Hidden Author
Sidestepping the ‘product’
Dear Editor,
Chris Flynn’s commentary (‘Claws out for a Writing Career’, October 2011) discusses the idea that some authors of literary fiction may be considering more commercially viable practices in order to remain relevant. I am a writer, but have also practised as a visual artist for many years. Some thirty years ago, I watched the arts move from a pursui ... (read more)
ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
Claire Aman, Gaylene Carbis, Gregory Day, and Carrie Tiffany are the four shortlisted authors in the inaugural ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. Their stories appear in this special Fiction issue. ABR and the judges – Tony Birch, Mark Gomes, and Terri-ann White – congratulate the shortlisted authors, who were selected from an impressive fie ... (read more)
Declaring an interest
Dear Editor,
No doubt one of the spin-offs for those who commission and read book reviews is the jousting or arm-wrestling following the publication of a review that is contested by an aggrieved writer. An instance of such jousting appears in the Letters column of your September 2011 issue, when Eileen Chanin defended her recent biography Book Life: The Life and Times of Da ... (read more)
Fiction galore
When entries closed in July, we had received 1300 entries in the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. Our three voracious judges are now finalising the shortlist. The four nominated short stories will appear in our Fiction issue in October. We will name the winner at an event in Melbourne later that month.
High talk in Canberra
Late October will be a fine time ... (read more)
Mitchell revealed
Dear Editor,
Your reviewer of my publication Book Life: The Life and Times of David Scott Mitchell (July–August 2011) has not properly understood the book and its central arguments. Mitchell poses an historiographical challenge due to the scarcity of conventional biographical sources. Typical and superficial understandings of him stem largely from a few reports, mostl ... (read more)
Majestic gongs
ABR in the past has been critical of the paucity of writers receiving national honours and the over-representation of politicians, bureaucrats, and plutocrats, so it was pleasing to find several distinguished writers among those honoured on the Queen’s Birthday. Christopher Wallace-Crabbe, a stalwart friend of ABR, received an AM. (We have a poem of his in this issue.) Ot ... (read more)
Paradoxical neglect
Dear Editor,
Patrick McCaughey’s article ‘NativeGrounds and Foreign Fields: The Paradoxical Neglect of Australian Art Abroad’ (June 2011) caught my attention because of its title, then its content. The latter part of the title is slightly old-fashioned. ‘Abroad’, to me, seems to have a fairly British flavour – those places outside those little islands, acr ... (read more)
A month of Miles
Australia is glutted with literary prizes, all competing for attention; but the Miles Franklin Literary Award, first awarded in 1957 and now worth $42,000, retains a cachet all its own. This month’s shortlist is very exclusive: the three shortlisted books are Roger McDonald’s When Colts Ran (Vintage), Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance (Picador), and Chris Womersley’s Bereft ... (read more)
James Curran replies to Stuart Macintyre
Dear Editor,
Stuart Macintyre’s response to my letter (May 2011) acknowledges that in terms of ‘composition, character and loyalty’ – that is, the basic needs of nationalism – Australia defined itself for much of last century in British race terms. But he continues to define John Curtin’s Empire Council proposal as ‘pragmatic’, thu ... (read more)