Hidden Author
Miles and the mindset
How refreshing it was to read – on the announcement of the 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award’s shortlist – that The Trust Company, which administers the Miles, has written to the judges ‘authorising them to use their discretions to modernise the interpretation of “Australianess” (sic) beyond geographical boundaries to include mindset, language, history a ... (read more)
Why do you write?
When I was young I tried different things: drawing, painting, music, poetry, short stories, journalism, reviewing, but poetry turned out to be what I was best at.
Are you a vivid dreamer?
Oh, yes. I always dream in colour, and I can remember how things are oriented in my dreams — which way is north, I mean, and where the coast is. I think I developed that talent as a ch ... (read more)
New home for ABR
Happily, ABR has a new home, well away from the egregious fashions of Bridge Road, Richmond. Soon we will be moving to a new community hub in Melbourne’s Southbank precinct. The City of Melbourne has renovated the nineteenth-century J.H. Boyd Girls’ High School on City Road, and our new office (not finished when we took this photograph!) will be infinitely superior ... (read more)
Muddying the waters
Dear Editor,
A substantial part of Peter Hill’s review of my book Permanent Revolution: Mike Brown and the Australian Avant-Garde 1953–1997 recounts the artist’s prosecution for obscenity following the visit of the head of the Darlinghurst vice squad to Brown’s exhibition Paintin’ A Go-Go at Sydney’s Gallery A in November 1965 (March 2012). As I pointed out ... (read more)
Peter Porter Poetry Prize
Michael Farrell is the winner of the 2012 Peter Porter Poetry Prize, worth $4000. Our judges, Judith Beveridge and David McCooey, selected his poem, ‘Beautiful Mother’, from almost 800 entries. On learning of his success, Mr Farrell told Advances:
It’s exciting to have won the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, especially from such a large field. It’s an honour ... (read more)
Kerr the contextualist
Dear Editor,
Andrew Sayers’s thoughtful review of The Cambridge Companion to Australian Art (February 2012) encourages one to read this book that marks ‘the maturity of a new orthodoxy for Australian art’. However, it was his last two paragraphs that really caught my attention. Sayers refers to the omission of Joan Kerr and to her work in melding Australian art ... (read more)
Each year we honour the great Australian poet Peter Porter (1929–2010) through our poetry competition – and in the process generate much new poetry. This year we received almost 800 poems in the highly alliterative Peter Porter Poetry Prize. This is almost twice the number we received last year – a measure of the growing popularity of the Porter Prize and, one suspects, of the recent and mos ... (read more)
Enter the Jolley Prize
Exponents of short fiction will have until 31 May to enter the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. This year’s prize money is divided three ways. The winner will again receive $5000; the two place-getters will receive $2000 and $1000. Last year, the inaugural Jolley Prize attracted almost 1300 entries.
Multiple entries are fine. A separate entry form is neede ... (read more)
Oz Lit at Melbourne University
Dear Editor,
The English program at the University of Melbourne has offered courses on Australian literature every year since 1982, when it was first introduced as a full seminar subject. Stephanie Guest’s article in last month’s issue of ABR, ‘Oz Lit in the Moot Court Room: Finding Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne’, mistakenly rep ... (read more)