AustLit logo

AustLit

image of person or book cover 3943605890934453000.jpg
Image by permission of the National Library of Australia.
Carmel Bird Carmel Bird i(A31077 works by)
Also writes as: Jack Power
Born: Established: 1940 Launceston, Northeast Tasmania, Tasmania, ;
Gender: Female
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 The Thorns and Petals of Kirribilli’s Titled Rose Carmel Bird , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10 July 2021; (p. 14)

— Review of The Countess from Kirribilli : The Mysterious and Free-spirited Literary Sensation Who Beguiled the World Joyce Morgan , 2021 single work biography

'Countess who? Mary Annette Beauchamp was born in Kirribilli in 1866. She married a German count, acquiring the name “von Arnim”. When she published her first book in 1898, Elizabeth in her German Garden, the author was simply “Elizabeth”, but these days her 22 books are all attributed to Elizabeth von Arnim. She grew up in England from the age of three, and lived in Europe and America, dying in South Carolina in 1941.' (Introduction)

1 Yes, My Darling Daughter Carmel Bird , 2021 short story
— Appears in: South of the Sun : Australian Fairy Tales for the 21st Century 2021; (p. 4-7)
1 Sheer Magic in the Pages Carmel Bird , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 9 January 2021; (p. 15)

— Review of French Fairy Tales Sophie Masson , 2020 selected work short story
1 The Great Finagler Carmel Bird , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21 November 2020; (p. 14)

— Review of Oh Happy Day Carmen Callil , 2020 single work autobiography

'Carmen Callil was born in Melbourne in 1938 and since 1960 has lived in England where in 1973 she founded Virago, a vigorous feminist publishing house. The original Latin meaning of ‘‘virago’’ was ­‘‘female warrior’’, but the term has acquired strong overtones of ‘‘angry witch’’.' (Introduction)

1 An Ingenious Untangling Carmel Bird , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12 September 2020; (p. 16)

— Review of Untwisted : The Story of My Life Paul Jennings , 2020 single work autobiography
1 Extract : Field of Poppies Carmel Bird , 2020 extract novel (Field of Poppies)
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , June 2020;

'We’re thrilled to continue this series of extracts from recent Australian books with an extract from award-winning author Carmel Bird’s latest novel Field of Poppies.' 

1 Life Dodges the Simple Shortcut Carmel Bird , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 28 March 2020; (p. 16)

— Review of Desire Lines Felicity Volk , 2020 single work novel

'‘‘Are you still a liar?” This shocking opening text message confronts readers, offering them a source of awful tension that will not be resolved until the very end. Will the woman send this message, a message she writes annually, to the man she loves?' 

1 Yearning of a Feminist Wife Carmel Bird , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 7 March 2020; (p. 24)

— Review of Melting Moments Anna Goldsworthy , 2020 single work novel
1 A Cockatoo's Question Carmel Bird , 2020 single work short story
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 15 February 2020; (p. 26)
1 Holding on to My Angel Carmel Bird , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21 December 2019; (p. 9)

'A small pair of hands taken from a grave will always hold the most treasured Christmas memory, writes Carmel Bird.'

1 Battlefield of Ghastly Truths Carmel Bird , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 7 December 2019; (p. 23)

— Review of In Whom We Trust John Clanchy , 2019 single work novel

'This tragic story begins in a Catholic presbytery in rural ­Victoria. Father Pearse is reading news of the battlefields of World War I: “The reports discharged their usual cargo of misery.” And so the mood is set for the narrative to breathe with the deepest, darkest, most agonising melancholy. While two of the young characters will be killed at the front, and the priest will be left with the torment of his own moral failure, the church itself will be exposed as a single-minded glaring powerhouse of corruption, a “massive theological boulder” blocking the path of truth.' (Introduction)

1 The Caretaker’s Daughter’s Dog Carmel Bird , 2019 single work short story
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 78 no. 4 2019; (p. 108-110)
1 Dr Power's Prescription for the Fabrication of a Tasmanian Imagination Carmel Bird , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Island , no. 158 2019; (p. 36-41)
'Carmel Bird revisits Dr Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the End of the World.'
1 In Love and Toying with Astrology Carmel Bird , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2 March 2019; (p. 21)

— Review of Star-Crossed : A Novel Minnie Darke , 2019 single work novel

'If you don’t read your stars, maybe you should. There are all kinds of forces at work in the universe. Astral configurations are ‘‘mapped on to’’ your soul at birth, or so we are told in Minnie Darke’s novel Star Crossed.' (Introduction) 

1 Orphaned Angel with Music in Her Head Seeks a Home Carmel Bird , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 30 March 2019; (p. 20)

— Review of The Aunts' House Elizabeth Stead , 2019 single work novel

'In the early 1990s Elizabeth Stead published a story called Knitting Bridget Emily about a ­widower who was knitting body parts to replace those of his late wife. He had her heart in a biscuit tin that he planned to insert into the finished knitted body.' (Introduction)

1 Tales of Loss with a Twist of Revelation Carmel Bird , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 8 June 2019; (p. 21)

— Review of Split : True Stories of Leaving, Loss and New Beginnings 2019 anthology essay autobiography

'“There are always two sides to every story, if not more, depending on who is telling it, and why.” So writes Sunil Badami in his essay in Split. His is one of 18 first-person pieces curated by Melbourne-based writer Lee Kofman, who explains in her introduction that she looked for writing that showed real life unfolding with no need for resolution.' (Introduction)

1 Making Sense of Revenge Carmel Bird , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20 July 2019; (p. 19)

— Review of Minotaur Peter Goldsworthy , 2019 single work novel

'The story takes place over one week in the surprisingly menacing labyrinth of the mean streets of ­Adelaide. There is also at least one internal labyrinth, constructed of the mind and heart of the main character, Detective Sergeant Richard Zadow, often known as ‘‘Zads’’.' (Introduction)

1 Gold Glow in History of Reading Carmel Bird , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3 August 2019; (p. 21)

— Review of Storytime : Growing up with Books Jane Sullivan , 2019 selected work essay

'‘‘It seems I was always trying to escape into a realm of gold where there was a more perfect me.’’ Storytime unfolds, before the reader’s delighted eyes; Jane Sullivan’s extended meditative exploration of her search for the realm of gold in the books she read as a child.' (Introduction)

1 Wild about the Write Stuff Carmel Bird , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21 September 2019; (p. 18)

— Review of Wild about Books : Essays on Books and Writing Michael Wilding , 2019 selected work essay

'The author is Michael Wilding, emeritus professor in English and Australian literature at the University of Sydney. He won a Prime Minister’s Literary Award for nonfiction with his Wild Bleak Bohemia in 2015. Once he was the Wild part of Wild and Woolley Publishing.' (Introduction)

1 Worlds of the Written Word Carmel Bird , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 28 September 2019; (p. 21)

— Review of The Innocent Reader : Reflections on Reading and Writing Debra Adelaide , 2019 selected work essay

'‘Books were always my treasures, my doorways into that important other world that saved me.’’ Debra Adelaide’s The Innocent Reader is a ­collection of 14 essays, all of which are frankly personal, exploring the meaning of reading and writing.' (Introduction)

X