It's some time since I wrote a Delicious Descriptions post, but I want to explore Charlotte Wood's novel Stone Yard devotional (my review) just a little more. Although I finished it over a week ago, I keep thinking about its evocation of quiet lives in retreat - and what Wood might be saying. I am, … Continue reading Delicious descriptions: Charlotte Wood on silence and solitude
Australian literature
Monday musings on Australian literature: Bundyi
Next week will be NAIDOC Week - with this year's theme being "Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud" - but I am jumping the gun a little with a post on a relevant publishing initiative that was announced earlier this year. This initiative comes from publisher Simon & Schuster, and is that they … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Bundyi
Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard devotional (#BookReview)
Charlotte Wood's most recent novel, Stone Yard devotional, is set in the Monaro, a region just south of where I live. It's a landscape that is much loved by many of us, including Nigel Featherstone, whose My heart is a little wild thing (my review) is also set there. The Monaro is expansive country, a … Continue reading Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard devotional (#BookReview)
ACT Literary Awards 2024
On Thursday evening, I attended the presentation of the ACT Literary Awards (which I also attended last year when they were called the ACT Notable Book Awards). These awards are made by Marion (the ACT Writers Centre), and this year's event was MC'd by the CEO Katy Mutton (left) and Board Chair, Emma Batchelor. As … Continue reading ACT Literary Awards 2024
Monday musings on Australian literature: Forgotten writers 5, Lillian Pyke
The subjects for my Monday Musings sub-series on forgotten Australian writers vary in the degree to which they've been forgotten, but those still remembered are only so in niche areas. Today's subject Lillian Pyke is one of these, in that although no longer well-known, her reputation as a children's writer has survived somewhat. Pyke, like … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Forgotten writers 5, Lillian Pyke
Sean Doyle, Australia’s trail-blazing first novelist: John Lang (#BookReview)
Sean Doyle's literary biography, Australia's trail-blazing first novelist: John Lang, provides insights not only into this "idiosyncratic" man, but into two colonial societies - Australia and India - through the early to mid nineteenth-century. Doyle's is not the first biography of John Lang, but it's the first I've read. However, Lang (1816-64) himself is not … Continue reading Sean Doyle, Australia’s trail-blazing first novelist: John Lang (#BookReview)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Book industry awards
How to title today's post was my first challenge - and I hope the title I settled on covers it well enough. What I am wanting to cover here are those awards that don't go to books (or manuscripts) or writers, but to those in the industry - people and organisations - that support writers … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Book industry awards
Gail Jones, Salonika burning (#BookReview)
Australian author Gail Jones' ninth novel, Salonika burning, is a curious but beautiful novel, curious because she fictionalises four real people for whom she has no evidence that they met or knew each other, and beautiful because of her writing and the themes she explores. The novel is set during World War 1, but its … Continue reading Gail Jones, Salonika burning (#BookReview)
Author Talk: the Craft of Crime, Sulari Gentill & Chris Hammer with Anna Steele
This author talk was not one of my usual series - that is, not ANU/Canberra Times Meet the Author or Muse Canberra's conversations. Instead, it was presented by the Friends of the National Library of Australia, of which I am a member. Despite the cold, drizzly night, it was a full house, which is not … Continue reading Author Talk: the Craft of Crime, Sulari Gentill & Chris Hammer with Anna Steele
Monday musings on Australian literature: Untangling the tangles
Introducing last week's Monday Musings, I mentioned that the article I was sharing in that post contained a clue to a curly identification I was working on for my upcoming Australian Women Writers blog post. I said that I might share that puzzle this week, and that is what I am doing. I will get … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Untangling the tangles
Whispering Gums 