I was inspired to write this post last year when commenter Wendy Borchers mentioned Catchfire Press and described it as being associated with the University of Newcastle. I'd never heard of it. It is a community-based press primarily run by volunteers, but their covers, they say, are chosen by competition between senior design students at … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: University presses
Monday musings
Monday musings on Australian literature: The Stella Prize longlist
Miles Franklin, c. 1940s (Presumed Public Domain, via Wikipedia) I have mentioned the new Stella Prize before but, for those of you who may not be across this new award on the Australian literary scene, here is a brief recap. It is named for Miles Franklin – her full name was Stella Maria Sarah Miles … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: The Stella Prize longlist
Monday musings on Australian literature: Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards Hall of Fame
How many Halls of Fame are there specifically for writers? I'm not sure I've come across many, but last year I became aware of the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Hall of Fame when Tim Winton was inducted into it. The hall of fame is hosted on the State Library of Western Australia website. I'm … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards Hall of Fame
Monday musings on Australian literature: Capital male poets
Today's Monday Musings is the second in a series of posts I plan to write this year about Canberra writers to commemorate our centenary. The first post covered Canberra's women poets. Like that post, all the poets mentioned below appear in The invisible thread, Canberra's centenary anthology that I've mentioned before. AD Hope (1907-2000) The … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Capital male poets
Monday musings on Australian literature: Indigenous Australian literacy
I feel a little uncomfortable being a white person writing on indigenous issues. It's difficult in situations of such immense power imbalance as currently exists between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians not to come across as patronising or a self-congratulatory do-gooder. However, I'm also aware that consciousness needs to be raised and good programs promoted, so … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Indigenous Australian literacy
Monday musings on Australian literature: Patrick White and those Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock
A change of pace for this week's Monday Musings to give you a bit of a rest after my few rather lengthy posts of late. Enjoy! I have already mentioned Patrick White a few times this month. One was my reference to his calling himself a "painter manque" in my review of his debut novel, … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Patrick White and those Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock
Monday musings on Australian literature: Capital women poets
Since Australia's capital, Canberra, is celebrating its centenary in 2013, it seems timely to devote a few Monday Musings posts - scattered throughout the year - to its literature. Comparatively speaking, Canberra is a small city, but it is rich in poets, past and present, female and male, so I've decided to make my first topic … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Capital women poets
Monday musings on Australian literature: Coming up in 2013
In a first for Whispering Gums, I have decided to post about coming attractions. It seemed an appropriate first Monday Musings for the year. But, how to do it? As I can't possibly list them all, I'm going to make a selection and group them in sets that make sense to me. So here, as … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Coming up in 2013
Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian Women Writers’ Challenge 2012 Round-up
It seems fitting that my last Monday musings for 2012 be devoted to the Australian Women Writers Challenge, partly because it turned out to be quite a significant event in Australia's literary calendar for the year, and partly because I introduced it in my first Monday musings of the year. The challenge was instigated by … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian Women Writers’ Challenge 2012 Round-up
Monday Musings on Australian Literature: A challenge or two
Since this week's Monday Musings falls on Christmas Eve I'm departing a little from the intention of this series. In fact, today's post is not about Australian literature at all - though you can make it so if you'd like! Instead, I'm going to suggest a couple of literary challenges that you might like to … Continue reading Monday Musings on Australian Literature: A challenge or two
