Barry Oakley

Barry Oakley is an Australian author and playwright. In 1971, he was the joint winner of the Captain Cook Bicentenary Literary Award for his third novel Let's Hear it for Prendergast. He was the literary editor of The Australian from 1988 to 1997. His most recent work, Mug Shots, a Memoir, was published in 2012.

'Self Portrait' by Barry Oakley

February–March 1986, no. 78 • 01 February 1986

In the small hours of Saturday, 31 August, after the wind-up dinner of the Association for the Study of Australian literature in Armidale, John Hanrahan told the writer not to forget the self-portrait he had promised for Australian Book Review. The writer, at that stage somewhere between exhaustion and tranquillity, assured him it would be done soon. Later he regretted what he’d said, because, a ... (read more)