Last week I reviewed Gabrielle Gouch's memoir, Once, only the swallows were free, in which she tells of her family's migration from Hungary to Romania to Israel, and then her own on to Australia. While Gouch focuses more on the brother left behind, she does touch on the challenges of migration - the dislocation and … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian migration literature
Monday musings
Monday musings on Australian literature: Australia Council Award
Last month the Australia Council announced this year's Lifetime Achievement Award for Australian Literature. This award used to be called the Writer's Emeritus Award, which I have written about before. Lifetime Achievement Award sounds better don't you think? After all, "emeritus" implies retirement but most winners never really retire - at least as far as … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Australia Council Award
Monday musings on Australian literature: The Walkley Awards
The Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism are Australia's premier awards for journalists. Last week the winners of the 58th awards were announced. According to the Walkley Foundation website, the awards were established in 1956 by Ampol Petroleum founder Sir William Gaston Walkley. Apparently, according to the website, William Walkley appreciated the media’s support for his … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: The Walkley Awards
Monday musings on Australian literature: Sisters in Crime
And now for something rather different here at Whispering Gums. Crime literature, as my regular readers know, is not my forte. In fact, I really only read crime if it comes my way for a specific reason - such as Peter Temple winning the Miles Franklin Award a few years ago. That doesn't mean however … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Sisters in Crime
Monday musings on Australian literature: MUBA 2013
Last year I reported on the inaugural MUBA - Most Under-rated Book Award. I hoped that it would continue, because it brings to our attention good books that somehow slide under the radar, mostly because their authors are less known and/or their publishers are small. In 2012, I had read one of the four short-listed … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: MUBA 2013
Monday musings on Australian literature: Writers’ archives
Having heard recently about the University of Melbourne's acquisition of Germaine Greer's archives and having written in last week's Monday Musings about the biographer Hazel Rowley who spent hours researching such archives, I thought it would be worth writing a little about writers' archives - their importance and challenges. First off, I am, as many of you … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Writers’ archives
Monday musings on Australian literature: Hazel Rowley Literary Fund
It seemed appropriate to talk about the Hazel Rowley Literary Fund this week given that several commenters on my review of Christina Stead's For love alone mentioned Rowley's well-regarded biography of Christina Stead. Quite coincidentally - amazing how often such coincidences occur isn't it - AustLit posted on their blog last week a piece titled … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Hazel Rowley Literary Fund
Monday musings on Australian literature: The Conversation launches its Arts + Culture Section
I think I've mentioned The Conversation before. It's a blog produced by a consortium of Australian academic institutions. The posts are written by writers who are academics, and each post has a disclosure statement regarding whether the writer has affiliations with/receives funding from organisations that could "benefit" from their article. It's a good source of … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: The Conversation launches its Arts + Culture Section
Monday musings on Australian literature: Reading Australia
You know how when you go to a conference you pick up all sorts of pamphlets and brochures advertising this and that? Well, at the Writing the Australian landscape conference I attended back in August, just before I went overseas, I picked up an interesting leaflet from Australia's Copyright Agency. The leaflet is titled: Reading … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Reading Australia
Monday musings on Australian literature: Writing the Australian landscape (3)
Back in August I wrote two posts (here and here) about the National Library of Australia's conference, Writing the Australian landscape. At the time I said that I would provide a link when the talks became available on-line. Well, they apparently went on-line a month or so ago and the NLA very kindly tweeted the … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Writing the Australian landscape (3)
