My story ‘Walk Beside Me’ has won the inaugural Lane Cove Literary Award (Short Story), presented to me at a packed ceremony in Lane Cove Library on October 29. Award judge Jeni Mawter said ‘Walk Beside Me’ wove all the essential elements of a great short story through its narrative in a beautiful way. The voice
Cracking the Spine: Ten short Australian Stories and How They Were Written is a diamond that should feature on reading lists the nation over — to ensure its richness can be savoured by secondary English and tertiary Literary Studies students, thoughtful writers and all who enjoy reading and good books. It’s an insider’s view of
Edward St Aubyn’s satire Lost for Words skewers literary prizes and the foibles of those who enter and judge them. It’s a stylish and enjoyable romp that reeled me in. Funny and caustic in equal measure, there’s a touch of pantomime and moustachioed suspense as the announcement of the winner draws nigh. Who will claim
Australian author Gerald Murnane’s work has been compared favourably with Proust’s and his latest novel explores the trust that grows up between writer and reader in a certain kind of fiction. Here are six good reasons to read A Million Windows … even if you suspect it might do your head in! Redolence of Proust
If you like your fictional feasts seasoned with umami, Silence Once Begun should tempt your tastebuds. Sweet, bitter, sour and salty are standard flavours in western fare. Umami is savoury and hails from the east. It’s hard to get the right balance of flavours in fiction as in food … but in Silence Once Begun
My author profile of Mark O’Flynn and his fabulous short story collection White Light is published on the international short story forum THRESHOLDS this week. In Mark’s story ‘Red Shoes’, the shoes encapsulate much about Dorothy Hewett’s character. She’d been a Communist, feminist, atheist and sexual libertarian. The shoes are a striking symbol of how
This debut novel casts tender eyes over the life of one woman of the Irish diaspora. Tess is only a young girl when her mother dies from tuberculosis and it sets the emotional tone for much of her life. The ache travels within her to America and into love … and it spans six decades.
Orphaned buttons corralled in a tin and a fragile woman’s poems hidden in a car glove box … in this Q&A Vivienne Plumb reveals how such details helped shape the title story of her new collection, to be launched in Sydney on August 16. The Glove Box & Other Stories will be launched at the
On A Bigger Brighter World’s Facebook page this week we’ve seen cool bookstores and amazing libraries, the Man Booker longlist, the WA Premier’s shortlist and some Pen Literary Award winners. There were one hundred novels to consider and nine to recommend. There was literary Lego and literary tattoos (twice) and items about Murnane and Bolano.
There are good reasons this evocative novel about love, obsession and restrained sexual identity — set mainly in an internment camp in rural Victoria during World War II — was shortlisted for the 2014 Miles Franklin Award … so check it out! What are we talking about? My Beautiful Enemy is the second novel by Australian author Cory Taylor.
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