Did I say in my review of Kate Jennings' Trouble that she's not backward in coming forward? If not, I do now and will cite as an example her essay "Gutless fiction" which was first published in The Australian Financial Review in 2005. The article was inspired by her becoming aware of "prejudices against so-called business fiction". Business … Continue reading Kate Jennings on Gutless Fiction
Author: Whispering Gums
Monday musings on Australian literature: For the love of ballads
I was first introduced to Australian ballads by my father who loved to read the works of AB (Banjo) Paterson to us. I loved it - my father's reading and the poems themselves. This love was reinforced in my first year of high school, through my poetry textbook, The call of the gums: An anthology of … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: For the love of ballads
Jeremy Chambers, The vintage and the gleaning
There's something I haven't had an opportunity to share with you, until now that is - and that is that I love to visit wine regions. Not just because I like wine but also because I like the areas in which wine is made. The landscape is often beautiful, the wineries themselves vary so much … Continue reading Jeremy Chambers, The vintage and the gleaning
HL Mencken, The nature of liberty
I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again: I am enjoying being introduced to classic American writers of whom I've heard but not read through the Library of America. This week it is HL Mencken, and you can read his satirical piece, "The nature of liberty" (1920), online at LOA. Mencken (1880-1956), according … Continue reading HL Mencken, The nature of liberty
Monday musings on Australian literature: Charles Dickens and Australia
Here's something completely different for my Monday musings! Not an Australian author, not even a foreign born author who came to Australia (though, being the great traveller he was, he did consider a lecture tour), but Charles Dickens does have a couple of interesting "connections" with Australia. These connections are supported by the existence of … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Charles Dickens and Australia
Peter Temple, Truth
I think that every novelist has a single ideal reader (Stephen King, On writing) As I was reading Peter Temple's Truth I wondered whether I was Temple's "ideal reader". Somehow I think not. I am not a crime novel reader, but I did read and greatly like Temple's previous book, The broken shore, so why … Continue reading Peter Temple, Truth
JM Coetzee wins the 2010 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award
The Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were announced last night, on the eve of the Brisbane Writers' Festival. The main award was won by JM Coetzee with Summertime, the third book in his fictionalised memoirs. The first two were Boyhood and Youth. I have this in my TBR but it has yet to arrive at the … Continue reading JM Coetzee wins the 2010 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award
Monday musings on Australian literature: Some Australian expat novelists
Australia is the only country I have come across that divides its writers into residents and those who have dared to live elsewhere. Can one imagine Americans writing of Ernest Hemingway, or the Brits of Auden, thus? (Carmen Callil, Australian-born founder of Virago Press) That answers one of my questions: that is, whether other nations … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Some Australian expat novelists
Arnold Jansen op de Haar, King of Tuzla
Translated works always represent a challenge. There is something slightly disconcerting about knowing that you are not reading the actual words of the author, but someone else's interpretation of them. There's been some discussion of this around the blogs and in the media this year, partly because of the publication of Why translation matters by award winning … Continue reading Arnold Jansen op de Haar, King of Tuzla
Dinaw Mengestu, An honest exit
There are, I suppose, two exits in Dinaw Mengestu's short story "An honest exit", which you can read at The New Yorker. One is the exit the father in the story made, when a young man, from his home in Ethiopia and the other is his final exit from life. (No spoiler here: we are … Continue reading Dinaw Mengestu, An honest exit
Whispering Gums 