In the decade from the late 1960s to the late 1970s, South Australia, under premier Don Dunstan, was Australia's most progressive state. I won't list all the achievements - you can read them in the Wikipedia article linked on his name - but there were big social justice ones including the recognition of Aboriginal land … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Writers from South Australia
Monday musings
Monday musings on Australian literature: eBook publishing in Australia
First off, the disclaimer: I don't know a lot about what is happening with eBook publishing in Australia, so my goal here is as much to find out more from readers of this post as it is to impart knowledge. I thought a good place to start would be the Australian Publishers Association (APA) but didn't … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: eBook publishing in Australia
Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian Poetry Library (online)
It seems appropriate now, when I've been exploring the iPad app for TS Eliot's The waste land, to introduce the Australian Poetry Library website that was launched in late May. Essentially a digital library, it contains over 42,000 poems from over 170 poets. That's a pretty good start, particularly when the poets range from pioneers like … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian Poetry Library (online)
Monday musings on Australian literature: the National Centre of Biography
What is life? Life itself, as you will realise if you consult a dictionary, is hard enough to define. But what is a life? And why does it matter? For itself (a question of honour)? Or for what one can make of it as a biographer (which may mean trespass)? I am old-fashioned enough to … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: the National Centre of Biography
Monday musings on Australian literature: What value writers’ homes?
DKS, in a recent comment on this blog, and Lisa of ANZLitlovers, in a post last week, have brought to my attention the threat to Christina Stead's home, Boongarre, in Watsons Bay, Sydney. As a lover of the "literary road", I'm concerned and so decided to explore it a little more. The facts, as I … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: What value writers’ homes?
Monday musings on Australian literature: Contemporary poetry and music
telegrams tremble like leaves from a wintering tree and the spider grief swings in his bitter geometry – they’re bringing them home, now, too late, too early. (from "Homecoming" by Bruce Dawe) Last night I was lucky enough to attend a private function at which a small, local, male a capella group, the Pocket Score … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Contemporary poetry and music
Monday musings on Australian literature: Indigenous Australian autobiographies
When I was a child my father told me to be proud I was of "aboriginal descent". Perhaps it was the silence surrounding his words that made them resonate as they did; I'd certainly heard no such thing anywhere else in my life, certainly not in my reading or schooling. There didn't seem much in … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Indigenous Australian autobiographies
Monday musings on Australian literature: Writers from our north
Queensland is the state of my birth, and that makes it special to me! It is a large state and one of our most geographically diverse, ranging from the tropical north to the arid west, from the subtropical south to the temperate inland southeast. It has one of Australia's most popular tourist destinations, the Great … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Writers from our north
Monday musings on Australian literature: Where are our women writers?
It might be just me, but it seems that women writers (I know the adjective should be female but it just doesn't feel right in this context where "women writers" is short-hand for "women who are writers" or "writers who are women") are somewhat thin on the ground in Australia at present, at least in … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Where are our women writers?
Monday musings on Australian literature: Travel writers on Australia
Don't panic, I told myself, the universe with still continue if I miss one week's Monday musings. You see, after having been in Japan for over two weeks now, my thoughts have strayed rather far from Australian literature. But then, necessity being the mother of invention, an idea came to me. While I've been travelling, … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Travel writers on Australia
