Advances
Chong’s covers
Last month’s cover subject, Paul Kelly, proved immensely popular when we began advertising a new series of portrait prints based on W.H. Chong’s cover images. Each portrait is available exclusively from ABR. The unframed prints – presented in limited editions – are signed, numbered, and (in some cases) hand-coloured by Chong, who, with ...
ABR is now online
This month we launch our online edition. ABR OE, which complements but in no way replaces the print version, is probably the most important innovation at ABR since its revival in 1978. With this additional resource, ABR is well placed to maximise its potential and reach those readers a ...
Takolander’s prize
Maria Takolander – a poet and academic at Deakin University – has won the 2010 ABR Short Story Competition, worth $2000. The judges, Chris Flynn and Peter Rose, were impressed, and amused, by her story ‘A Roānkin Philosophy of Poetry’, an artful take on academic intrigue and absurdism. It appears
The kindness of patrons Early last month we launched our Patrons Scheme. One hundred friends and supporters celebrated the event in style at ‘Cranlana’, in Melbourne. A full report appears on page 5, next to a list of all our Patrons. For ABR, as we have already reported, private philanthropy is absolutely essential. Without it we can’t grow, can’t take the odd risk, can’t introduce many new features.
Patronage and ABR
Private philanthropy has never been more important for the arts, as costs (and expectations) rise, and as traditional sources of funding and revenue become more unpredictable. ABR has had some success in this regard since entering the field two years ago, but June marks a turning point for us, with the formal launch of our philanthropy program in Melbourne, on 2 June. David Malouf, one of Australia’s most celebrated writers, is our guest speaker. There will be more such events around Australia in coming months.
... (read more)Two Bob’s Worth
Lorna Hallahan and David Hansen are the joint winners of the 2010 Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay, the fourth to be presented by ABR, in association with Copyright Agency Limited’s Cultural Fund. The judges – critic James Ley and ABR Editor Peter Rose – chose from almost 200 entries. Both essays appear in this issue. We list the other shortlisted essays on page 29 and congratulate all the essayists.
... (read more)Robert Dessaix and China
During Writers’ Week last month, many of the writers on the program were outraged to learn of the plight of their fellow guest Robert Dessaix. The celebrated author of A Mother’s Disgrace and Arabesques was scheduled to fly to China at the conclusion of Writers’ Week, having been invited by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to take part in Shanghai’s International Literary Festival, along with writers such as Les Murray and Alexis Wright. China then banned Dr Dessaix from entering the country because of his HIV status. Ironically or not (was there a punitive link here, Robert Dessaix wondered in public), he was replacing Frank Moorhouse, who had withdrawn from the festival because of the imprisonment of Chinese writers. Led by Michelle de Kretser and Charlotte Wood, one hundred Australian authors and commentators protested at this offensive and unenlightened decision, as did ABR and the Australian Society of Authors. China’s discriminatory policy was widely criticised, even in China.
... (read more)ON CLOUDSTREET
When we sought readers’ nominations for the ABR Favourite Australian Novel of any era or genre, we anticipated goodly interest in the poll, partly because we know you are a well-read and passionate bunch, but also because Oxford University Press and Penguin had offered us a couple of outstanding prizes to complement our three-year subscription to the magazine.
... (read more)Reading the leaves
ABR readers, it is now abundantly clear, are great democrats and colossal readers. You love to vote, and you read like clairvoyants. We have been inundated with votes in the ABR FAN Poll – hundreds of them most days. With two weeks to go before voting closes (December 15), some clear favourites are emerging. Below we list twenty of them, in alphabetical order:
... (read more)The ABR FAN Poll
Film-makers are forever squabbling over the Top Ten films of all time – a kind of Raging Bullfight – and the symphonists had their sonorous say recently, when ABC Classic FM invited listeners to nominate their classic 100 symphonies. So we thought it might be fun – instructive too – to poll our readers with regard to their Favourite Australian Novel.
... (read more)