Hidden Author
Dust without dimension
The November 13 attacks on ordinary citizens in Paris have outraged and galvanised the world community. We share this sense of revulsion. Australia has a large French population and a rich tradition of Francophilia. Our sympathies go to our French readers and to the families of all the victims.
Words, at such times, are de trop. Not La Marseillaise, though. Advances was st ... (read more)
Prime Minister's Literary Awards
The 2015 PMLA shortlists have been a long time coming, as many authors, booksellers, and publishers will attest. How fitting – after the debacle of 2014 (with its absurdities and subsequent justifications) – that it will be Malcolm Turnbull and not Tony Abbott who will announce the winners of these six lucrative prizes – sometime in December, we understand. ... (read more)
21 Days: An Odyssey
Our survey of neglected novels published in the Fiction issue (September 2015) has attracted much attention. Peter Rose, lauding Rodney Hall's novel Captivity Captive (1988), wrote: 'The book might have been written in a day – one inspired day.' Well, not quite. Rodney Hall, in an email, told our Editor that Captivity Captive was written in twenty-one days. It seems he barel ... (read more)
WHEN DID YOU FIRST WRITE FOR ABR?
The first thing I ever wrote for ABR was published early in 1985; it was a review of Helen Garner's The Children's Bach. My association with ABR has lasted much longer than any of my romantic entanglements.
WHICH CRITICS MOST IMPRESS YOU?
The best thing I can do here is quote lines of criticism that I've never forgotten. Terry Eagleton on Wuthering Heights: 'th ... (read more)
CHILDHOOD SEX!
Dear Editor,
Shannon Burns’s splendid ABR Patrons’ Fellowship essay, ‘The Scientist of His Own Experience: A Profile of Gerard Murnane’, is rich in insights and pithy observations, plus some rather fine photographs (August 2015). Much of it resonated for me, as Murnane’s first editor; this was soon after I had arrived at William Heinemann from Penguin, aeons ago.
When G ... (read more)
Environmental times
For the second year in a row, generous support from the Bjarne K. Dahl Trust has enabled us to devote much space to environmental subjects. The highlight is a long article by award-winning author Ashley Hay, the second ABR Dahl Trust Fellow. We also survey key scientists and environmentalists about the need for action.
To celebrate this issue, ABR and the Dahl Trust will h ... (read more)
Why do you write?
For me, writing is the beginning of so much. It’s how I methodise my thoughts. How I explore issues. My books really are co-explorations with my readers.
Are you a vivid dreamer?
Oftentimes yes. My dreams can be repetitive: the same very specific geographies, the same themes. In the past few weeks they’ve been all about the last illness and death of my father, who passed ... (read more)
Jolley Prize
Welcome to our annual Fiction issue. Among the highlights are the three 2015 Jolley Prize shortlisted stories. This is the sixth time that we have presented the Jolley Prize, which is worth a total of $8,000. After reading more than 1,200 entries submitted by writers around the world, the judges – ABR Deputy Editor Amy Baillieu, poet–academic Sarah Holland-Batt, and author Paddy ... (read more)
What drew you to writing?
I can’t remember not writing – it is something I have always done. As a teenager I was strongly encouraged by some wonderful teachers and started to become much more serious about it. I have always felt this need, this pressure, to translate experience into language.
... (read more)