Hidden Author

Announcing the Peter Porter Poetry Prize shortlist

From the Editor’s Desk • 02 March 2012

Each year we honour the great Australian poet Peter Porter (1929–2010) through our poetry competition – and in the process generate much new poetry. This year we received almost 800 poems in the highly alliterative Peter Porter Poetry Prize. This is almost twice the number we received last year – a measure of the growing popularity of the Porter Prize and, one suspects, of the recent and mos ... (read more)

News from the Editor's Desk

March 2012, no. 339 • 01 March 2012

  Enter the Jolley Prize Exponents of short fiction will have until 31 May to enter the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. This year’s prize money is divided three ways. The winner will again receive $5000; the two place-getters will receive $2000 and $1000. Last year, the inaugural Jolley Prize attracted almost 1300 entries. Multiple entries are fine. A separate entry form is neede ... (read more)

Letters to the Editor – March 2012

March 2012, no. 339 • 01 March 2012

 Oz Lit at Melbourne University Dear Editor, The English program at the University of Melbourne has offered courses on Australian literature every year since 1982, when it was first introduced as a full seminar subject. Stephanie Guest’s article in last month’s issue of ABR, ‘Oz Lit in the Moot Court Room: Finding Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne’, mistakenly rep ... (read more)

News from the Editor's Desk

February 2012, no. 338 • 23 January 2012

  ABR Fellowship news Our largest and strongest field to date vied for the latest Australian Book Review Sidney Myer Fund Fellowship, worth $5000. The four judges – Tony Birch, Helen Brack, Colin Golvan, and Peter Rose – chose Sydney writer, critic, and anthologist Felicity Plunkett. Dr Plunkett will examine the music of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and its reception. Her profile of this ... (read more)

Letters to the Editor - February 2012

February 2012, no. 338 • 23 January 2012

Before Manning Clark Dear Editor, Norman Etherington’s lively review of Mark McKenna’s book on Manning Clark repeats the claim that Clark was ‘the first academic (in 1946) to offer a full-length course in Australian history’ (December 2011–January 2012). R.M. Crawford, the professor who appointed Clark to give the 1946 course, had himself done so in the previous year to twenty or so st ... (read more)

About ABR Fellowships

Competitions and programs • 17 January 2012

Australian Book Review Fellowships are intended to reward outstanding Australian writers, to enhance ABR through the publication of long-form journalism, and to advance the magazine’s commitment to ideas and critical debate. Some Fellowships are themed - others are not. ABR Fellowships are funded by the magazine's Patrons and in some cases by philanthropic foundations. We look for stylish and ... (read more)

News from the Editor's Desk

December 2011–January 2012, no. 337 • 25 November 2011

  Reference vision By year’s end, it’s not easy to become giddy-headed about our daily cache of new publications, but one book from Cambridge University Press that turned our heads is The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, edited by Philip Goad and Julie Willis. Immense in scale and conception – with 200 contributors, 500 images, and 1000 entries – this will be an indispensabl ... (read more)

Letters to the Editor - December 2011-January 2012

December 2011–January 2012, no. 337 • 25 November 2011

  Whither anthropology? Dear Editor, Emma Kowal’s review of my book (November 2011) is by and large a generous one, and yet it comes to some conclusions that I must reject. My view is not the same as the ‘anti-separatists’, because, as I make clear in my discussion, they do not maintain one view. Some of them are neo-liberals. Others are not. Among the writers I discuss in the releva ... (read more)

Open Page with Frank Moorhouse

December 2011–January 2012, no. 337 • 25 November 2011

Why do you write? Storytelling in all its forms is one way of having something curious, strange, and comforting to say to others and ourselves when we are faced with the malaise of the real. Are you a vivid dreamer? Yes, hugely. But I no longer have much of a theory of dream interpretation. I do know that dreams have no place in fiction. Where are you happiest? At a long dinner or lunch with ... (read more)

News from the Editor's Desk

November 2010, no. 326 • 17 November 2011

  Art talk We suspect that this issue of ABR, at eighty pages in the print edition, is our longest yet. There were so many books to accommodate, plus a welcome new cohort of advertisers, especially in the gallery world. We thank all of them for their support. Art is our chosen theme this month. The first half of the magazine contains a photo-essay by Carol Jerrems and an article on the new ... (read more)