Are you fascinated, like I am, by literary couples? It seems so romantic to share one's calling with another ... even if the reality is not always as idyllic or as successful as it sounds. We've all heard of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, Virginia and Leonard Woolf, to name … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian literary couples
Monday musings
Monday musings on Australian literature: Writers from Victoria
Over the course of these Monday musings have been occasional posts on writers from specific geographic locations in Australia - but I have not done our two most populous regions, the states of Victoria and New South Wales. The time has come to confront there two - and so, today, I present you Victoria. Now … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Writers from Victoria
Monday musings on Australian literature: Japanese poetry in Australia
Papa Gums loves to give me clippings of obituaries that he knows will interest me. Last week, from his hospital bed, he gave me one for an Australian poet I'd never heard of, Janice Bostock. She was, according to the obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald, "one of Australia's leading writers of Japanese poetic forms", … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Japanese poetry in Australia
Monday musings on Australian literature: Late bloomers
I guess every country has them, the writers who aren't recognised until their middle age. Australia certainly does, and many of them seem to be women. I'm not sure whether this apparent gender imbalance is a fact or simply reflects my biased interest in the lives of women writers. I wouldn't be surprised if it … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Late bloomers
Monday musings on Australian literature: Bookseller turns publisher
Bookseller-as-publisher (and vice versa) is not an original idea but, in our digital environment with its plethora of production and distribution technologies, this combination clearly offers new possibilities - one that the Australian bookchain, Dymocks, has announced it is going to try. Its aim? To "support Australians with stories to tell" ... and, of course, … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Bookseller turns publisher
Monday musings on Australian literature: Project Gutenberg Australia
I don't imagine Project Gutenberg needs any introduction to bloggers and blog readers, but I'm not sure how many are aware of the Australian sister site, Project Gutenberg Australia. This site is not formally connected with the original Project Gutenberg but, like the original, it provides access to international texts that are in public domain … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Project Gutenberg Australia
Monday musings on Australian literature: Reading about Australian women writers
In the 1980s my interest in Australian literature, which had been initially kindled by my parents and school, was renewed. In the 1980s, too, women writers started to flourish again. Consequently, this second wave interest of mine was drawn particularly to these women. I read their books of course (I'm thinking particularly of Elizabeth Jolley, … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Reading about Australian women writers
Monday Musings on Australian Literature: Writers’ retreats
The last Monday Musings in June was on Christina Stead's house and the current owners' plans to modify it in a way that would spoil some of its heritage significance. The commentary on the post included discussion of how writers' homes can be used. One rather apposite way is as writers' retreats. We have a … Continue reading Monday Musings on Australian Literature: Writers’ retreats
Monday musings on Australian literature: Some novels about the second world war
As I am still immersed in things paternal - and as my father served in the second world war - I thought that this week I'd take the easy way out again and list some of my favourite Australian novels about that war. Although I call myself a pacifist, I don't shy away from war … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Some novels about the second world war
Monday musings on Australian literature: Five fascinating fictional fathers
This week's Monday musings has a personal, sentimental, genesis. Last Friday, my 91-year-old father underwent his third major abdominal surgery in 6 years. It's a big ask for an older body but he's hanging in there. My parents, not surprisingly I suppose, were instrumental in my becoming a reader. My mother introduced me to Jane … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Five fascinating fictional fathers
