Sonja Dechian

**The ABR Podcast**

Released every Thursday, the ABR podcast features our finest reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary.

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‘Rejecting the system it created’: How Trump’s America is reshaping Australia’s regional relations

by Rebecca Strating

This week on the ABR Podcast, we feature Rebecca Strating’s commentary ‘“Rejecting the system it created”: How Trump’s America is reshaping Australia’s regional relations’. While the second Trump administration presents a challenge for Australian policy makers, it also provides an opportunity for Australia, explains Strating, ‘to develop greater self-reliance in foreign policy and deepen relationships across Asia’. But what are leaders across Asia concerned about and how are they responding to the Trump administration? Strating provides a survey, noting that ‘most Southeast Asian nations have so far opted for hedging strategies that maintain relationships with multiple partners’.

Rebecca Strating is Director of La Trobe Asia and was this year awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in recognition of her contributions to the fields of strategic defence and international relations. Her most recent book, Girt by Sea: Re-imagining Australia’s security, was published by Black Inc. in 2024. Here is Rebecca Strating with ‘“Rejecting the system it created”: How Trump’s America is reshaping Australia’s regional relations’, published in the June issue of ABR.

Recent episodes:

'The Point-Blank Murder' by Sonja Dechian

by The ABR Podcast •

The ABR Podcast

It’s Jolley time again! In August we’ll name the winner of the 2020 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. It’s timely then to revisit last year’s winner: Sonja Dechian's poignant story 'The Point-Blank Murder', which was selected by judges Maxine Beneba Clarke, John Kinsella, and Beejay Silcox from a field of thirteen hundred and fifty entries. In today's episode, Sonja Dechian reads 'The Point-Blank Murder' in full.

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The Point-Blank Murder

by Sonja Dechian •

September 2019, no. 414

The sunset is orange, the sky scattered with clouds. We’re eating pumpkin and lentil soup out of bowls from home. I didn’t think it was necessary to bring them, the cupboards here are well stocked, but Irene insisted. She says they’re the perfect size. Also, she read in her online mother’s group that the glaze on old crockery often contains lead ...

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Winner | 2019 Jolley Prize | Sonja Dechian for 'The Point-Blank Murder'

by Australian Book Review •

Competitions and programs

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 ‘

Dark Dreams: Australian Refugee Stories by young writers aged 11-20 years edited by Sonja Deichan, Heather Milar and Eva Sallis

by Sonya Hartnett •

October 2004, no. 265

Sonya Hartnett reviews ‘Dark Dreams: Australian Refugee Stories by young writers aged 11-20 years’ by Sonja Dechian, Heather Millar and Eva Sallis

In 2002 Eva Sallis – activist and author of, among others, the 1997 Vogel winner Hiam, – launched ‘Australia IS Refugees’, a writing competition for young people aged between eleven and twenty years old. The competition – a project of the humanitarian organisation Australians against Racism, of which Sallis is present – swiftly gained the support of a wide range of high-profile companies and individuals, many doubtless contributing as a means to show disapproval of this country’s hardline, ethically dubious treatment of refugees.

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