AustLit

'Hannah Fink’s biography of Australian sculptor Bronwyn Oliver is delicately wrought, intricately mapped and haunting. Like a piece of detective fiction, you have to read it twice. First for the narrative web; then to absorb the aftershock of all the subtly ticking bombs planted within a seemingly sunlit ­landscape of a brief and accomplished life. On a third reading you will just gaze at Oliver’s works themselves: replete and self-contained, handmade riddles honed by a dedicated mind.' (Introduction)

'Yvonne Smith’s attentive study of David ­Malouf’s ‘earlier writings’ centres on the evaluation of a dominant theme running through critical commentary that his work is ‘poetic’. Dennis Haskell, for instance, describes Malouf’s ‘ideas and values’ as ‘fundamentally poetic’ and James Tulip writes that Malouf’s achievement is ‘essentially that of a poet, whether in verse or prose’.' (Introduction)