Hidden Author
David Unaipon (Wikimedia Commons)David Unaipon (1872–1967) was an Indigenous-Australian preacher, author, and inventor, whose contributions to science and literature helped overturn many of the prevailing negative stereotypes about Indigenous peoples in Australian society. In 1909 he developed a sheep-shearing device which was to be the basis for modern mechanical shears, and spent much of his l ... (read more)
Jolley Prize
ABR's 2016 Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize ceremony was held at the Melbourne Writers Festival on 27 August. The event was compèred by ABR Deputy Editor, Amy Baillieu, with opening remarks from poet and author Maxine Beneba Clarke, who delivered a stirring keynote speech at the festival's opening night.
We are delighted to announce that Josephine Rowe won this year's Jolley Priz ... (read more)
Announcing the 2016 Jolley Prize winner
Australian Book Review is delighted to announce that Josephine Rowe has won the 2016 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize for her story 'Glisk'. Ian Dickson announced Josephine as the overall winner at the 2016 Melbourne Writers Festival. Anthony Lawrence placed second for his story 'Ash' and Jonathan Tel came third for his story 'The Water Calligrapher's ... (read more)
In this episode of 'Poem of the Week' David McCooey reads 'Fleeting: Sylvia Plath at 80'. ABR Editor, Peter Rose, introduces David who then reads and discusses his poem.
Fleeting
Sylvia Plath at 80.
I have outstayed the old millennium,lost count of years, and jobs, and meals prepared.My children have careers; the students of my students teach. I have had some f ... (read more)
Our island home
Dear Editor,Melbourne geographer Peter Christoff may be right that Australia should shake off its island mentality, but he is wrong to suggest that Australia has become much less of an island economy in the half century since the publication of Donald Horne's The Lucky Country. In his review of The Lucky Country? Reinventing Australia by Ian Lowe (ABR, August 2016), Christoff misq ... (read more)
Monash's new performance art space
It's all happening at Monash University, ABR's newest partner. The Matheson Library (though still open and bustling with students) is being transformed in a huge building project, and – most auspiciously for arts lovers in Melbourne south-east – Monash will soon be the home of a new performance centre named The Ian Potter Centre for the Performing Arts. The ... (read more)
Saul at Adelaide Festival
Major arts festivals have been announcing their programs. A highlight of the 2017 Adelaide Festival (3–19 March) will be Berlin-based Barrie Kosky's production of Handel's Saul, which had a huge success at the 2016 Glyndebourne Opera Festival. It will be twenty-one years since Kosky directed the Adelaide Festival, and this will be an undoubted highlight of the festival ... (read more)
Catherine Noske, editor of Westerly Magazine, recently spent time at the ABR office in Melbourne, thanks to a week-long cultural exchange of sorts provided by the Australia Council. Catherine was offered insights into the inner workings of our magazine, and the processes leading up to the launch of our August Fiction issue.
In the most recent ABR Podcast, Catherine spoke to Peter Rose about her t ... (read more)
On March 23, before a big audience at Collected Works Bookshop in Melbourne, Morag Fraser announced the two winners of the 2017 Peter Porter Poetry Prize (worth $7,500). The winners, chosen from a field of nearly 1000 entries from twenty-two countries, are Louis Klee (Vic) for his poem ‘Sentence to Lilacs’ and Damen O’Brien (Qld) for ‘pH’. The winners each receive $2,500.
2017 Porter Pr ... (read more)