Lost & Found is the debut novel of the year in Australia (so far) and it’s a pearl. Brooke Davis, its 34-year-old West Australian author, is a little breathless with all the fuss — and who wouldn’t be? A week before the book’s launch in Australia, it had been sold into 25 countries to be
Dear Writer, I’m so excited that Virginia O’Day popped by this week to answer some of your curlier questions about writing fiction! Virginia is the wise narrator of Dear Writer Revisited by Australian author Carmel Bird and the book is a brilliant guide for all wordsmiths — fledgling or experienced. If you want inspiration, practical
The impact of Darren Groth’s charming new Young Adult novel Are You Seeing Me? should be seismic. If it doesn’t cause a major publishing tremor similar to that caused by The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, I swear I’ll watch Jackie Chan* movies back to back for a week (no cakewalk, for me, I’ve got
Squealing bats in suburbia, Shakespeare’s Iago talking firkins and vespiaries, Australian writer Dorothy Hewett stuck in a railway car toilet, and a sermonette in which a Jehovah’s Witness has froth at the corners of his lips “white light humming” … Mark O’Flynn’s first short story collection explores the spectrum of human experience. “Bats squeal in the trees,
I reread On Chesil Beach last weekend and it’s still one of the saddest and most beautiful books I know. Ian McEwan’s work has great soul; such a gift to our world. Other books I’ve happily revisited in the last two months include: Looking for Alibrandi (Melina Marchetta) I was given a pretty presentation copy
My story “Pelts” is being published in Spineless Wonders’ poem/micro-fiction anthology Writing To The Edge later in June. I’m in great company as the anthology includes invited authors and finalists from the 2013 joanne burns Award, judged by novelist and creative writing lecturer Shady Cosgrove. Ms Cosgrove said the anthology contains “tight, thoughtful writing that
The eight stories in Lorrie Moore’s new collection Bark may not have the dazzling urgency of pieces from earlier collections but they do leave traces as if you’ve been bitten. Why? They broach dark territory with light relief Moore wades straight in to the mess of human disappointment, disillusionment and dislocation with characters that are
1. The character Beiruti recluse Aaliya Sohbi says she suffers the neuroses of a writer without the talent. Her hair is too blue, her back is too knotty and her thoughts twist through memories of her volatile past and the scores of books she’s read and translated. She’s grumpy, lonely, ageing, witty, obsessive and unpractised
Next Tuesday, May 20, I’m pleased to be taking part in the inaugural Penguin Random House National Book Bloggers Forum at the Random House Australia offices in North Sydney. It’s an interesting and informative program and I’m particularly looking forward to meeting the winner of the 2013 Best Australian Blog Competition blogger and author Sneh Roy.
Her golden hair, her leopard print dress and her wedding band … The woman’s allure was irresistible, her life lessons the kind that cause a young man to live a little, question a bit and grow up a lot … What are we talking about? The debut novel of 21-year-old New Zealander Sebastian Hampson that
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