I didn't report on this biennial award in 2022, but with the 2024 shortlist just having been announced, and my having read half of them, I am reminding us all again of this interesting award. Worth $50,000, this award, for those of you who don't remember it, has very specific criteria: "the best novel written by … Continue reading Barbara Jefferis Award 2024 Shortlist Announced
Australian literature
Monday musings on Australian literature: A little Longreach interlude
I am still tripping through Queensland, and had planned a more in-depth post for today - in fact, I'd started working on it before I left Canberra on 31 August - but my energy levels have been sapped by having had COVID for the last week, not to mention by our busy touring schedule. Rather … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: A little Longreach interlude
Monday musings on Australian literature: A little note on the Kalkadoon (or Kalkatungu)
Tonight I am in Kalkadoon (Kalkatunga) country. The Kalkadoons were the first Indigenous Australian people I became aware of as a young pre-pubescent girl living in Mount Isa in the 1960s. What I remember being told is that they were "fierce warriors", but nothing much else, because we didn't learn this history of Australia back … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: A little note on the Kalkadoon (or Kalkatungu)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Nettie Palmer on Australian novels
Nettie Palmer has appeared a few times before on this blog, and is likely to appear again, because she was such an active member of Australia's early to mid-twentieth century literary community, and she was a keen supporter and promoter of Australian writing and writers. Three years ago, I wrote about an article she'd written … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Nettie Palmer on Australian novels
Monday musings on Australian literature: Best Australian books, 21st century (to date)
I do think it's jumping the gun, rather, to be listing best books of a century when that century is barely a quarter through! However, it seems that critics and reviewers around the world are giving it a go, including the esteemed New York Times, so who am I to quibble? Certainly Readings Bookshop and … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Best Australian books, 21st century (to date)
Donna M. Cameron, The rewilding (#BookReview)
Quite coincidentally, earlier this month, I read and posted on Willa Cather’s short story "The bookkeeper's wife" which commences with a young man, Percy Bixby, sitting in his office deciding to do something in order to keep his flashy fiancée Stella. That was published in 1916. I have now just finished Donna M. Cameron’s novel, … Continue reading Donna M. Cameron, The rewilding (#BookReview)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Short stories, revisited
I love short stories but, as Jason Steger, Literary Editor of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, wrote in one of his recent weekly emails, not everyone does. Indeed, he writes: I know quite a lot of people – people I would consider good readers of fiction – who find them unsatisfactory. Not enough … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Short stories, revisited
Monday musings on Australian literature: Forgotten writers 7, Grace Ethel Martyr
The forgotten writers I have been writing about vary greatly, and most will stay forgotten because, to be honest, their time has past and not all writing remains relevant. This is not to say, however, that they are not worth revisiting. They are, after all, part of our literary culture, and they paved ways, whether … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Forgotten writers 7, Grace Ethel Martyr
Melissa Lucashenko, Edenglassie (#BookReview)
Broadly speaking, Melissa Lucashenko's latest novel, Edenglassie, does for southeast Queensland what Kim Scott's That deadman dance does for Noongar country in southwest Western Australia. Both tell of the early days of their respective colonies from a First Nations perspective; both are written in a generous spirit but with absolute clarity about the dispossession that … Continue reading Melissa Lucashenko, Edenglassie (#BookReview)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Poetry Month 2024
National Poetry Month - in Australia - is now four years old, and once again it is spearheaded by Red Room Poetry, which is described by ArtsHub as "Australia’s leading organisation that commissions poets and produces live poetry events nationally". ArtsHub adds that this Month is "a festival that celebrates emerging and established writers, as … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Poetry Month 2024
Whispering Gums 