Today's Monday Musings is the fifth in my little series on Australia's writers centres, and it's New South Wales' turn. Originally called the NSW Writers Centre, it was renamed this year as Writing NSW. Writing NSW was founded (under its original name) in 1991, as a not-for-profit organisation providing services to writers. On its Our … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Writing NSW
Monday musings
Monday musings on Australian literature: The Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund
Australia's Copyright Agency has been referenced here several times in this blog, mostly regarding the work it does via its Cultural Fund, but I wonder how many of us (besides artists) know just how much it does to support Australian writing and writers? The Copyright Agency is a non-profit organisation (company) which describes its mission … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: The Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund
Monday musings on Australian literature: National Child Protection Week 2018
If you are an Australian, you will be aware of our recent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. That Commission only looked into one aspect of child sexual abuse in Australia. Arguably the bigger issue lies in the sexual abuse of children outside institutions - abuse of children by family members, by … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: National Child Protection Week 2018
Monday musings on Australian literature: Women science fiction writers
This year's National Science Week finished yesterday, 19 August, but I figured no-one would mind if I wrote a Science-Week-dedicated post a day late. In past years I've written Science Week posts on novels about scientists (2015), science-based non-fiction (2015), and science writing (2016). I didn't write a post last year. So, what to do … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Women science fiction writers
Monday musings on Australian literature: War-time reading tastes, World War 2
Continuing last week's brief survey of war-time reading habits... World War 2 And then we come to the Second World War. Here's The West Australian again, this time in July 1940, less than a year after the war had started (a bit like our 1915 World War 1 report last week.) The article is headed, … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: War-time reading tastes, World War 2
Monday musings on Australian literature: War-time reading tastes, World War 1
For the longest time I've understood that during war-time people turn to lighter forms of entertainment, to musicals in film, for example, or to escapist books in their reading. However, the truth - of course - is more complex, as I discovered in Trove's digitised newspapers. I was fascinated by how often the matter was, … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: War-time reading tastes, World War 1
Monday musings on Australian literature: Melbourne Centenary literary competitions, 1934
I came across a reference to the 1934/35 Melbourne Centenary literary competitions quite by accident, but they intrigued me so I decided to investigate further. Here's what I found ... Melbourne Centenary According to an article in the La Trobe Journal (no. 34, October 1984), there was much discussion about whether to celebrate the centenary in … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Melbourne Centenary literary competitions, 1934
Monday Musings on Australian literature: Three Top End explorers
Well, folks, I'm back on the grid, but still in the Top End holidaying, so I'm going to make this one as short and sweet as I can. As we traveled through Arnhem Land we learnt about various early 19th century explorers in this region, particularly Phillip Parker King (who makes an appearance, if I … Continue reading Monday Musings on Australian literature: Three Top End explorers
Monday musings on Australian literature: New Territory 2018
Last year, some of you will remember, I was a mentor for the ACT Writers' Centre ACT Lit-bloggers of the future program. It was great fun, and I really enjoyed working with Angharad and Emma over the six-months the program lasted. I wrote a couple of posts about the program, but if you'd like to … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: New Territory 2018
Monday musings on Australian literature: VerityLa
I've mentioned the literary blog-cum-journal, VerityLa, a few times before here, partly because one of its founders is local writer, Nigel Featherstone. For those of you who haven't come across it, however, it is, in its own words, "an on-line, no-way-for-profit, creative arts journal, publishing short fiction and poetry, cultural comment, photomedia, reviews, and interviews." I … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: VerityLa
