Hidden Author
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Hard times at the ABC
Why is it that the ABC – which can produce lavish and lamentable ‘entertainments’ such as Randling and Angry Boys – can’t find the money to maintain decently resourced radio drama or book readings. From January 2013, Radio National’s popular Book Reading – now in its sixty-fourth year – will disappear. The ABC has also announced significant cuts to radio dra ... (read more)
True grit
Dear Editor,
Melinda Harvey’s piece on Michelle de Kretser’s Questions of Travel (October 2012) is precisely the kind of review that makes a reader like myself write to editors. As the last line makes clear, her review is positive, but her first and penultimate paragraphs betray how much academia must be jettisoned to arrive at enjoyment. The struggle to embrace an observational no ... (read more)
Boyd and beyond
Coming ABR events include another Fireside Chat – this time with Wayne Macauley, author of The Cook (Text), which has been shortlisted for several prizes, including the Melbourne Prize Best Writing Award. This Fireside Chat will take place at Boyd on Wednesday, 10 October (6 p.m.).
In our first collaboration with Melbourne’s hugely popular City Library, on Flinders Lane, ABR ... (read more)
Patrick White in Adelaide
Dear Editor,
In his article on the theatre of Patrick White (May 2012), David Marr implies quite strongly that White had nothing to do with the theatre between John Tasker’s production of Night on Bald Mountain for the Adelaide University Theatre Guild during the 1964 Adelaide Festival and Neil Armfield’s production of Signal Driver, commissioned by Artistic Directo ... (read more)
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2024
Tracey Slaughter ‘why your hair is long & your stories short’
Tracey Slaughter won the eighteenth Calibre Essay Prize, worth a total of $10, ... (read more)
Calibre Essay Prize
Australia’s leading award for an original essay is intended to foster new insights into culture, society, and the human condition. All non-fiction subjects are eligible for submission. The prize is worth a total of $10,000, and is supported by Peter McLennan and Mary-Ruth Sindrey.
Peter Porter Poetry Prize
ABR’s prestigious international poetry prize is named i ... (read more)
ABR Behrouz Boochani Fellowship
Hessom Razavi was the recipient of the 2020 ABR Behrouz Boochani Fellowship. The Fellowship, worth $10,000, honoured the artistry, courage, and moral leadership of Behrouz Boochani, the award-winning author of No Friend But the Mountains (2018). Dr Razavi made a significant contribution to the magazine in 2020 with a series of three substantial articles o ... (read more)
Nolan and his comic cobber
Sidney NolanThames & HudsonReviewed by Robert Hughes (Artist and art critic of Nation)
This article was originally published in the November 1961 issue of ABR.
Thames & Hudson’s Nolan book is in danger of becoming a standard work. It should not. It is a blatant promotion job, with few claims to be a serious evaluation of Nolan’s oeu ... (read more)