Hologram is a new venture publishing novellas by writers under 30. Hologram is associated with Express Media, a fantastic organisation that provides support and development opportunities for young Australians in writing and media. The first book to be published by Hologram is No Limit, by Holly Childs. It’s about Ash, who is stuck in Auckland … Continue reading Detachment, surfaces, excess: No Limit by Holly Childs
Australian writers
Carmel Bird Award longlist announced
Hello from the heart of the Speyside Scotch whisky trail! I'm working at a guesthouse here for all of September. There are three dogs, and there's whisky and time to write in the middle of the day. So I'm a pig in shit. Today I'm excited to announce the longlist for the Carmel Bird Short … Continue reading Carmel Bird Award longlist announced
Irma Gold on The Invisible Thread + WIN a copy
The Invisible Thread: One Hundred Years of Words is a new anthology featuring writers connected to Canberra, covering the past 100 years. There are stories, articles, poems and extracts by Judith Wright, Alex Miller, Jackie French, Les Murray, Omar Musa, Don Watson, Garth Nix, Kate Grenville and a huge range of writers new and old. The … Continue reading Irma Gold on The Invisible Thread + WIN a copy
Guest review: Lisa Down on Kill Your Darlings: Issue Four
Kill Your Darlings: Issue Four (Aus) Ed: Rebecca Starford January 2011 reviewed by Lisa Down Call me a philistine, but I wasn’t previously familiar with the Australian quarterly Kill Your Darlings. It means I don’t have a standard by which I can judge this edition but I walked away satisfied that it had provided the … Continue reading Guest review: Lisa Down on Kill Your Darlings: Issue Four
1001 Australian Nights: Gerard Elson interviews Dave Graney, part two
1001 Australian Nights Dave Graney 9780980790436, Affirm Press (Aus) by Gerard Elson Read part one here. Have you tried your hand at prose fiction? Would you ever be interested? I’d prefer to write fiction than something like 1001 Australian Nights. I’m having the heebs a bit with this book coming out and people reading it! … Continue reading 1001 Australian Nights: Gerard Elson interviews Dave Graney, part two
1001 Australian Nights: Gerard Elson interviews Dave Graney, part one
1001 Australian Nights Dave Graney 9780980790436, Affirm Press (Aus) by Gerard Elson Dave Graney likes his coffee weak and his public spaces swarming. So we meet at Starbucks. It’s not exactly rock 'n’ roll, but then that’s Graney: never one to play the scummy, hard-worn rock pariah (thank god). He arrives early and I’m embarrassed … Continue reading 1001 Australian Nights: Gerard Elson interviews Dave Graney, part one
Guest review: Greg Westenberg on John Mateer’s The West: Australian Poems 1989–2009
Fremantle Press, 2010 (Aus, US, UK) 9781921361869 Remember that Renaissance sculpture you admired, briefly, in a Roman or Florentine church, cool and hard and chiselled and, perhaps a little too dramatically posed? Reading John Mateer’s collection of poems The West, gives an analogous sensation. The sculptors worked in marble that kept its material nature, the hardness … Continue reading Guest review: Greg Westenberg on John Mateer’s The West: Australian Poems 1989–2009
Chris Womersley’s Bereft
This review first appeared in the August issue of Bookseller+Publisher, and is cross-posted over at Bookseller+Publisher's Fancy Goods blog. Bereft Chris Womersley Scribe, September 2010 (Australia) 9781921640605 Chris Womersley’s Bereft, his second novel after 2008’s award-winning The Low Road, is a rich, gripping tale of love, loss, conflict and salvation. The prologue states that in 1912, during a … Continue reading Chris Womersley’s Bereft
Guest review: Greg Westenberg on Maxine Clarke’s Gil Scott Heron is on Parole
Gil Scott Heron is on Parole Maxine Beneba Clarke Picaro Press Reviewed by Greg Westenberg The rhythm: insistent, consistent, beat-heavy in places but with enough sunlight in the words to take us out of the club, into a community’s irregular syncopation; the rhythm, that I couldn’t always get (white boys, everybody knows it, can’t … Continue reading Guest review: Greg Westenberg on Maxine Clarke’s Gil Scott Heron is on Parole
Guest review: Sam Cooney on The Big Issue no. 359: Toasty Tales fiction special
The Big Issue no. 359: Toasty Tales fiction special Available now from street vendors, launched Wednesday 21 July at Readings Carlton Reviewed by Sam Cooney For me, The Big Issue is like a tub of Neapolitan ice-cream. It’s reliable. It’s unpretentious and doesn’t pretend to be anything except exactly what it is. You buy it every … Continue reading Guest review: Sam Cooney on The Big Issue no. 359: Toasty Tales fiction special
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