Internship opportunity

Australian Book Review – supported by the Sidney Myer Fund – seeks applications for an editorial intern. This is a unique opportunity for recent graduates seeking an entrée into publishing: no such paid editorial internship is currently available in Australia. The ABR Sidney Myer Fund Editorial Internship reflects ABR’s strong commitment to fostering new editorial talent, and extends the magazine’s popular volunteer program.

We seek applications from graduates who wish to work in the publishing industry. The successful applicant will work closely with the Editor and with Mark Gomes, the Deputy Editor, who joined us in 2009 under the APA Publishing Internship Program. As in his case, there is much scope for a diverse creative contribution to the magazine.

Applications closed on 18 February 2011.

Heavenly promise

Australia can ill afford to lose a cultivated literary magazine such as HEAT, so it was dispiriting to learn of its imminent closure, with the publication of the final issue. Editor Ivor Indyk, in his valedictory editorial, details his reasons for closing the magazine that he created in 1996. ‘After fourteen years of continuous publication the sheer physical intractability, and its limited circulation, weigh heavily upon its publisher, especially at a time when the electronic medium beckons, with its heavenly promise of weightlessness and omnipresence.’ Dr Indyk and his colleagues will ‘take a year off to explore the situation’. ABR hopes this is not the last we have heard from HEAT. Aesthetically, it set new standards for Australian magazines, and its publishing was ever toneful and questioning. James Ley, a frequent contributor to both magazines, will review HEAT 24 in the next issue.

Vale Ruth Park (1917–2010)

Celebrated New Zealand-born ‘story-teller’ Ruth Park died in Sydney in December, aged ninety-three. Park was a prolific and well-loved writer who won many prizes, including the 1977 Miles Franklin Award (for Swords and Crowns and Rings). Among her best-known works are the Harp in the South trilogy (1948–85) and the children’s books The Muddleheaded Wombat (1962) and Playing Beatie Bow (1980). ABR readers will remember Shirley Walker’s article on the Harp in the South trilogy, ‘Bitter Fruit: Ruth Park’s Trilogy of Want and Human Spirit’ , from the July–August 2009 issue.

Blood and bells

Ten lucky new subscribers this month will receive a signed copy of Gail Jones’s new novel, Five Bells, with thanks to Random House. In her review, Felicity Plunkett describes Jones’s hymn to Kenneth Slessor’s eponymous poem as ‘captivating … ambitious and compelling’. Meanwhile, for renewing subscribers we have twenty-five double passes to Joel and Ethan Coen’s much-anticipated new film, True Grit, starring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, with thanks to Paramount Pictures. Call us on (03) 9429 6700 to claim your prize. Signed books and film tickets go in a flash, so be quick.

Perth Writers Festival

The 2011 Perth Writers Festival runs from Friday 4 to Monday 7 March, at the University of Western Australia. Guests will include ABR contributors Carmel Bird, James Bradley, Kate Holden, John Kinsella, Angus Trumble, and Chris Womersley, as well as this month’s Open Page subject, Hazel Rowley, and Editor, Peter Rose.

Brief showers

Climate change has been blamed for many things, but never, until now, for a diminution of authorial inspiration. In his new book, SettlerColonialism: A Theoretical Overview (Palgrave Macmillan), Lorenzo Veracini, an academic at Swinburne University of Technology, thanks the shower ‘for a number of decent ideas that came up while I was having one’, but adds: ‘Had we not had water restrictions all along, this book would probably have been a better one.’

Virtual index

In the past we published the annual index of reviews, articles, and creative writing in each February issue. In the so-called ‘digital age’, this feels anachronistic. Finding room for this long feature has also been rather burdensome. Henceforth the index will appear on the ABR website. The 2010 index appears there now, along with previous ones. If you can’t access the index, we will happily send you a copy. Meanwhile, enjoy those eight extra pages of writing.

Instant gratification

Readers can now subscribe to the print edition online at ABR’s website using a credit card. The new payment option, powered by the eWAY gateway service, complements our existing PayPal facility, and allows subscriptions to be paid quickly, securely, and directly to ABR. Payments are transacted in real time, with no paper involved whatsoever. Click here and select the ‘Credit Card’ payment method.