her family, animals, the mountains, in Longmont, Colorado. She is writing a novel.
Mykaela Saunders for 'River Story'
Mykaela Saunders is a Koori writer, teacher, and community researcher. Of Dharug and Lebanese ancestry, she’s working-class and queer, and belongs to the Tweed Aboriginal community. Mykaela has worked in Aboriginal education since 2003, and her research explores trans-generational trauma and healing in her community. Mykaela began writing fiction and poetry in 2017, as part of her Doctor of Arts degree at the University of Sydney. Her work has since been published across forms and disciplines, placed in writing prizes, and attracted funding and fellowships.
Highly commended
'Lucky Charms' by Jennifer Down (VIC, Australia)
'I Believe' by V. Sanjay Kumar (India)
'Wait for Me' by Jasmin McGaughey (QLD, Australia)
'Two Africas' by Jean McNeil (UK)
'Bedford Jeune' by Lauren Sarazen (France)
Join us to announce the winner
The winner will be announced at a Zoom ceremony on August 13. The event will feature readings from all the shortlisted authors, with ABR then announcing the winner. This is a free public event and all are welcome, but bookings are essential. A Zoom access link will be sent out prior to the event.
When: 6 for 6.15 pm on Thursday, 13 August 2020
Where: A Zoom ceremony. An access link will be sent out before the event.
Bookings: This is a free public event and all are welcome, but bookings are essential.
How to book: Register your attendance by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
ABR gratefully acknowledges Ian Dickson's generous support for the Jolley Prize.
Win a holiday in India with Abercrombie & Kent!
Update from Australian Book Review - March 2020
Thank you for your many interesting and thoughtful contributions to the Passage to India competition. In the circumstances, ABR and our partner Abercrombie & Kent think it would be incongruous to announce the winner at this stage, when international travel is moot at best and when such grave issues are uppermost in everyone’s mind. We will name the winner in coming weeks.
About the competition
In a first for Australian Book Review, we are delighted to be partnering with luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent to offer one lucky ABR subscriber the chance to win a ten-day adventure for two in India worth up to AU$8,250. The prize is Abercrombie & Kent’s 'Essential India’ tour, a seven-day private journey from Delhi to Agra to Jaipur, staying in luxury Taj hotels throughout, plus the winner’s choice of a three-day extension to either Ranthambore, Udaipur, or Varanasi.
To be in the running to win this magnificent prize, subscribers needed to tell us – in fifty to one hundred words – about a book that has inspired them to travel, or to dream of travelling.
Entry for this competition has now closed.
Terms and Conditions apply and can be found here. By entering this promotion you agree that you have read the Terms and Conditions and will abide by them.
ABR Rising Stars
2021, QLD
Mindy GillABR is pleased to announce its fifth Rising Star: Mindy Gill. A poet, critic, and former editor-in-chief of Peril magazine (2017–2020), Mindy is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing at Queensland University of Technology. She has won the Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award and the Tom Collins Poetry Prize, as well as a number of prestigious international fellowships. Her collection of poems, August Burns the Sky, was shortlisted for the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize.
The Rising Stars program – generously funded by the ABR patrons – is intended to advance the careers of younger writers and critics whose early contributions to ABR have impressed readers and editors alike.
On becoming our latest Rising Star, Mindy Gill commented:
I am delighted to be named ABR’s fifth Rising Star; the confidence that the magazine has placed in me is an honour. I feel fortunate to write for a publication so dedicated to enriching the marketplace of ideas, especially in a cultural climate as tenuous as this one. But above all, I feel extraordinarily lucky to receive Peter Rose’s mentorship and guidance. Since I began writing for ABR, I have been moved by the staunch support Peter extends to his writers, and how strongly he values and encourages their independence of thought. I look forward to writing criticism that embodies the magazine’s rigour, fearlessness and uncompromising vision, and can think of no better place to cut my teeth as a young writer.
Peter Rose, Editor of ABR, commented:
ABR is acutely aware of the challenges facing freelance writers (especially younger ones) during the pandemic. The Rising Stars program assumes even greater importance as we mentor our best young writers and critics. Mindy Gill has made a real impression since joining the magazine in 2020. We look forward to working with our new Rising Star.
Recent writing for ABR:
Review of Racism edited by Winnie Dunn, Stephen Pham, and Phoebe Grainer
Review of Revenge: Murder in three parts by S.L. Lim
Review of We Were Never Friends by Margaret Bearman
2021, Vic.
Anders Villani (photograph by Jesper Hede)ABR is delighted to introduce its fourth Rising Star – Anders Villani. Anders began writing for ABR in late 2020, soon after taking part in an ABR publishing masterclass. He holds an MFA from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, where he received the Delbanco Prize for poetry. His first full-length collection, Aril Wire, was released in 2018 by Five Islands Press. A PhD Candidate in Creative Writing at Monash University, he lives in Melbourne; his doctoral research concerns poetic representations of trauma.
The Rising Stars program is intended to advance the careers of younger writers and critics whose early contributions to ABR have impressed readers and editors alike.
On becoming our latest Rising Star, Anders Villani commented:
What began as an ABR masterclass at Monash University has bloomed into perhaps the most enriching partnership yet in my artistic and intellectual life – and now this extraordinary accolade. Poetry has been at the heart of my involvement with the magazine: as a reviewer; as a creative contributor; and, most recently, as assistant poetry editor. In each of these capacities, I have witnessed and benefited from ABR’s invaluable ongoing commitment to poetry in Australia. As the new Rising Star, I consider it my mandate to deepen that commitment, and I am so excited and honoured to get to work. In a precarious cultural landscape, ABR offers a beacon, as it has for generations. That it has not only survived the pandemic but grown stronger is a testament to its resilience and importance. I could not have wished for a better platform for doing what I love.
Recent writing for ABR:
Review of Prose Poetry: An introduction by Paul Hetherington and Cassandra Atherton
'Marlin', a new poem by Anders Villani
Review of three new poetry collections by Luke Best, Todd Turner, and Angela Gardner
2020, Vic.
ABR is delighted to name its third Rising Star, Declan Fry. The Rising Stars program is intended to encourage younger writers and critics whose early contributions to ABR have made an impression. We work closely with the Rising Stars, commissioning them often and helping them to enhance their critical work and to advance their careers.
On becoming our latest Rising Star, Declan Fry commented:
We live in a continent rich with stories. Many of these are still being told, and deserve to be widely heard. One of my earliest memories of writing publications was seeing ABR down at the local library. In a difficult environment for the arts, ABR’s support for new and emerging talent is vital. To be able to connect with ABR having never published or worked with literary journals before speaks volumes, especially during the isolation of this pandemic. Opportunities like the Rising Stars initiative are a great privilege – a place to hone your writing practice, and to develop a long-term investment in the work. It gives me a real sense of hope knowing that there is a space for considered, thoughtful analysis. This opportunity would mean nothing without those who have paved the way – our ancestors, Elders, family, mentors, and teachers. They are the original critics and storytellers. We owe them so much. I can’t wait to get started! Much love and stay deadly, ABR.
About Declan Fry
Declan Fry is an essayist, critic, and proud descendant of the Yorta Yorta. Born on Wongatha country in Kalgoorlie, in 2009 he received the Tom Collins Prize in Australian Literature, and, as joint winner, the Todhunter Literary Award in 2013. He currently lives on unceded Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung land and is a board member of Books ‘n’ Boots, an organisation which distributes football boots and books to remote and regional Aboriginal communities. He first published in ABR in June 2020.
Recent writing for ABR:
Review of After Australia edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad
Review of Fire Front: First Nations poetry and power today edited by Alison Whittaker
Review of Elephants with Headlights by Bem Le Hunte
Previous Rising Stars
2019, NSW
Alex Tighe
Alex Tighe is a writer and editor, and the winner of the University of Sydney’s 2018 Wentworth Medal essay prize. He is the ABC / Kidney Health Australia’s inaugural Mark Colvin Scholar.
Recent writing for ABR:
Review of Stop Being Reasonable by Eleanor Gordon-Smith
Review of Delayed Response by Jason Farman
Review of Net Loss by Sebastian Smee
2019, Vic.
Sarah Walker
Sarah Walker is a Melbourne-based writer, photographer, and fine artist. In 2017 she won the Sydney Road Writer’s Cup and the Sydney Road Storytelling Prize, and was a runner-up in the Darebin Mayor’s Writing Award. She was runner-up in the 2019 Calibre Essay Prize.
Recent writing for ABR:
Review of Sky Swimming: Reflection on auto/biography, people and place by Sylvia Martin
'Contested breath: The ethics of assembly in an age of absurdity' by Sarah Walker
2019 Calibre Essay Prize (runner-up): 'Floundering' by Sarah Walker
2020 Calibre Essay Prize Judges
J.M. Coetzee was born in South Africa and educated in South Africa and the United States. He has published nineteen works of fiction, as well as criticism and translations. Among awards he has won are the Booker Prize (twice) and, in 2003, the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is currently Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide.
Lisa Gorton, who lives in Melbourne, is a poet, novelist, and critic, and a former Poetry Editor of ABR. She studied at the Universities of Melbourne and Oxford. A Rhodes Scholar, she completed a Masters in Renaissance Literature and a Doctorate on John Donne at Oxford University. Her review essays and poetry have appeared in ABR since 2002. Her first poetry collection, Press Release (2007), won the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry. She has also been awarded the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize and the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal. Lisa’s novel The Life of Houses (2015) shared the 2016 Prime Minister’s Award for fiction and received the NSW Premier’s People’s Choice Award. Her third poetry collection Empirical appeared with Giramondo in 2019.
Peter Rose has been Editor of Australian Book Review since 2001. Previously he was a publisher at Oxford University Press. His reviews and essays have appeared mostly in ABR. He has published six books of poetry, two novels, and a family memoir, Rose Boys (Text Publishing), which won the 2003 National Biography Award. He edited the 2007 and 2008 editions of The Best Australian Poems (Black Inc.). His most recent publication is a volume of poems, The Subject of Feeling (UWA Publishing, 2015).
Winner | 2019 Jolley Prize | Sonja Dechian for 'The Point-Blank Murder'
2019 Jolley Prize Winner: Sonja Dechian
ABR is delighted to announce that Sonja Dechian is the overall winner of the 2019 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize for her story ‘The Point-Blank Murder’. Sonja Dechian receives $5,000. Raaza Jamshed was placed second for her story 'Miracle Windows', and Morgan Nunan was placed third for his story 'Rubble Boy'. We would like to congratulate all three shortlisted entrants and thank all those who entered their stories in the Jolley Prize.
The ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize is one of the country’s most prestigious awards for short fiction. This year the Jolley Prize attracted almost 1,400 entries from 35 different countries. The judges were Maxine Beneba Clarke, John Kinsella, and Beejay Silcox. The three shortlisted stories appear in our September Fiction 2018 issue.
About Sonja Dechian
Sonja Dechian (photograph supplied)
Sonja Dechian is the author of the short story collection An Astronaut’s Life, which won the 2016 UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing and was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award the same year. Her writing has previously appeared in The Best Australian Stories, New Australian Stories 2, and elsewhere. She has co-edited two books of children’s writing about the Australian refugee experience, No Place Like Home and Dark Dreams.
ABR Arts | Giveaways
How to enter
To be in the running for any of our giveaways, please email Rosemary Blackney at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., using the subject line ‘ABR Arts Giveaways’, with your full name and contact details. Please specify in your email which giveaway you are interested in.
To be eligible, you must be a current subscriber to ABR.
Click here to subscribe from $10 a month.
Spanish Film Festival (Palace) • 5 double passes
We are delighted to offer five double passes to the Spanish Film Festival. Screening nationally in June and July, highlights of the festival include The Teacher Who Promised the Sea, the true story of a teacher who brought progressive teaching methods to a small village in the 1930s, a collection of films under the theme ‘Female Liberation, Sexuality and Empowerment’, and a retrospective of Spanish arthouse director Isabel Coixet.
2020 Porter Prize Judges
John Hawke is a Senior Lecturer, specialising in poetry, at Monash University. His books include Australian Literature and the Symbolist Movement, Poetry and the Trace (co-edited with Ann Vickery), and the volume of poetry Aurelia, which received the 2015 Anne Elder award. He is ABR's Poetry Editor.
Bronwyn Lea was born in Tasmania and grew up in Queensland and Papua New Guinea. She is the author of Flight Animals (UQP, 2001), winner of the Wesley Michel Wright Prize and the FAW Anne Elder Award, and The Other Way Out (Giramondo, 2008), which won the WA Premier’s Book Award for Poetry and the SA Premier’s John Bray Poetry Prize.
Philip Mead has worked at the University of Melbourne, as Lockie Fellow in Creative Writing and Australian Literature, at the University of Tasmania, and at the University of Western Australia as the inaugural Chair of Australian Literature and Director of the Westerly Centre. He has co-edited The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry (with John Tranter) (2004) and is the author of Networked Language: Culture and History in Australian Poetry (2010) and of the Vagabond Press poetry collection, Zanzibar Light (2019).