AustLit
Latest Issues
Contents
- Letter from Tehran, single work prose (p. 8-10)
- Lake Writingi"If I ask myself why I write about lakes", single work poetry (p. 14)
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Book Reviewing and Its Provocateurs,
single work
criticism
'Last month in Melbourne, a group of book reviewers and literary editors took part in a conference organised by Monash University’s Centre for the Book. There were more than thirty short papers, or ‘provocations’, as they were styled. Our Editor lamented the low or non-payment of some reviewers (especially younger ones) and announced a major new campaign to further increase payments to ABR contributors. Much good came from Critical Matters: Book Reviewing Now. Book reviewers are a non-organised, often isolated class: Critical Matters pointed the way to a more united cohort. Hearteningly, the mood was invigorating – not rueful or defensive. To complement this symposium, we invited a number of the participants, and others, to respond to this question: ‘What single development would most improve the Australian critical culture?’'
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'Staying with the Trouble',
single work
essay
'Percy Grainger walked to avoid self-flagellation. David Sedaris walked to placate his Fitbit. Virginia Woolf walked the streets of London, and later the South Downs, endlessly: because she loved it, because she was walking her dogs, because she needed to think clearly. For Henry Thoreau, every walk was a sort of 'crusade'. Sarah Marquis, who walked 16,000 kilometres over three years, sought a return to an essential self: 'You become what nature needs you to be: this wild thing.' Will Self began walking after he gave up heroin, though in his novel Walking to Hollywood (2010) the protagonist walks not to escape addiction but because he fears he has Alzheimer's. This feels familiar. My brother jokes about starting a group called Running Away from Dementia. Sometimes, catching sight of my reflected posture on a walk, I wonder if I am doing the same thing, walking away from fate. If so, could one ever walk fast enough?' (Publication abstract)
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Cherry on Top,
single work
review
— Review of Quicksand 2015 single work novel ; (p. 30) -
Review : The Last Pulse,
single work
— Review of The Last Pulse 2014 single work novel ; (p. 31-32) -
Les in Sepia : Les Murray and the Erotics of Language,
single work
review
— Review of Waiting for the Past 2015 selected work poetry ; (p. 34-35) - As Wasps Fly Upwardsi"I’m walking home in the dying light of a summer’s day.", single work poetry (p. 36-41)
- When/Wasi"Darling, set sail from all of this, forget", single work poetry (p. 36-41)
- Vantagei"In the waiting rooms of the mornings", single work poetry (p. 36-41)
- Pitch and Yawi"After the wind arose and morphed invisibly", single work poetry (p. 36-41)
- Floribundai"Noongah calendar for now is the appearance", single work poetry (p. 36-41)
- Janus, sequence poetry (p. 36-41)
- Dammed Chii"RAIN COLLECTS LIBELLOUS NOISE", single work poetry (p. 36-41)
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Sunnet,
single work
poetry
(p. 36-41)
Note: Concrete poetry
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Vintagei"THE NOUVEAU WILL SOON BE FACT",
single work
poetry
(p. 36-41)
Note: Concrete poetry
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Untitledi"not a zip",
single work
poetry
(p. 36-41)
Note: Concrete poetry
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The Breaking of Dreams : Completion of David Malouf's Selected Essays,
single work
review
— Review of Being There 2015 single work prose ; (p. 42-43) - Barroccoi"If I were to write down a list", single work poetry (p. 45)
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Reading Australia : Helen Garner's 'The Children's Bach',
single work
criticism
'Houses, and their domestic spaces of intimacy and negotiation, sit at the core of Helen Garner’s early fiction. Most often they are large, communal houses in Melbourne’s Carlton or Fitzroy, places where a generation of youngish countercultural musicians, artists, and wounded souls challenge the accepted rules of sexual relationships and attempt to redefine what might constitute family. In the kitchens and bedrooms of Monkey Grip (1977), Honour and Other People’s Children (1980), and Cosmo Cosmolino (1992), Garner’s characters wrestle with their passions and ideals. The new patterns of living that they establish offer, particularly for the women, a sense of liberating possibility beyond marriage and childrearing, but that freedom is coupled with compromise and loss. In The Children’s Bach (1984), Garner shifts her focus to the suburban household of a married couple. In this novella, she both critiques and celebrates the burdens of responsibility and commitment.' (Publication summary)