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Hidden Author

2014 Arts Highlights of the Year

ABR Arts 11 December 2014
To complement our popular ‘Books of the Year’ feature, to highlight ABR’s fast-expanding arts coverage, and to celebrate some excellent music, theatre, and film, we invited a group of critics and arts professionals to nominate some of their favourite productions of the year. Robyn Archer Dawn Upshaw’s concerts with the Australian Chamber Orchestra were staggeringly beautiful. Conceived ... (read more)

Annual Reviews

About Australian Book Review 10 December 2014
Our Annual Review showcases major highlights of ABR's publishing year and features key programs such as events, prizes, fellowships, and our philanthropy program. ABR Annual Review 2018 ABR Annual Review 2017 ABR Annual Review 2016 ABR Annual Review 2015 ABR Annual Review 2014 ... (read more)

Open Page with Robert Dessaix

December 2014, no. 367 01 December 2014
Why do you write? Because it’s magic – it turns the frog of life into a prince. (Or is it the other way round?) And it is, as Wilde once said of smoking, so exquisitely unsatisfying. Actually, the real reason I write is that talking, either aloud or on paper, is the only thing I’m good at. Are you a vivid dreamer? In terms of colour, yes. Most of my dreams are very Le Grand Meaulnes, tho ... (read more)

Letters to the Editor – December 2014

December 2014, no. 367 26 November 2014
‘Pure, incidental song’ Dear Editor, Your readers cannot have failed to detect the unsympathetic undertone running through Susan Sheridan’s politely disengaged account of my edition of Lesbia Harford’s poetry (ABR, November 2014), culminating as it did in the cool injunction to visit the Poetry Library website. Those lines from ‘Mortal Poems’ (‘I think each year should bring / Litt ... (read more)

News from the Editor's Desk - December 2014

December 2014, no. 367 26 November 2014
Performances of the year We know how much our readers (not to mention nominated authors) enjoy our annual ‘Books of the Year’ feature. This year – to highlight ABR’s fast-expanding arts coverage (both in the magazine and in Arts Update on our website) and to celebrate outstanding film, theatre, dance, and music, we have invited key critics and professionals to nominate their favourite pro ... (read more)

Gig Ryan is Poet of the Month

December 2014, no. 367 24 November 2014
Which poets have most influenced you? Many. I admire Jeremy Prynne, Clark Coolidge, Mina Loy, and Lyn Hejinian, but I don’t know whether they have influenced my work. To limit this list in time somewhat: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Eliot, Auden, Berryman, Ashbery, O’Hara. Among the Australians: Kenneth Slessor, Francis Webb, Michael Dransfield, John Tranter, Jennifer Maiden, Martin Johnston, John Fo ... (read more)

Critic of the Month: Interview with Geordie Williamson

November 2014, no. 366 01 November 2014
When did you first write for ABR? It was 2001. A dual review of Malcolm Knox’s début novel, Summerland, and Steven Carroll’s The Art of the Engine Driver. Luckily, I was generous about these relatively unknown authors and their books, since both went on to become significant figures in Australian letters. Which critics most impress you? There are so many. Elizabeth Hardwick, the doyenne o ... (read more)

Open Page with Peter Carey

November 2014, no. 366 01 November 2014
What is your favourite music? Once again I am pleading 'no favourites', although I am always moved and astonished by Gavin Bryars’s 'Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet'. No, I’m not a Christian. Also, generally speaking, I am forbidden to sing. What is your favourite book? The longer I live, the harder it is to have a favourite anything. I admire the work of Thomas Bernhardt, Jean Rhys, Iris ... (read more)

News from the Editor's Desk

October 2014, no. 365 24 September 2014
Calibre Prize The Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay is open again. The winner will receive $5,000. This year, for the first time, Calibre is open to writers around the world. We also have a quick, inexpensive online entry system. Guidelines and the entry form are available on our website. Entries close on 19 January 2015. The judges on this occasion are Delia Falconer and Peter Rose, our Edi ... (read more)

Letters to the Editor – October 2014

October 2014, no. 365 24 September 2014
Mikhail Khodorkovsky Dear Editor, I was very disappointed that the review ‘Putin and the Kleptocrats’ gave such a misleading impression of Mikhail Khodorkovsky (August 2014). Nick Hordern seemed to have no idea of Khodorkovsky’s Damascene moments when he began to understand and adhere to the (small l) liberal underpinnings of a civil society, working on many fronts, and of course against t ... (read more)