And the winners are ...

The judges of the 2004 ABR Reviewing Competition were gratified by the level of interest in this competition and by the overall standard of entries. We received almost 100 entries (a third of them from subscribers). Fiction and non-fiction were evenly divided; there were rather fewer children’s/young adult book reviews. To no one’s surprise, the most popular book was Helen Gamer’s Joe Cinque’s Consolation: A True Story of Death, Grief and the Law, followed by Shirley Hazzard’s The Great Fire and Peter Goldsworthy’s Three Dog Night. In the non-fiction category, the field was eclectic, from poetry to memoir to academic monograph. The judge had to hand it to Alan Whitehead of Blackheath NSW, who chose to review the 2005 Sydney and Blue Mountains Street Directory. Next time we look forward to his critique of the telephone directory.

The judges remarked on the closeness of many of the readings and on our reviewers’ preparedness to write frankly about their subjects’ strengths and weaknesses. There was much impatience with inattentive or non-existent editing. It wasn’t a timid field!

First prize in the fiction category goes to Maya Linden, who reviewed Sophie Cunningham’s Geography. Ms Linden recently completed her Master of Arts at the University of Melbourne, where she edited Vivid, the university’s creative arts journal. Ms Linden writes poetry and prose, and has also written and produced several independent short films.

Vivienne Kelly is the non-fiction winner. Ms Kelly, who reviewed Robert Dessaix’s Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev, tutored in English for some years at Monash University, where she also completed an MA. She is now working on a PhD ‘whose topic is broadly speaking, the intersection in Australia of history and myth’.

First prize in the children’s/young adult book category goes to Stephanie Owen Reeder, who reviewed Jeannie Baker’s Belonging. This is a model review, and shows what intelligence and empathy can be brought to a picture book in a review of 750 words. Dr Reeder has taught at secondary and tertiary levels. This year she completed a PhD in Communication at the University of Canberra. She is a seasoned reviewer, and has edited a number of books and journals. Currently, she is a full-time editor with Hansard.

The winning entries in each category will be published in the February 2005 issue. First- and second-placed entries will also appear on our website. As well as receiving $500 each, our overall winners will be commissioned to write another review in 2005. But we’re not stopping there. So impressed were we by a number of entrants (winners or not) that we have already begun to ask them to write for us – another benefit of this unique Australian competition.

Congratulations to our nine winners (all listed on page 27) and to everyone who entered. We look forward to presenting another Reviewing Competition in 2006.

2004 La Trobe University/ABR Annual Lecture

Is there a more beautiful room in Australia than the Mortlock Chamber at the State Library of South Australia? What a venue for this year’s La Trobe University/Australian Book Review Annual Lecture, which will be delivered by Peter Goldsworthy on Wednesday, December 8 (6 for a prompt 6.30 p.m. start). Dr Goldsworthy is well qualified to talk about ‘Famous Battles between Words and Music: From Monteverdi to Puff Daddy’, his theme on the night. Apart from his many award-winning novels and collections of poetry, essays and short stories, Dr Goldsworthy has written libretti for two operas by Richard Mills, most recently Batavia. He will be accompanied, on December 8, by Michael Morley, who will perform musical examples on the piano. The Mortlock Chamber may be grand, but space isn’t unlimited and tickets to the Annual Lecture are selling fast. We urge subscribers to book soon. As always, they receive a discount ($5, instead of the usual $15). Full details appear on page 20.

Vale Peter Mathers

Last month, Australia lost one of its most celebrated, if least prolific, satirists. ABR also lost a neighbour, for Peter Mathers lived nearby, close to the mighty Pelaco Building in Richmond. Born in England in 1931, Mathers was brought to Australia as an infant. His first novel, Trap (1966), won the Miles Franklin Award, a rare feat. In some ways, his second novel, The Wort Papers (1972), was even more celebrated. Mathers’s subsequent output was relatively small, and included a collection of short stories and several plays. Of his fiction, The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (1994) had this to say: ‘An ebulliently comic, innovative and inventive writer, Mathers is exceptional in his variety and range. He sees the writer’s role as one of preaching and practising subversion, holding up “authoritative” claims to ridicule and analysis ... His novels are deliberately negligent of novelistic rules, shaped not in orderly chronological form, but fluid, digressive and web-like.’

Belonging in Canberra

Fans of environmental artist and children’s author Jeannie Baker will want to drop in at the Canberra Museum and Gallery over summer. Artwork from Baker’s latest picture book Belonging will be on display from 11 December 2004 to 20 March 2005. Admirers will also have noted that Belonging is the book reviewed by the winner of the Reviewing Competition’s children’s/young adult books category.

Thanks to all

I want to thank my colleagues at ABR; our Chair, Robert Manne; board members and editorial advisers; our fantastic team of contributors; the many booksellers who support us; our advertisers – and especially our two major partners, La Trobe University (Chief Sponsor) and the National Library of Australia (our National Sponsor). Your support throughout 2004 has been greatly appreciated. Let’s not forget our volunteers, either. ABR benefits enormously from their generosity and goodwill. Finally, my best wishes to our readers in Australia and overseas. We look forward to offering you more new writing and analysis next year, starting in February. Ed.