Maintaining tradition, my first Monday Musings of the year once again focuses on "new releases". As before, it is primarily drawn from the Sydney Morning Herald. Jane Sullivan and the team do a wonderful job of surveying publishers large and small, but I have added a couple of my own! Also, as this is Monday musings … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Some New Releases in 2023
Monday musings
Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian Women Writers Challenge 2022
For around 10 years I devoted my last Monday Musings of the year to the Australian Women Writers Challenge, which most of you will remember was instigated by Elizabeth Lhuede in 2012 in response to concerns in Australian literary circles about the lack of recognition for women writers. As I explained last year, it would be … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian Women Writers Challenge 2022
Monday musings on Australian literature: Favourite books 2022, Part 2: Nonfiction and Poetry
Last week, as most of you will know, I shared the favourite Aussie fiction books named by writers in the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Reads of the Year 2022, Readings Bookshop's Best Fiction, and the ABC RN's Bookshelf Panel's Books of the Year 2022. This week, as promised, I'm sharing their nonfiction and poetry favourites … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Favourite books 2022, Part 2: Nonfiction and Poetry
Monday musings on Australian literature: Favourite books 2022, Part 1: Fiction
Over recent years, I've shared favourite Aussie reads of the year from various sources, with the specific sources varying a little from time to time. This year, my main sources are The Sydney Morning Herald's Best Reads of the Year chosen by writers, Readings bookshop's Best Australian fiction, and ABC RN's Bookshelf panel. As last … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Favourite books 2022, Part 1: Fiction
Monday musings on Australian literature: First Nations Classics
Over the years I have written several posts on publishers who have made a commitment to publishing Australian classics, such as Text, Allen and Unwin and the Sydney University Press, to name a few. I was thrilled last week to come across another one, this time from UQP, the University of Queensland Press, which has … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: First Nations Classics
Monday musings on Australian literature: Prime Minister’s Summer Reading List
The Grattan Institute is an Australian non-aligned, public policy think tank that was established in 2008. Since 2009 it has published, at the end of the year, their Prime Minister's Summer Reading List. This list, as they wrote on the inaugural 2009 list, comprises "books and articles that the Prime Minister, or any Australian interested … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Prime Minister’s Summer Reading List
Monday musings on Australian literature: Canberra’s children’s picture book creators
Who would have thought that my little capital city of Canberra would have such a rich children's picture book community, but over recent years I've been discovering just how much is going on here. So much so that I thought it might be a worthwhile topic for Brona's AusReadingMonth. There's no way I can be … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Canberra’s children’s picture book creators
Monday musings on Australian literature: on 20/40, a new publishing prize
We all like to see a new literary or publishing prize. That is, most of us do, because I do appreciate that prizes in the arts are problematic, and that some do not, for perfectly valid reasons, like them. However, for most, the positives outweigh the negatives. These positives include - in different combinations - … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: on 20/40, a new publishing prize
Monday musings on Australian literature: Classic Australian novellas
I have written on and reviewed novellas almost since this blog started, because I love the form. Last year, for Novellas in November (run by Cathy of 746 Books and Rebecca of Bookish Beck), I wrote a Monday Musings on Supporting Novellas (here in Australia). This year, I thought I'd address the meme's first week's … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Classic Australian novellas
Monday musings on Australian literature: Vietnam War fiction
Having just posted on Biff Ward's The third chopstick, and with the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam's election (which set in train our final withdrawal from the war) being imminent, I felt now seemed an appropriate time to devote a Monday MusingsAustralian fiction about the war. Ward's book is nonfiction, but here I want to … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Vietnam War fiction
Whispering Gums 