Miracles and other visions
In the field of Australian poetry publishing, hope — fuelled by idealism — is never lost.
Books
Survival a game of chance
Pachinko is a roiling, immersive novel of generations of Koreans coming to terms with their exile in Japan.
Mixed advice on China’s rise
With the rise of China the biggest story in geopolitics, these three books should be read and discussed
Good little earners
We hear a lot about how little writers earn, and it’s true by and large. But how about the top earners?
Meet the Miles Franklin finalists
The five authors short-listed for the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award have been announced.
Disenchanted poet at his best
Ian McFarlane is at his best when he abandons his abiding concerns.
Cli-fi climate change dystopia
Cli-fi, fiction that imagines a dystopian world in the aftermath of climate change, is booming.
Israeli NGO lands Booker cash
An Israeli human rights group has welcomed the donation of prize money from the Man Booker International Prize.
Suburban love song
Louis Nowra’s Woolloomooloo: A Biography is a heartfelt paean to the little suburb that could.
Three chords and lots of pain
A new biography of Hank Williams catalogues the binges, violence and slide into tragedy that made his songs so true.
It’s good to be Michael Lewis
Author Michael Lewis (Moneyball, The Big Short) explains how luck and lucidity have made him ridiculously happy.
A sense of pride
Fans — better known as Janeites — are gearing up to celebrate a Jane Austen milestone.
From colony to disaffection
Australia may be well advanced in creating a strategic problem for itself in relation to Papua New Guinea.
Reclusive radical
Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon was taken by surprise when she was asked to play poet Emily Dickinson.
Sinners, saints and sceptics
Gerard Windsor, despite his qualms, still takes his place with the sinners and sparrows in the Catholic Church’s pews.
Hardly Scott free
F. Scott Fitzgerald was paid a fortune for his jazzy early fiction but his own story was a long dark night of the soul.
Small-town American darkness
John Darnielle’s new novel is a whispered tale of urban legends, dying industries, dead-end jobs and lingering grief.
Lessons in how to pack a punch
Colum McCann asks how anyone can think of writing when they have barely begun to read.
Further funny thoughts
I’ve always thought WG Sebald a humorous writer. But I did read most of his books while post-operative on morphine.
Dylan ‘cribbed notes for lecture’
Critics claim Bob Dylan plagiarised a students’ guide to Herman Melville’s classic novel for his Nobel Prize speech.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/page/189