AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Notes
-
Contents indexed selectively. Only episodes related to Australian writers and writing is indexed in AustLit.
Includes
-
2y The Peter Porter Poetry Prize : Shortlisted Poets Read Their Poems The ABR Podcast : Episode 2 Peter Rose (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 18599117 2020 single work podcast The shortlisted poets for the 2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize – Lachlan Brown, Claire G. Coleman, Ross Gillett, A. Frances Johnson, and Julie Manning – read their shortlisted poems. Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
3y Helen Garner's Diaries The ABR Podcast : Episode 3 Peter Rose (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 18599240 2020 single work podcast review
— Review of Yellow Notebook : Diaries Volume I, 1978-1986 2019 single work diary'ABR Editor Peter Rose reviews Yellow Notebook, the first volume of the diaries by Helen Garner, a most anticipated book. [Peter] delves into Garner's own private musings, the diaries she kept during the pivotal years of her writing life.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
5y 'Season of Reckoning', An Essay The ABR Podcast : Episode 5 Tom Griffiths (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 18720229 2020 single work podcast 'After this calamitous summer, this 'season of reckoning' as he puts it, celebrated historian Tom Griffiths reflects on names given to bushfires – all those Black Sundays and Mondays, etc. – and wonders if they truly capture what is new about this savage summer.' (Publication summary) Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
6y Salt Blood Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 11348050 2017 single work podcast 'It is quiet and cool and dark blue. At this depth the pressure on my body is double what it is at the surface: my heartbeat has slowed, blood has started to withdraw from my extremities and move into the space my compressed lungs have created. I am ten metres underwater on a breath-hold dive, suspended at the point of neutral buoyancy where the weight of the water above cancels my body’s natural flotation. I turn head down, straighten my body, kick gently, and begin to fall with the unimpeded gravitational pull to the heart of the Earth.' (Introduction) Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
6y West Arnhem Land Martin Thomas (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 23439118 2020 single work podcast 'Etched in Bone, the acclaimed documentary by Martin Thomas on the repatriation of Indigenous remains, is premiering in the US in March. The documentary stems from Thomas's essay ‘"Because it’s your country": Bringing Back the Bones to West Arnhem Land', which won the 2013 ABR Calibre Essay Prize. In this bonus episode of The ABR Podcast, we look back on Thomas's reading of his remarkable essay.' (Production summary) Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
7y Nah Doongh's Song Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 17067125 2019 single work biography 'Nah Doongh was among the first generation of Aboriginal children who grew up in a conquered land. She was born around 1800 in the Country near present-day Kingswood, just south-east of Moorroo Morack, Penrith, and she lived until the late 1890s. Her life spanned the first century of colonisation, from the invasion of her Country to the years approaching Federation. She was a contemporary of the famous Hawkesbury River matriarch and landowner Maria Lock and of the astonishing Lake Macquarie religious seer and teacher Biraban.' (Introduction) Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
8y Poetry for Troubled Times Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 20181122 2020 anthology poetry podcast 'At this ominous time, as we all hunker down, hoping for a cure, perhaps only poetry offers true insight and consolation, if we lean on it, as we’ve always done in past crises. In this episode, 18 fine poets and close associates of ABR – such as J.M. Coetzee, Robyn Archer, and Sarah Holland-Batt – read some favourite poems, works that seem to resonate in these anxious times.' (Introduction) Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
9y At Her Majesty's Pleasure : Sir John Kerr and the Royal Dismissal Secrets' by Jenny Hocking Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 20181079 2020 single work podcast criticism
'In 1975 the governor general, John Kerr, removed a democratically elected Labor government, amid great intrigue and subterfuge. The dismissal of the Whitlam government remains one of the blights on our democracy – perhaps the most controversial event in Australian political history. And yet the full record of what happened in the weeks and months leading up to the dismissal is still unavailable to Australian citizens because of the intransigence of Queen Elizabeth and the expensive lengths to which the National Archives of Australia have gone to suppress access to John Kerr’s correspondence with Buckingham Palace.' (Introduction)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
10y 'News Deserts : A Worrying Portent for Our Democracy' Johanna Leggatt (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 23439440 2020 single work podcast
'The imminent closure of Australian Associated Press, or AAP, has sounded alarm bells for many citizens and journalists already worried about the lack of media diversity in Australia. AAP has long played a fundamental role in investigative journalism, which we need more than ever in an age of government intrusion, evasion, and over-reach. Johanna Leggatt, a journalist who has worked for Fairfax, News Corp, and AAP, writes about this troubling threat to journalism.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
11y Truganini : Journey through the Apocalypse by Cassandra Pybus Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 19052493 2020 single work review
— Review of Truganini : Journey through the Apocalypse 2020 single work biography'Truganini: Journey through the apocalypse follows the life of the strong Nuenonne woman who lived through the dramatic upheavals of invasion and dispossession and became known around the world as the so-called ‘last Tasmanian’. But the figure at the heart of this book is George Augustus Robinson, the self-styled missionary and chronicler who was charged with ‘conciliating’ with the Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples. It is primarily through his journals that historians are able to glimpse and piece together the world fractured by European arrival.' (Introduction)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
12y Surviving the Pandemic : Robyn Archer on Living in the Time of Covid-19 Peter Rose (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 20181015 2020 single work podcast essay
'Peter Rose – before introducing this week’s ABR Podcast guest – updates readers on ABR’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Australia Council’s inexplicable decision not to fund ABR in 2021–24.
'Then Robyn Archer – renowned performer and ABR Laureate – currently hunkering down in Melbourne, reflects on how people are surviving and what Australia might look like when it emerges from this crisis.' (Introduction)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
13y The Golden Age of Television? Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 20180959 2020 single work podcast essay
'During the Covid-19 crisis, many of us are surfeiting on television drama from Netflix, Stan, and the rest of them. Back in 2015, we published James McNamara's Ian Potter Foundation Fellowship essay 'The Golden Age of Television?', which considers the ascendancy of television drama and its cultural significance. Listen to James reading his essay, which appears in ABR's film and television issue in April 2015.' (Introduction)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
14y More Poetry for Troubled Times Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 20180919 2020 anthology poetry podcast
'All literature, but poetry in particular for some of us, becomes more important during the pandemic. Last month, we invited a group of poets and critics to read favourite poems of theirs, from any country or century. We know how much you enjoyed it; the response has been fantastic. So we've invited fifteen more poets and poetry lovers to read a poem that resonates for them and that might speak to others as we hunker down and live more privately. All the readers, poets, and titles of poems are listed on our website.
'Featuring Kate Middleton, Jaya Savige, Anthony Lawrence, Claire G. Coleman, Warwick Hadfield, Sarah Day, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Kerryn Goldsworthy, Kevin Brophy, Andrea Goldsmith, Michael Farrell, Geoffrey Lehmann, Maria Takolander, Ali Alizadeh, and Thom Sullivan. ' (Introduction)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
16y On the Characterisation of Male Poets’ Mothers i "Charles Baudelaire’s mother—", Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 19188531 2020 single work poetry Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
17y Coronaspeak : Tracking Language in a Pandemic Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 19498856 2020 single work essay
'The Covid-19 pandemic has affected all our lives, and little else has featured in the media for weeks. Unsurprisingly, this has led those of us who work with words to track the language of the pandemic (coronaspeak) closely. Here at the Australian National Dictionary Centre (temporarily WFH, of course), we have been compiling a database of the words emerging from the pandemic; from anti-lockdown protest to zumping (being dumped via Zoom), the Covid-19 isolation lockdown has generated its own vocabulary.' (Introduction)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
18y Gwen Harwood : A Centenary Birthday Tribute Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 20180828 2020 anthology podcast podcast 'Gwen Harwood, who died in 1995, was born on 8 June 1920, in Brisbane, of course, which she loved dearly. Harwood seems increasingly to have been one of the finest poets Australia has ever produced. She was much loved; anyone who knew her relished her wit, her directness, her inextinguishable spirit. To mark the centenary of her birth, ABR asked a number of her colleagues and admirers to record some of her poems. Happily, there are hundreds of them to explore.' (Podcast introduction) Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
19y Reading the Mess Backwards Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 19498808 2020 single work essay
'When I’m ten or so, my brother appears shirtless at the dinner table. Ever the eager disciple, I follow his example without a second thought. It is a sweltering January day, and our bodies are salt-crusted from the beach. Clothing seems cruel in these conditions.' (Introduction)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
20y Contested Breath : The Ethics of Assembly in an Age of Absurdity Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 19498535 2020 single work essay
'There’s a script for everything. Someone, voice wavering, says, ‘She’s dead’, and you say, ‘What?’ They say it again, and you say, ‘Oh, my god.’ You ask the usual questions, and then hang up and everything is incredibly quiet. You tell your boyfriend, and you both walk around the house trying to pack useful things: a sleeve of Valium, warm socks. You call your brother in London. He texts to say it’s five am there, can it wait? You call back. Before he even answers the phone, he knows.' (Introduction)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
21y Ambassadors from Another Time Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 11968814 2017 single work essay
'First, I need to visit Dean Nicolle’s eucalypt arboretum. Four hundred rows of trees, four specimens of each species of Eucalyptus, Corymbia, and Angophora (the eucalypts) nestled together, sharing pollen and landscape, dropping limbs in the grass. Each group of trees is a result of the previous year’s fieldwork. The year 2000 was big: Nicolle this keeper of the keys to the eucalypts spent six months in Western Australia collecting seed.' (Introduction)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
22y The Point-Blank Murder Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 17266941 2019 single work short story Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
23y Unsolicited Smut : A Nation of Prudes and Wowsers James Ley Reviews 'The Trials of Portnoy' by Patrick Mullins Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 19498503 2020 single work review
— Review of The Trials of Portnoy : How Penguin Brought down Australia's Censorship System 2020 single work criticism 'Okay, I’ll tell you what’s wrong with this country. For a start, we have this profoundly stupid and deeply irritating myth that we’re all irreverent freedom-loving larrikins and easygoing egalitarians, when it is painfully obvious that we have long been a nation of prudes and wowsers, that our collective psyche has been warped by what Patrick Mullins describes, with his characteristic lucidity, as ‘a fear of contaminating international influences’, and that we are not just an insular, conservative, and deeply conformist society, but for some unaccountable reason we take pride in our ignorance and parochialism. And let’s not neglect the fact that we are cringingly deferential and enamoured of hierarchy...' (Introduction) Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
25y The Porter Prize : Listen to All the Past Winners Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 20180560 2020 anthology podcast poetry Listen to all previous winning poems of the Porter Prize from 2005. Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
28y Declan Fry on 'Fire Front : First Nations Poetry and Power Today Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 20180677 2020 single work podcast
Declan Fry discusses Fire Front before reading his review of the book.
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
29y River Story Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 19767068 2020 single work short story Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
31y Poets Abroad - Victoria Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 20180607 2020 anthology poetry In this episode poets record a poem of theirs that is set outside their home state. Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
32y The Dolorimeter Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 20051711 2020 single work essay
'Sometime late morning it begins, a root of something that only as it grows do you recognise as pain. You have had coffee, as you do every morning, and now you feel the kind of heaviness that sends you to lie down. At home, the friend who is staying with you, whom you half invited and who may have misinterpreted your keenness for company, notes your early return and approves of your plan to retreat. For both of you it has been a year frantic with change and learning and emotion, and even if it is likely indulgent – so what, you’ve earned the right to call a morning off the books and instead take a heat pack and wish it were night all over again. She even microwaves the heat pack for you. You take it to bed where you think you will read or watch television or luxuriate in some way.' (Introduction)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
34y Egg Timer Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 19767026 2020 single work short story Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
37y Johanna Leggatt on Twitter's Threat to Writers and Journalists Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 23439571 2020 single work podcast
'In today's episode, Johanna Leggatt speaks to ABR Editor Peter Rose about growing disquiet about ‘cancel culture’, censorious voices on social media, and Twitter's threat to writers and journalists. Beginning with the recent case of Rachel Baxendale, a journalist at The Australian, who was subjected to much invective because of her persistent questions about the quarantine fiasco in Victoria, Leggatt laments the ‘routine trashing of reputations on Twitter’ and wonders why Twitter has ‘devolved into a channel for our most juvenile emotions’. This interview is based on her recent article, 'The Problem of Belonging'.'
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
39y Tony Hughes-d'Aeth on Australia's Literary Regionalism Tony Hughes-d'Aeth (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 23439628 2020 single work podcast
'Is it possible to parse Australian writers by states and territories? In today's episode, Tony Hughes-d'Aeth – Chair of Australian Literature at the University of Western Australia – speculates about new ways of contemplating Australian writers through the lens of regionalism. As he writes in his upcoming essay 'Thinking in a regional accent: New ways of contemplating Australian writers': 'Yes, we are divided into states and territories, but are these anything other than lines on a map, drawn with a ruler and a set square, and the occasional river? The contrast between the political map of Australia and the now iconic AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia graphically exposes the poverty of the Australian regional imagination and the essential irreality of our territorial demarcations. More particularly, for someone like me, is it right to conceive of Australia in terms of literary regions?'' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
40y Hessom Razavi on Statelessness and Australia’s Detention Centres Hessom Razavi (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 23439684 2020 single work podcast
.In today's episode, Hessom Razavi – the ABR Behrouz Boochani Fellow – speaks to Peter Rose about his essay 'Failures of imagination: From Tehran’s prisons to Australia’s immigration detention centres', which appears in the November issue. Hessom's essay offers a powerful reflection on the experiences that led to his family fleeing Iran to escape political persecution. Navigating the 1979 Islamic Revolution, political rebellion, and tragic family disappearances, Razavi examines the similarities between Australia’s immigration detention centres and the political prison he visited as a boy – and contemplates how easily the detainees’ fate might have been his own.. (Production summary)
-
41y Joshua Black on Susan Ryan, a Pioneering Politician Joshua Black (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 23439740 2020 single work podcast
'In today's episode, Joshua Black reads his tribute to former Labor senator Susan Ryan, featured in our November issue. Ryan was a historic figure in Australian politics: she was the first woman from the ALP to serve in cabinet, and cemented her legacy with the Sex Discrimination Act (1984) – which prohibited sexual discrimination in the workplace. Here, Black recounts his interview with the pioneering politician only weeks before her death on 27 September 2020.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
42y Kate Crowcroft on Kylie Maslen's 'Show Me Where It Hurts' Kate Crowcroft (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 23439796 2020 single work podcast
'Kylie Maslen's début essay collection, Show Me Where It Hurts, is an intimate exploration of living with chronic illness. Maslen describes her own experiences with the invisible illness she has lived with for the last twenty years, delving into its daily reality while incorporating music, literature, television, film, online culture, and more. Kate Crowcroft, who reviews the book in ABR's November issue, describes it as 'essential reading for those of us with the privilege of having a body that behaves itself'.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
43y In Conversation with Nicole Abadee about Sofie Laguna's 'Infinite Splendours' Amy Baillieu (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 23439852 2020 single work podcast
'In today's episode, Amy Baillieu speaks to Nicole Abadee about Sofie Laguna's latest novel, Infinite Splendours. In her November issue review, Abadee reflects that Laguna 'does not shy away from confronting subject matter' and notes that Infinite Splendours represents 'new territory' for Laguna as it follows protagonist Lawrence from childhood into adulthood. Baillieu and Abadee also discuss Abadee's own podcast Books Books Books.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
44y Blankety-blank : Amanda Laugesen on Swearing and the Art of the Euphemism Amanda Laugesen (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 23439954 2020 single work podcast
'Amanda Laugesen, historian and lexicographer, is director of the Australian National Dictionary Centre at the ANU. In her latest book, the evocatively titled Rooted, Amanda considers the bountiful history of bad language in Australia. Her column in the December issue of ABR is devoted to the quaint old euphemism. Amanda talks about the inventive ways in which writers and editors have tried to placate the censor while also celebrating profanity. ' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
45y Books of the Year Peter Rose (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 23440064 2020 single work podcast
'In today's episode, Peter Rose talks to writers Beejay Silcox and Billy Griffiths about what they’ve been reading during this tumultuous year. They also speculate about some highlights of 2021. For those looking for a more extensive listing of this year's finest works, our Books of the Year features more than 30 different ABR critics nominating their favourite releases.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 -
47y A Tussle with the Past : Jon Piccini on Two New Books Interrogating the Palace Letters Jon Piccini (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020 23440109 2020 single work podcast Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2020
-
48y The Porter Prize Shortlist : Listen to the Poets Read and Introduce Their Poems Peter Rose (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23440230 2021 single work podcast 'The Peter Porter Poetry Prize, now in its seventeenth year and worth a total of $10,000, this year attracted more than 1300 entries from 33 different countries. It’s our pleasure now to present the five shortlisted poets, who introduce and read their shortlisted poems.'
(Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
50y In Conversation with Tim Byrne Jack Callil (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23440281 2021 single work podcast
'In today's episode of the ABR Podcast Tim Byrne discusses his review of Mark Mordue's new biography of Nick Cave, Boy on Fire, with ABR Digital Editor Jack Callil.'(Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
51y Naama Grey-Smith on Daniel Davis Wood Naama Grey-Smith (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23440334 2021 single work podcast
'In today’s episode, Naama Grey-Smith reads her review of At the Edge of the Solid World, the second book of fiction by the Australian writer Daniel Davis Wood. The novel follows the breakdown of the lives of a man and wife in the aftermath of the death of their firstborn. Naama Grey-Smith, an editor, publisher and critic based in Fremantle, Western Australia, reviews the book for ABR’s January-February issue – describing it as ‘a masterclass in wedding form to content’.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
52y An Interview with Paul Kildea : On Musica Viva, Benjamin Britten, and More Peter Rose (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23440436 2021 single work podcast
'Paul Kildea is a man of many parts – author, musician, new artistic director of Musica Viva – and a regular contributor to ABR. In this week’s podcast, he talks to Peter Rose about the challenges of programming Musica Viva’s season during a pandemic and about Benjamin Britten, whose opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a highlight of the 2021 Adelaide Festival. Paul Kildea – who will conduct the opera – is the author of a biography of Britten.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
57y On Louise Milligan : Beejay Silcox Reviews the 'Bruised and Bruising' Witness Beejay Silcox (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23440618 2021 single work podcast
'In the wake of Brittany Higgins's startling allegations of sexual abuse in Parliament House, Beejay Silcox revisits her review of Witness by award-winning journalist Louise Milligan. Witness (recently shortlisted in the 2021 Stella Prize) is an interrogative critique of the criminal trial process. It is the culmination of five years of research into how witnesses are treated (and often intimidated or worse) in court rooms.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
57y A Plague on All Our Houses : Tim Byrne on Australian Theatre After the Pandemic Tim Byrne (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23440829 2021 single work podcast
'Over the past year the pandemic has devastated the performing arts in Australia. Theatre especially has been adversely impacted. In today’s episode, theatre critic and ABR regular Tim Byrne looks at how theatre organisations are coping now that venues are beginning to reopen. He interviews a range of artistic directors spanning Melbourne Theatre Company’s departing Brett Sheehy, Queensland Theatre Lee Lewis, Malthouse Theatre’s Matthew Lutton, and many more.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
62y Krissy Kneen in Conversation with Beejay Silcox : On The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen Beejay Silcox (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 21871734 2021 single work podcast 'Throughout her childhood, Krissy Kneen was surrounded by make-believe. At the centre of this enchanted world was her grandmother Lotty, whose prodigious fabulations not only kept her family in thrall, but also hid painful memories of poverty and forced migration. In her new memoir, The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen, Kneen retraces her grandmother's journey from Slovenia to Australia. In today's episode, Kneen sits down with her friend Beejay Silcox, a past ABR Fellow and longtime contributor, to discuss their serendipitous meeting and Kneen's journey to uncover her family's history. ' (Production introduction) Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021
-
62y Frankenfish James Boyce (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23441146 2021 single work podcast
'Richard Flanagan's new work, Toxic, is a startling exposé on Tasmania's salmon farming industry. From genetically altered 'frankenfish' to the use of dangerous chemicals to turn 'dead-grey flesh a marketable red', the industrial machinations uncovered in Flanagan's new work are stomach-churning. As James Boyce writes in his review, 'After the publication of Toxic, I doubt Tasmania will ever be the same again.'' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
64y A Period in the Shade : Martin Thomas on Patrick White Martin Thomas (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23441290 2021 single work podcast
'Patrick White, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973, has long been considered Australia’s finest novelist. And yet, the thirtieth anniversary of his death in 2020 passed by with barely a murmur. Was this merely a consequence of the pandemic, or are there larger cultural forces at play? In today's episode, historian and ABR Calibre prize-winning essayist Martin Thomas considers the posthumous neglect of the great Australian writer, who once described himself as a ‘Londoner at heart’ and who continues to challenge jingoistic and complacent forms of nationalism.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
65y Bunker : A Short Story by Josephine Rowe Josephine Rowe (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23441575 2021 single work podcast
'In today's episode, Josephine Rowe – winner of the 2016 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize – reads a new short story, 'Bunker', which appears in the June issue of ABR. Josephine has published three short story collections and a novel called A Loving, Faithful Animal.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
65y Façades of Lebanon : Winner of the 2021 Calibre Essay Prize Theodore Ell (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23441822 2021 single work podcast Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021
-
66y Poetry in Times of Recovery James Jiang (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23441777 2021 single work podcast
'As the world realigns itself in the wake of a global pandemic, ABR turns its thoughts to the various forms – individual and institutional, material and more intangible – that recovery may take. In 'Poetry in times of recovery', we asked a number of Australian poets to share the works that best capture how recovery can look, sound, and feel. Today’s episode builds on the popularity of our ‘Poetry for troubled times’, released in 2020.
'We bear in mind, of course, that these are still troubled times, as recent events in the Middle East and the intractable problems (to do with sovereignty and borders) back home well attest. Poetry may not be the only balm we need at this juncture, but in ‘the nightmare of the dark’, as W.H. Auden once put it, the poet’s ‘unconstraining voice’ nevertheless remains a place where ‘the healing fountain starts’.'(Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
66y On the Australian poet Francis Webb John Hawke (presenter), Ian Dickson (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23441898 2021 single work podcast 'Francis Webb, an Australian poet born in 1925, was widely regarded by his contemporaries as one of the most gifted poets of his generation. His creative output was extensive, despite a troubled life living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. His first major poem, ‘A Drum for Ben Boyd’, appeared in book form when he was only twenty-two. In today’s episode, listen to ABR’s Sydney theatre critic Ian Dickson read the poem in its entirety.'
(Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
69y The Enemy, Asyndeton : Winner of the 2021 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23442257 2021 single work podcast
'Recently, for the eleventh time, ABR presented the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. This year the Prize attracted 1,428 entries, from thirty-six different countries. In a virtual ceremony last night, ABR named Camilla Chaudhary as the winner of this year’s Jolley Prize for her story titled ‘The Enemy, Asyndeton’. The judges – Melinda Harvey, Elizabeth Tan, and Gregory Day – described Chaudhary’s entry as ‘a delightful, nimble story; the characters bristle with life, and the dialogue is crisply rendered’. In today’s episode, listen to Camilla Chaudhary read her story in its entirety.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
70y An Die Nachgeborenen: For Those Who Come After : Read by Elisabeth Holdsworth, Winner of the Inaugural Calibre Essay Prize Elisabeth Holdsworth (presenter), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23442343 2021 single work podcast
'In today’s episode, ABR looks back at the winner of the inaugural Calibre Essay Prize in 2007: ‘An Die Nachgeborenen: For Those Who Come After’ by Elisabeth Holdsworth. Holdsworth was born in the Netherlands in the years following World War II. Zeeland, where she grew up, was heavily bombed during the war and later flooded. Her poignant essay is a dialogue with the past, detailing her recent return to the Netherlands, her family’s vicissitudes and suffering during the war, and an unforgettable portrait of her conflicted mother.' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
71y A Fall from Grace Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23442683 2021 single work podcast
'This year, the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize received nearly 1500 entries from thirty-six different countries, a record field. Placed third was ‘A Fall from Grace’ by John Richards. The story is the first work of historical fiction to appear on the shortlist of the Jolley Prize. In today’s episode, listen to the author read ‘A Fall from Grace’, which our judges described as ‘a deliciously enigmatic story, rich in the overtones of the international canon: Balzac, Calvino, Borges. Set in pre-revolutionary rural France, a talented painter’s career receives an unforeseen jolt that simultaneously shadows his life and propels his work from realist proficiency to metaphysical greatness.’'(Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
74y May Day : As Read by Anita Punton Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23442782 2021 single work podcast
'ABR’s Calibre Essay Prize is one of the world’s leading prizes for an original essay. This year, we received a record field of 638 essays. Today we hear from Anita Punton, who placed second for her essay ‘May Day’, a poignant memoir about piecing together her father’s life after his death. Our judges – Sheila Fitzpatrick, Billy Griffiths, and Peter Rose – described Punton’s essay as ‘a rich and moving evocation of a relationship between father and daughter’, one ‘written with humour and flair, offering a complex portrait of Punton’s father: a brilliant, narcissistic man, whose life was full of contradictions.’' (Production summary)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 -
75y Airwave Feminism Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23442855 2021 single work podcast Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021
-
84y Dugongesque : An Essay by Krissy Kneen Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021 23500264 2021 single work podcast 'Each year, the judges of the Calibre Essay Prize face the difficult task of selecting a winner from an impressive shortlist. Last year’s winner was Theodore Ell for ‘Facades of Lebanon’, an intimate chronicle of the 2020 port explosion in Beirut. In today’s episode, ABR turns to another impressive essay, ‘Dugongesque’, which was shortlisted for last year’s Calibre Essay Prize and appears in our upcoming December issue. Written by the award-winning Queensland author Krissy Kneen, ‘Dugongesque’ is a poignant exploration of identity, bodies, and death as Kneen embarks on a diving course bought for her by her partner. Listen to Kneen read her essay in full.' (Introduction)
Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2021