Craig Munro

Craig Munro’s most recent book is Literary Lion Tamers: Book editors who made publishing history (2021). His other books include Under Cover: Adventures in the art of editing (2015) ,Wild Man of Letters: The story of PR Stephensen (1984) and Paper Empires: A history of the book in Australia, 1946–2005 (co-edited with Robyn Sheahan-Bright, 2006). He was UQP fiction editor from 1972 to 1980 and publishing manager until 2000, winning the 1985 Barbara Ramsden Award for Editing.

Craig Munro reviews 'Popeye never told you: Childhood memories of the war' by Rodney Hall

May 2010, no. 321 • 01 May 2010

Do not be misled by the ‘Childhood Memories’ of the subtitle. Self-indulgent nostalgia is nowhere to be found in this book, which is a richly novelistic saga of a war-time family in Britain. It is Rodney Hall’s genius that his story evokes strong personal memories in the mind of the reader: in my case of a North Queensland childhood during the 1950s, punctuated by destructive cyclones and de ... (read more)

Craig Munro reviews 'Barbara Hanrahan: A biography' by Annette Stewart

July–August 2010, no. 323 • 01 July 2010

The career of one of Australia’s most talented novelists, Barbara Hanrahan (1939–91), was cut short by illness, and her work has now largely slipped from view. I edited several of her novels in the late 1970s for the University of Queensland Press. Whereas other UQP authors of the time, such as the gregarious Olga Masters, enjoyed media attention, with the introspective Barbara Hanrahan it was ... (read more)

Craig Munro reviews 'Walking the Line' by Rae Desmond Jones and 'Summer Ends Now' by John Emery

June 1980, no. 21 • 01 June 1980

Rae Desmond Jones has joined the growing band of poets now working in the more expansive medium of prose diction (thereby possibly expanding their readership as well). Others that come to mind are David Malouf, Roger McDonald, and Rodney Hall. At just 74 pages, Rae Desmond Jones’s first story collection gives the impression of being a slim volume. The contents page lists only ten stories. Yet t ... (read more)