Aussie women’s words shone brightly in my summer reading. Bird in hand Bird Country (Text) gathers some of my favourite Claire Aman short stories like ‘Jap Floral’, ‘What I Didn’t Put in My Speech’ and ‘Why the Owl Gazes at the Moon’ in one volume. The latter story is unforgettable. Imagine: Beauty, terror, and grief
Australia’s first Sorry Day was held on May 26, 1998. Almost a decade later, the word SORRY resonated across the land as the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, offered an apology on behalf of past governments for the suffering and loss inflicted on the Stolen Generations and the broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. Author
Squeezing reading around long working hours isn’t ideal. Here are a few books I’ve crammed into the late-night nooks and crannies of my crazy life. This Water: Five Tales by Beverley Farmer Vale Beverley Farmer. Farmer’s first books Alone, Milk and The House in the Light were magical to me: her way with words exquisite. Since 1980,
Before he flees to the Western Australian desert, 15-year-old Jaxie Clackton has had the tripe thumped out of him regularly by his violent father, ‘the Captain’. He’s also watched his mother Shirley die of a painful illness and prayed (despite his atheism) for relief she never receives. As his father drinks homebrew and rum outside
Chef, entrepreneur and author David Bitton is living proof that early adversity does not have to limit your potential. In fact, his recently published memoir shows how the grit of struggle can be transformed into a pearl of generosity and fulfilment. Despite growing up with an alcoholic mother, a father he saw infrequently, and brothers
I’m a sucker for ‘How to write’ books so, when I heard that Colum McCann (Let the Great World Spin, Transatlantic and Thirteen Ways of Looking) had penned one, I was itching to read it. Letters to a Young Writer didn’t disappoint. It’s concise, candid and kind of beautiful. It’s also encouraging—and isn’t this exactly what
I read Fragments cover-to-cover soon after it was published last September. Not a week has gone by since that I haven’t dipped into it and enjoyed its elegance. Kefala’s first collection in 20 years contains alabaster-smooth poetry—sparsely beautiful. The work also feels spacious—leaving the reader room to breathe and stretch a bit. Such accessibility and
This slim and elegant volume was the perfect book to read over the Mothers Day weekend in May. Richard Ford in Between Them writes eloquently about his parents—with about half of the book devoted to each. His reflective piece about his mother shows a deep love and understanding—and I found comfort in reading his beautiful
It’s hard to think of an Australian writer who puts the cat among the pigeons quite like Helen Garner. From Monkey Grip (1977) to The First Stone (1995), to The Spare Room (2008) and later works, her fiction and non-fiction titles have landed with a bang. They’ve been the kind of works that get people
I couldn’t be happier that Michelle Cahill’s mesmerising short story collection Letter to Pessoa has just won a NSW Premier’s Literary Award. I’d been feeling it deserved more attention, so I’m glad it’s been recognised. It’s a seriously good book, so let’s go on a date with it now to find out why … What
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