Monday musings on Australian literature: JAFA, an indulgence

OK folks, today I'm begging your indulgence to let me stray from the "proper" theme of my Monday Musings series. In other words, I'm not going to talk - except for a minor digression - about Australian literature. But, I am going to talk about Australians talking about literature. Bemused? I'll explain. This last weekend in Canberra … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: JAFA, an indulgence

Monday musings on Australian literature: Miles Franklin Award, the first decade (1958-1967)

This month we expect to see the announcement of the Miles Franklin Award longlist. While it's no longer Australia's richest literary prize, it is still the best-known and, if you can measure such things, our most prestigious. It is managed by a Trustee using the estate left for that purpose by author Miles Franklin. It was first awarded … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Miles Franklin Award, the first decade (1958-1967)

Monday musings on Australian literature: World Poetry Day

Well, folks, Trove has let me down, which is a very rare occurrence when I'm doing historical research. I looked for the phrase "world poetry day" and I looked for all the words "world", "poetry" and "day", but nothing apparently relevant appeared. Hmmm, because ... Interestingly, a Google search did retrieve a photograph on flickr of a … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: World Poetry Day

Monday musings on Australian literature: Save Trove

I don't make a practice of discussing politics in my blog, though regular readers are sure to have picked up my pro-social-justice values (which is why I love writers like, say, Thea Astley). My reason for being politics-lite here is that politics is a divisive game, and my aim here is to be inclusive. However, I do want … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Save Trove

Monday musings on Australian literature: Spotlight on David Malouf

A couple of weeks ago I published the first of a number of posts which I'm planning to write using Annette Marfording's Celebrating Australian Writing: Conversations with Australian Authors as starting point. That post was on the first interview in the book, Robert Dessaix. I decided that my second post would be on one of my favourite Aussie writers - you could call … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Spotlight on David Malouf

Monday musings on Australian literature: Some Australian screenwriters

Funny things sure do happen sometimes. I decided on the weekend that, with my comment about screenwriters in my post on Hail, Caesar and with the Oscars being screened today, Monday (downunder time), that I would devote this post to screenwriters. Then, I turned on the TV to look at the Oscars, and guess what? They … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Some Australian screenwriters

Monday musings on Australian literature: Blak and Bright

I should have written about the Blak and Bright last Monday, as the Festival was held last weekend, but unfortunately I only heard about it - my inattention, I'm sure - a few days ago, via an ABC RN program (which you can listen to online). However, although the actual Festival is now over, I think it's still … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Blak and Bright

Monday musings on Australian literature: Spotlight on Robert Dessaix

Last year, I published a guest post by Annette Marfording, who was, for many years, the Program Director of the Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival. At the time of this post, she had just self-published her book, Celebrating Australian Writing: Conversations with Australian Authors, containing a selection of interviews she'd conducted over many years with a wide range of … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Spotlight on Robert Dessaix

Monday musings on Australian literature: National Libraries Day (UK)

Caroline of Book Word blog has written a wonderful post about National Libraries Day in the UK, which took place just this last weekend, on Saturday, 6th February. Caroline provides three witnesses to argue for the value of libraries: Peter Balaba, Head Librarian, Nakaseke Community Library, Uganda, who talks about the outreach programs they provide in a book-poor … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: National Libraries Day (UK)