Elizabeth McMahon

Elizabeth Harrower: Critical essays by Elizabeth McMahon and Brigitta Olubas

March 2018, no. 399

Susan Sheridan reviews 'Elizabeth Harrower: Critical essays' edited by Elizabeth McMahon and Brigitta Olubas

The appearance in 2014 of In Certain Circles, a new novel from Elizabeth Harrower, was an important literary event. The author, who still lives in Sydney, had published nothing since 1966 and had repeatedly maintained that she had nothing more to say. In Certain Circles had been ready for publication in 1971 ...

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A History of New Zealand Literature edited by Mark Williams

by Elizabeth McMahon •

April 2017, no. 390

Elizabeth McMahon reviews 'A History of New Zealand Literature' edited by Mark Williams

A History of New Zealand Literature is a rewarding collection replete with the pleasure of new information that is both strange and strangely familiar. I commend it for both its intrinsic interest and, for Australian readers in particular, as one means of redressing Australia and New Zealand’s mutual ignorance of each other’s literary histories and cult ...

Southerly Vol. 72, No. 3 edited by David Brooks and Elizabeth McMahon

by Peter Kenneally •

September 2013, no. 354

Peter Kenneally reviews 'Southerly Vol. 72, No. 3' edited by Elizabeth McMahon

Elizabeth McMahon is afflicted with the love of islands. In editing this issue of Southerly, her introduction tells us, she wanted to explore our fascination with them, in our imaginations and in our reality as an island continent surrounded by island nations.

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Patrick White within the Western Literary Tradition by John Beston & Remembering Patrick White edited by Elizabeth McMahon and Brigitta Olubas

by Charles Lock •

April 2011, no. 330

That Patrick White is thought of as an Australian writer is, though regrettable, undeniable. Two problems follow: the first being that he tends to be presented by his critical custodians in an almost comically restricted way, as though White’s works needed to be measured and justified only by Australian standards and terms of comparison ...

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Southerly, Vol. 70, No. 1 edited by David Brooks and Elizabeth McMahon

by Simon West •

September 2010, no. 324

Simon West reviews 'Southerly, Vol. 70, No. 1' edited by David Brooks and Elizabeth McMahon

In a 1995 interview for the Paris Review, Ted Hughes was asked if the 1960s boom in translated poetry in the United Kingdom, particularly with series such as the Penguin Modern European Poets, had had an effect on poetry written in English. ‘Has it modified the British tradition!’ he replied. ‘Everything is now completely open, every approach, with infinite possibilities. Obviously the British tradition still exists as a staple of certain historically hard-earned qualities if anybody is still there who knows how to inherit them. Raleigh’s qualities haven’t become irrelevant. When I read Primo Levi’s verse I am reminded of Raleigh. But for young British poets, it’s no longer the only tradition, no longer a tradition closed in on itself and defensive.’

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Southerly, Vol. 69, No. 2: Southerly At Seventy edited by David Brooks and Elizabeth McMahon

by Jeffrey Poacher •

March 2010, no. 319

Jeffrey Poacher reviews 'Southerly, Vol. 69, No. 2: Southerly At Seventy' edited by David Brooks and Elizabeth McMahon

It is time to raise our glasses: Australia’s oldest literary magazine is now a sprightly septuagenarian. The latest number of Southerly marks the occasion by encasing itself in what appears to be a reproduction of one of its covers from the middle of the last century, complete with foxing and a pencil notation of its pre-decimal price. This retro jacket should serve as a reminder of the journal’s longevity. It arrived on the scene at a time that was hardly auspicious for any new literary venture – Hitler invaded Poland the same month. Thankfully, Southerly outlasted the Third Reich (and a few other empires, too).

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