Hidden Author
Vale David Page
Arts Update was saddened to hear of the death of Bangarra Dance Theatre's award-winning music director David Page, brother of artistic director Stephen Page, earlier this week at the age of fifty-five. Page began his career at Bangarra in 1991 and over the next twenty-five years created the music for twenty-seven of their pieces. Among his many achievements, Page received two He ... (read more)
ABR'S NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH MONASH UNIVERSITY
Australian Book Review is delighted to announce a major new partnership with Monash University.
This alliance between ABR and the internationally renowned Group of Eight university augurs well for students, scholars, writers, and readers. The magazine will be active on campus, leading workshops, commissioning new writers (academics and students), and ... (read more)
WHICH POETS HAVE MOST INFLUENCED YOU?
Emily Dickinson, for her economy; Shakespeare, for his geometric patterning; Elizabeth Bishop, for her precision; Manley Hopkins, for his extravagant tensions; Jorie Graham, for her sustained experimentation with form; Lewis Carroll, for his rhythms; Dr Seuss, for his irrepressible sense of whimsy, and the absurd.
ARE POEMS 'INSPIRED' OR MAINLY THE WORK OF C ... (read more)
ARDUOUS PATH
Dear Editor,
Susan Sheridan's review of Marianne Van Velzen's retelling of the extraordinary life of Ernestine Hill, Call of the Outback (April 2016), while very positive overall, drew attention to the absence of any substantial quotes from Hill and the book's failure to reproduce any of Hill's vast archive of wonderful photographs. Sadly, and unknown to your reviewer, this was a si ... (read more)
Richard Flanagan (photograph by Ulf Andersen)
Richard Flanagan is an award-winning Australian writer, whose novels have been published in forty-two countries, and have garnered numerous honours, most notably the 2002 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Gould's Book of Fish (2001) and the 2014 Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North. As a journalist, he has written for various Aust ... (read more)
In this episode of 'Poem of the Week' Alexis Lateef reads 'Girl in Fremantle Bookshop'. ABR Editor, Peter Rose, introduces Alexis who then reads and discusses her poem.
Girl in Fremantle Bookshop
You squirrel away musty editions of Virginia Woolfbut living in Fremantle, with its failing shopsand unstable rents, was going to hurt –surviving on Vegemite is not sustainable. ... (read more)
In this episode of 'Poem of the Week' Graham Akhurst reads 'The Kadaitcha Sung'. ABR Editor, Peter Rose, introduces Graham who then reads and discusses his poem.
The Kadaitcha Sung
A black featherwhisperednascent
swoonsburiedunder moonlit gleameddark skin
clandestineit waitsKadaitcha
a reminderin haunted spaceof darkness under light
Graham Akhurst
Graha ... (read more)
William Shakespeare - 23 April
April 23 – as if you didn't know already – marks the four hundredth anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, greatest of poets and playwrights. It was also his birthday, of course. We note this anniversary with a review of the current Bell Shakespeare production of Romeo and Juliet, by Andrew Fuhrmann. The season continues at Arts Centre Melbourne until ... (read more)
Aidan Coleman is a poet, critic and speechwriter. He has published two collections of poetry: Avenues & Runways and Asymmetry, shortlisted for awards including the NSW Premier's Kenneth Slessor Prize, the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature and the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards. Aidan has received numerous grants and residencies, most recently at the Heinrich Böll Cottage (Ir ... (read more)