AustLit

'“There’s a whole lot of mes out there and we don’t want to listen to that.” That’s Helen Reddy upbraiding her husband and manager Jeff Wald in I am Woman, a biopic about the Melbourne-born singer and 1970s feminist activist, named after her most famous song.' (Introduction)

'Steven Conte’s The Zookeeper’s War — the inaugural winner of the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2008 — told of the German experience of World War II. Seen from the vantage point of a couple attempting to salvage their lives and livelihoods in the wake of the Allied bombings of Berlin, the novel encompassed the intimate and the epic, and revealed Conte’s extraordinary talent for narrative detail.' (Introduction)

'On questions of style, there are two types of poets: those who establish a distinctive one early and maintain it, with adjustments, throughout their oeuvre, and those who pass through discrete changes, sloughing off old habits for new.' (Introduction)

'Hungry Ghosts Streaming on SBS On Demand With the wealth of programming these days, it’s all too easy to miss important series. Which is why free-to-air stations have set up delivery components online. This enables viewers to stream the provocative, intelligent four-part SBS supernatural drama Hungry Ghosts at their leisure. During the traditional Buddhist and Taoist Hungry Ghost festival, the gates to hell open and disgruntled spirits wander the earth. It is what happens when a burial site in Vietnam is disturbed in a sweep for unexploded ordinance, and the effects are felt among four Melbourne families with former ties to the country. Bryan Brown, Ryan Corr and Justine Clarke may be the marquee stars of the show, but the heart and soul of the series are the 30+ Asian actors who bring to life a vibrant community thrown into sudden crisis.' (Introduction)