The Byron Journals is organised into short, eventful chapters detailing several months in the life of Andrew, its protagonist. Andrew sets out from Adelaide on a schoolies’ trip, hoping to escape the weight of expectation and the fallout from his parents’ personal and professional lives. In Byron Bay he joins a group of street musicians. His prolonged holiday becomes a lost summer of drugs (co ... (read more)
Adam Gall
Adam Gall is a Sydney-based writer and critic. He has a PhD in gender and cultural studies, and teaches those subjects, from time to time, at the University of Sydney. He writes on Australian cinema, literature, and cultural politics and has an active interest in Latin American culture and cuisine. He can usually be found lurking on Australian political blogs, especially when he should be writing.
Australian Literary Studies is a journal of the old school, independent of the international academic publishers that have absorbed so many others, and difficult to obtain for casual reading. It has maintained a solid reputation among scholars. From the evidence presented here, it is easy to see why.
The work of Penny van Toorn frames this special issue of ALS. In the opening article, van Toorn n ... (read more)
Melanie Joosten’s first novel, Berlin Syndrome, is a compelling literary thriller. Clare, an Australian travelling alone in Europe, meets a charming Berlin local, Andi. The novel centres on their relationship, which soon becomes something quite different from what either had intended.
... (read more)