It is some time since I wrote about the ALS Gold Medal. This is not because I don't think it's interesting or worthwhile, but because there are so many awards, and I just don't have the time to write up announcements for every award made each year. So, I pick and choose a bit, and … Continue reading ALS Gold Medal for 2024 announced
Monday musings on Australian literature: First Nations Australian Stella listees
NAIDOC Week 2024 National Logo Yesterday was the start of NAIDOC Week 2024. As has been my practice since 2013, I'm devoting this week's Monday Musings to the cause. NAIDOC Week's theme this year is Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud. Without specifically stating it, this theme responds, I'm sure, to the devastating … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: First Nations Australian Stella listees
Six degrees of separation, FROM Kairos TO …
Another month, another Six Degrees. This is the only meme I do as a regular thing, and sometimes I wonder why I do it. It is fun to think about how to link books, so it's always exciting to see what book Kate has chosen next. But, is it more than fun? Does it result … Continue reading Six degrees of separation, FROM Kairos TO …
Delicious descriptions: Charlotte Wood on silence and solitude
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
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
Eli Funaro, The dog pit (#Review)
Eli Funaro's "The dog pit" is the twelfth of fourteen stories in the anthology, Great short stories by contemporary Native American writers. Like the previous stories by Thomas King and Duane Niatum, it was written in the 1990s. Eli Funaro Anthology editor Bob Blaisdell provides very little information about Funaro, and I have to say … Continue reading Eli Funaro, The dog pit (#Review)
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)
Whispering Gums 