This weekend: The Newstead Short Story Tattoo. Short stories, bonfires, lovely people. Majorly sad I have to miss it this year. Go if you can. Stop on the way for pies and cakes. Get intimate with masters of the short form from Josephine Rowe to Ian Irvine to Don Walker. In one week: Sydney Writers' Festival … Continue reading Quick update: festivals
LiteraryMinded turns four
'I need you, the reader, to imagine us, for we don't really exist if you don't.' — Vladimir Nabokov At the moment I spend half my days at a scratched antique table, the chair beneath me creaking with age. On my left is a pile of books and papers including about eight literary journals I've … Continue reading LiteraryMinded turns four
Bothersome Words wins 'Word' category in Best Australian Blogs comp
Remember how a few weeks ago I said I was a judge in the Sydney Writers' Centre Best Australian Blogs 2011 competition? Well the winners have now been announced. Sydney Writers' Centre whittled down the entrants for me in the 'Word' category to a list of five finalists: Call My Agent, Bothersome Words, Creative Penn, Graham Storrs and … Continue reading Bothersome Words wins 'Word' category in Best Australian Blogs comp
Guest review: Lyndon Riggall on Embassytown by China Miéville
9780230754317 Pan Macmillan, May 2011 (Aus, UK, US/Kindle) Reviewed by Lyndon Riggall I admit defeat. I’ve been trying to present these events with a structure. I simply don’t know how everything happened. Perhaps because I didn’t pay proper attention, perhaps because it wasn’t a narrative, but for whatever reasons, it doesn’t want to be what I want to … Continue reading Guest review: Lyndon Riggall on Embassytown by China Miéville
Brief review of The Kid on the Karaoke Stage in this month’s ABR
Just a quick note to say that I wrote an 'in brief' review of the excellent short story collection The Kid on the Karaoke Stage and Other Stories, edited by Georgia Richter (Aus), for this month's Australian Book Review, out now in print and online. Here's an extract: 'While the stories in The Kid on the Karaoke … Continue reading Brief review of The Kid on the Karaoke Stage in this month’s ABR
Guest review: Imogen Baratta on Blue Skies by Helen Hodgman
Text Publishing 9781921758133, March 2011 (Aus) (also UK) Reviewed by Imogen Baratta Helen Hodgman’s Blue Skies tells the story of an unnamed young wife and mother living in the 'heart shaped island' of Tasmania. The agonising banality of her day-to-day life plays out within the confines of stark, suffocating suburbia, amid the manicured lawns and … Continue reading Guest review: Imogen Baratta on Blue Skies by Helen Hodgman
20 classics in 2011 #6: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
I’m reading 20 classic, modern-classic or cult books in 2011. Read more about this project here. Why did I want to read it? I love Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and dystopian fiction in general. Plus, the sections of my work-in-progress that people have read have been compared to Brave New World. I thought it was about time I read it … Continue reading 20 classics in 2011 #6: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Guest review: Alice Grundy on Mr Peanut by Adam Ross
Vintage, 9780099535379 (Aus, UK, US) Reviewed by Alice Grundy The cover of Adam Ross’ first novel, Mr Peanut, is swathed in praise from no lesser lights than Stephen King and Michiko Kakutani. The title page features a reproduction of Escher’s ‘Mobius’ flagging the role of the double in the plot. All the signs point towards … Continue reading Guest review: Alice Grundy on Mr Peanut by Adam Ross
Flash fiction piece ‘Trash’ up at Capsule
There's a tiny little piece by me up at Capsule today - an online journal for bite-sized lit. It was inspired by a doco I saw on the early career of filmmaker John Waters. It begins: 'In a cold Baltimore church basement, a vile film flickered over faces. Is it a she? they wondered at … Continue reading Flash fiction piece ‘Trash’ up at Capsule
Miles Franklin 2011: the short shortlist
Just in. The books shortlisted for the 2011 Miles Franklin Literary Award are: Bereft by Chris Womersley That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott When Colts Ran by Roger McDonald Of course, the comment has begun (on Twitter) about the fact that there are only three books. Martin Shaw says (@thebooksdesk) 'A shortlist of 3 becomes … Continue reading Miles Franklin 2011: the short shortlist
LiteraryMinded 