Damage and despair haunt the pages of Josephine Rowe’s first novel like the phantom panther said to have stalked the area near Puckapunyal Army Base in central Victoria. This makes A Loving, Faithful Animal an eerie and unsettling book—and a difficult read. Persist, though, and you’ll be rewarded by Rowe’s precise and poetic use of
In April, I’m traveling in Japan so my 16 quotes from 16 poems are by Japanese poets. Enjoy! (How do I say that in Japanese?) 1. ‘Blossoms at night’ by Kobayashi Issa Blossoms at night, / and the faces of people / moved by music. Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828), also known as Kobayashi Yataro and Kobayashi
The Waiting Room is an intense portrait of a woman unravelling and an intriguing study of the complexity of the mother-daughter bond. It also explores the legacy of the Holocaust and the ripple effect of its damage: How hard is it for a child of a Holocaust survivor to carve out her own identity? What
Here’s my project. I read a poem a day, imbibe its rhythms and use this as an inspiration for my own writing. Because it’s 2016, I’ll choose 16 quotes from 16 of these poems to feature on A Bigger Brighter World so you’ll get to enjoy a taste of them too. I may not manage
Acclaimed Indigenous author Anita Heiss knows reading opens doors. Her own books and her work with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation are helping to break down barriers and getting good books into the Australian communities that need them most. Harry’s Secret is her latest creative contribution to this important cause. In 2015 you released Harry’s Secret, which
What are we talking about? Wild Chicory is the accomplished first novella from Australian author Kim Kelly. It follows several generations of the Kennedy family as they move from the coast of County Kerry in Ireland to rural New South Wales and the slums of Sydney’s Surry Hills. Nell Kennedy comes to Australia as a
Tania McCartney’s new picture book Smile Cry is published in Australia this April and offers a unique and subtle exploration of children’s emotions. It’s also the tip of the iceberg in terms of McCartney’s amazing creative output—which is almost as huge as her love of raspberries! What’s unique about your new picture book, Smile Cry
Here’s my project. I read a poem a day, imbibe its rhythms and use this as an inspiration for my own writing. Because it’s 2016, I’ll choose 16 quotes from 16 of these poems to feature on A Bigger Brighter World so you’ll get to enjoy a taste of them too. I may not manage
Nobody does melancholic reverie quite like the American author, poet, singer and songwriter Patti Smith. Her autobiography, M Train, published late last year, has this elegiac and quietly celebratory quality in spades. Imagine life passing like a train trip. Snatches, fragments, impressions caught along the way and recorded, then simmered and stirred into poetic prose.
I loved Colm Tóibín’s novel Brooklyn so I was most pleased to be able to offer Australian readers five in-season double passes to the film adaptation, described as an ‘immaculately crafted, immensely moving character study about a 1950s immigrant struggling to find her place in the world’. Competition winners came from all over Australia: Mt
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