Hidden Author
Garry Disher is an author of crime fiction and children’s literature.
He graduated with a Masters degree in Australian History at Monash University, and was awarded a creative writing fellowship to Stanford University in California. On his return to Melbourne, he taught creative writing. He has published over fifty books including novels, crime thrillers, fiction for children and young adults, ... (read more)
Sheila Fitzpatrick, a professor at the University of Sydney specialising in the history of modern Russia, is one of the world’s most influential Soviet historians. She is the author of two memoirs, My Father’s Daughter (2010) and A Spy in the Archives (2013). Her most recent book, On Stalin’s Team: The years of living dangerously in Soviet politics (2015), shared the 2016 Prime Minister’s ... (read more)
Gabriel García Ochoa reports back from Mexico following the US election in his article 'The City of Palaces' which appears in the January-February issue of Australian Book Review.
The ABR Podcast is available via SoundCloud and iTunes.
ABR Podcast intro music by David McCooey
Other music by danosongs.com and bensound.com
Comments by Donald Trump on Mexican people: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo ... (read more)
Peter Rose interviews American Soprano Amber Wagner for the ABR Podcast following the first cycle of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, which is being presented in Melbourne by Opera Australia. Amber Wagner plays the role of Sieglinde in the second opera Die Walküre.
The ABR Podcast is available via SoundCloud and iTunes. ... (read more)
To Sir or not To Sir
American publications largely eschew British titles when reporting on the arts. Alex Ross, reviewing the new Tristan und Isolde at the Met in the New Yorker, acknowledged Simon Rattle in the pit – not ‘Sir Simon Rattle’. Even Opera, that indispensable British organ for operaphiles, founded by the queen’s cousin, calls him ‘Simon Rattle’. ABR dispenses with these a ... (read more)
Parallel importation
Dear Editor,I’d like to thank Colin Golvan QC for his intelligent, articulate, and well-argued response to the Productivity Commission report’s proposed changes to parallel importations and fair use, published as both a podcast and a brief commentary by ABR (November 2016).
These are big issues for Australian authors and illustrators, such as myself, and for the many Aus ... (read more)
CALIBRE ESSAY PRIZE
For the eleventh year in a row, we seek entries in the Calibre Essay Prize – the country’s premier prize for an unpublished non-fiction essay. Calibre is now worth a total of $7,500. The winner will receive $5,000; the runner-up, $2,500. Both essays will appear in ABR. Once again, Calibre is open to anyone writing in English around the world. We recommend the quick, inexpe ... (read more)
Wagner’s Ring
Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (Opera Australia) opens on Monday, 21 November – the first of three full cycles. Neil Armfield’s production was first seen in Melbourne in 2013. Pietari Inkinen, who led the Ring in 2013, is once again conducting. Many of the Australian singers reappear in the same roles, but there are some significant – and auspicious – new princ ... (read more)
Steven Herrick is a poet and author. He has published twenty-two books for adults, young adults, and children, and is widely considered to be a pioneer of verse novels for children and young adults.
He left school in Year 10, before returning some years later as an adult, and then going on to study poetry at the University of Queensland, where he gained his B.A. in 1982.
In 2000 he was awarded t ... (read more)