Hidden Author
Melbourne Recital Centre
Each new quarterly program for the Melbourne Recital Centre is full of highlights, but the July–September one is special. This is the last to be presented by outgoing CEO Mary Vallentine, who during her six years at the helm has transformed MRC into an essential venue for music lovers of all kinds. Highlights include the great Robyn Archer's 'The Other America ... (read more)
In 2015 we published James McNamara's Ian Potter Foundation Fellowship essay 'The Golden Age of Television', that considers the ascendancy of television drama and its cultural significance. The article was the main feature in our inaugural Film and Television issue in April 2015. The ABR Podcast is available from iTunes and SoundCloud. You can also listen to episodes on our website.
Lin ... (read more)
Michael Winkler (photograph by Chris Riordan)Michael Winkler is the winner of the 2016 Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay. The judges – Sophie Cunningham (winner of the 2015 Calibre Prize) and Peter Rose – chose Mr Winkler's essay 'The Great Red Whale' from a field of almost 200 entries submitted from thirteen different countries. Michael Winkler receives $5,000 and his essay appears in th ... (read more)
WHAT DREW YOU TO WRITING?
The American poet Howard Nemerov described poetry writing as a spiritual exercise 'having for its chief object the discovery or invention of one's character'. I'm sure that at heart this is what my writing is about.
... (read more)
CALIBRE PRIZE
Michael Winkler is the winner of the 2016 Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay. The judges – Sophie Cunningham (winner of the 2015 Calibre Prize) and Peter Rose – chose Mr Winkler's essay 'The Great Red Whale' from a field of almost 200 entries submitted from thirteen different countries. Michael Winkler receives $5,000; his essay appears in this issue, beginning on page 31.
... (read more)
Even before I'd finished talking, hands shot up from the grey heads in the audience. 'I'm very concerned,' said the jowly chap with the sailor's suntan, 'that advances being made in drugs mean that most cancer patients will soon be kept alive indefinitely.' That's a problem? People who used to suffer and die will be able to live longer, quality lives. You don't hear this said about the advances in ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Smith's Lake' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
Smith's Lake
The grass grows longer on the easeway.
A pelican swipes the sky towards the seascape we can't yet see,its webby legs outstretched: ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Set Piece' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
Set Piece
Strange, that there are sequences we live as cinema, if I lookedover my shoulderI might recognise the front wall ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Potts Point' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
Potts Point
for Eileen
The light's olderin these sandstone suburbs,jam-thick.
A clipped-haired man held a dog leashsaying one of us is single,and even the leaveshad hunched their shouldersin the gutters.
A waiter, golde ... (read more)