January–February 2020, no. 418
Welcome to the January–February issue of ABR – our first issue of the new decade. Most prominently, this edition features the shortlisted poems of the 2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize. This year the shortlisted poets are Lachlan Brown, Claire G. Coleman, A. Frances Johnson, Julie Manning, and Ross Gillett. Other highlights include Publishers Picks: a list of the finest books of the year as selected by senior publishers and editors. The issue also features Kerryn Goldsworthy’s review of Damascus, the latest work by Australian author Christos Tsiolkas; Suzy Freeman-Green’s take on Bri Lee’s dissection of contemporary beauty standards; Stephen Bennetts’s look at Derek Rielly’s biography of the venerated actor David Gulpilil; and much more.
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Full Contents
Dance
Dancing Under the Southern Skies: A history of ballet in Australia by Valerie Lawson
by Luke Forbes
Open Page
Open Page with Ceridwen Dovey
Fiction
See You at the Toxteth by Peter Corris, selected by Jean Bedford & The Red Hand by Peter Temple
by Chris Flynn
Society
The Europeans: Three lives and the making of a cosmopolitan culture by Orlando Figes
Politics
The Manner of Their Going: Prime ministerial exits in Australia by Norman Abjorensen
Politics
The Surprise Party: How the Coalition went from chaos to comeback by Aaron Patrick
by Shaun Crowe
History
The First Wave: Exploring early coastal contact history in Australia edited by Gillian Dooley and Danielle Clode
Japan
Travels with a Writing Brush: Classical Japanese travel writing from the Manyōshū to Bashō edited by Meredith McKinney
by Barry Hill
Society
Decolonizing Universalism: A transnational feminist ethic by Serene J. Khader
Advances
News from the Editor's Desk
Publisher Picks of 2019
by Robert Watkins et al.
Letters
Letters to the Editor
by Margaret Simons, Angela Woollacott, David Bradford, Michael K. Launer, and Sheila Fitzpatrick