July, 2012

The longlist for the 44th annual Man Booker Prize was announced last night in the UK. The prize ‘aims to promote the finest in fiction by rewarding the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland,’ with the overall winner receiving a £50,000 [...]

 Guest post by Lucas Smith Stories about sudden wealth acquisition too often become morality tales about the inutility of money to enduring happiness. Lionel Asbo, Martin Amis’s fifteenth work of fiction, is a refreshing tale of a man made immensely and permanently happy by his money. The stupid, vindictive, loutish and possibly murderous anti-hero, Lionel [...]

      The winners of the fifth annual Prime Minister’s Literary Awards were announced today at the National Library of Australia. The awards, which ‘celebrate the contribution of Australian literature and history to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life,’ are the richest in Australia, with $80,000 going to the winner in each category, as well as $5,000 to [...]

Last night under the glass shards of the atrium at Federation Square the Melbourne Writers Festival program was officially launched. It’s Steve Grimwade’s final year as Festival Director and he delivered an enthusiastic outline of the events happening throughout the festival, which runs from 23 August to 2 September. There are several events I’m quite [...]

The means we use to select new books are often obscure. Books don’t receive the same sort of blanket advertising as new release films or television series. Though there are always exceptions – such as the highly effective billboard in Times Square for Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot, or the relatively recent phenomenon of book [...]

Guest post by Adam Brereton  Antony Loewenstein and Jeff Sparrow, in the introduction to their new book Left Turn: Political Essays For The New Left, invite the reader to imagine current examples in popular culture that envision a future ‘in which the world to come is, in any respect whatsoever, an improvement on the present.’ [...]

Earlier this year I wrote about the places in which we write – the feeling that a particular location would be the key to writing success and inspiration. This week I’ve been incredibly lucky to be given a residency at one of Australia’s most prestigious ‘places in which to write’ – the Varuna writers’ house in [...]