November 20, 2008

Long Time Comin'

David Francis, author of Stray Dog Winter, is a guest blogger on PowellsBooks.Blog.

Readings Bookshop has compiled a list of Australian Fiction titles published during 2008. It's pretty good, even if it does leave out most genre titles, and even some that we have reviewed here.

Garth Nix is the first confirmed guest of honor for the 2009 World Fantasy Convention to be held in San Jose, California. This follows the announcement of Jenny Blackford from Melbourne as one of the World Fantasy Award jury of judges.

Katherine Howell, author of the Davitt Award winning novel Frantic, is a guest blogger on the UK crime weblog "It's a Crime (Or a Mystery...)".

According to Wikipedia: "The Martin Beck Award is an award given by the Swedish Crime Writers' Academy (Svenska Deckarakademin) for the best crime novel in translation." Text Publishing have announced that Peter Temple's novel, The Broken Shore, has been shortlisted for the 2008 award.

Posted by Perry Middlemiss at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2008

SF Rears Its Ugly Head Again

In October 2007 I made a note, when Doris Lessing was announced as the 2007 Nobel Literature laureate, that she was the second science fiction writer to be so honoured. Kerryn Goldsworthy took up the challenge and asked who the first one might have been; William Golding, I replied. And now, according to David Langford's Ansible we might just have a third.

J.M.G. Le Clézio, this year's Nobel Prize for Literature winner, has long had an Encyclopedia of SF entry on the strength of Les géants (1973), set in 'a nightmare shopping complex in a futuristic city.'

Posted by Perry Middlemiss at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2008

Wreck on the Highway

Does the number of small literary magazines being published give an indication of the literacy rates of the general population? That's a question that Fiona Gruber seeks to answer in an essay in "The Australian".

Susan Johnson went along to see Geraldine Brooks talking about her latest novel, People of the Book, and recalled working with Brooks on the Good Weekend section of "The Sydney Morning Herald" in the 1980s. She also muses on her own current novel and Stephen King's writing memoir, which is a nice touch.

If you're pounding away on that current book commission, or just struggling to get started on the new novel then I suggest skipping this news item in "The Sydney Morning Herald": 26 years after being contracted to write a biography of Miles Franklin, author Jill Roe has finally delivered. Given that Franklin left behind 124 volumes of her papers, and correspondence with over 1000 people, the time taken to work through it all is hardly surprising. I actually admire Roe's persistence.

Ampersand Duck picked up a nearly new secondhand copy of Colleen McCulloch's new novel The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet - a sequel to Pride and Prejudice - couldn't resist reading it, and suddenly wondered why the author bothered.

Posted by Perry Middlemiss at 03:32 PM | Comments (0)

October 09, 2008

Further On (Up the Road)

The "Neglected Books" website lists The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney series by Henry Handel Richardson. "Henry Handel Richardson is a writer of the very top rank...Sentence for sentence, the writing holds your interest as only the best novels do. Here is a writer in English we can read without the filter of translation."

Anita Heiss discusses the question: "What makes Australian Literature Australian?" Alex Miller has a good line: "Anyone who believes we need a definition of something indefinable is not an artist, but publicist." Something always gets left out of any such definition. It's like trying to herd cats.

Glenn Harper, on the "International Noir" weblog has discovered the tv adaptations of the first two Murray Whelan novels by Shane Maloney, and is pretty impressed.

Book launches aren't all beer and skittles, as Kirsty Brooks makes clear.

D.M. Cornish has loaded a zoomable map of his Half-Continent from his "Monster Blood Tattoo" series of YA novels.

Crikey, the major independent Australian news site, has launched Crikey Blogs. This includes the usual suspects: politics, business, environment and sport, but also includes an Australian literary weblog. Angela Meyer's "LiteraryMinded" blog has now moved over under the Crikey umbrella.

Sean Williams reprints a piece he wrote for the "Adelaide Advertiser" about how he came to write Star Wars novels.

Posted by Perry Middlemiss at 02:12 PM | Comments (1)

September 26, 2008

It's Hard to be a Saint in the City

Shane Jiraiya Cummings speculates that sf and fantasy publishing in this country is headed for a bust over the next 12 months or so.

The Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, which runs from October 21-26, features a number of Australian writers: Gail Jones, Nam Le, and Shaun Tan. It's the geek in me that notices they also have Ursula K. Le Guin on the list, which means they have a Guest of Honor from both the first and fourth Aussiecons. It's just the way I'm seeing the world at present.

Max Barry sets out to convince you that you really should have a big bag of cement in the shed or basement, just in case there a fresh body you need to get buried in a hurry. I think there's half a bag in my shed. Sizes up the family, "Hmmm, might be enough."

Robert Drewe, in "The Age", ponders "At every writers' festival, in every session, you can depend on the work-habits question. Someone always wants to know the author's routine. There must be a secret -- what is it? Hitting the desk at four in the morning? Or keeping ordinary office hours? Writing 2000 words a day, no matter what? A room facing north? Regular tai chi exercise breaks? A state-of-the-art laptop? A Mont Blanc fountain pen and special ink imported from Romania? A school exercise book and a Garfield mug of sharpened 2B pencils?"

And, speaking of festivals, it appears that the Brisbane Writers Festival, has achieved a "triumph of books over star authors".

Posted by Perry Middlemiss at 01:37 PM | Comments (2)

September 18, 2008

Open All Night

"The Guardian" newspaper has compiled a set of "digested reads" for all 6 books on this year's Man Booker shortlist. A good way to appear as if you've read them when, clearly, you don't have the ime.

Ampersand Duck got along to the ceremony for the Prime Minister's Literary Award; shook Kev's hand, and spoke to our Pete. Not a bad night overall.

Author, critic and academic, Kerryn Goldsworthy, has decided to put her "Pavlov's Cat" out to pasture and start a new venture titled "Still Life With Cat". Apparently it was easier than revamping the old one. Seems I was the first Bloglines subscriber for this new weblog. Just thought you might like to know that.

And straight after writing that last paragraph I came across the following note attached to a Wikipedia edit: "you never have a comma after first word in a sentence. You're WRITING - not speaking." News to me.

The Victorian premier's Lieterary Awards has a category for poetry named after C.J. Dennis, and back in Auburn, South Australia, where the poet was born, the C.J. Dennis Literary awards are presented to schoolchildren in both and short story categories.

The Kan Family visited Winton in Queensland, where "Waltzing Matilda" was written. A very quiet place by the looks.

Posted by larrikin at 03:18 PM | Comments (2)

September 11, 2008

When the Lights Go Out

Susan Johnson ponders the feelings of Australian writers abroad.

Juliet Marillier explains some of her working methods as she heads towards the deadline for her next novel. It all sounds a little scary to me.

If you ever wondered why Australian poetry wasn't much appreciated outside of Australia, then maybe this piece from "The Argus" from 10 December 1924 might just have the answer:

Lecturing before the Empire Poetry League on "Australian Poetry," Mrs W.A. Holman criticised Mr C. J. Dennis's "Sentimental Bloke." She said that although she had met many Australian types she had never met the "Sentimental Bloke." The language of the poem savoured of Whitechapel rather than of Australia. A member of the audience remarked that no Australian poem expressed a longing for the home country. Mrs Holman said that the only poem she knew expressing a home-sick feeling was one by Adam Lindsay Gordon written to his sister a year after he arrived in Australia.

The poem she refers to by Gordon may be "To My Sister". But it's hard to be sure as Gordon wrote this on 4th August 1853, three days before he sailed to Australia.

Remember last week when I said that Sean Williams's latest "Star Wars" tie-in novel was heading for #1 on "The New York Times" bestseller list? Well, Sean has a scan of the list from 7th September, and, yep, there he is on top of the pile. I'd frame it if I was him.

Posted by larrikin at 05:03 PM | Comments (1)

September 04, 2008

Real World

What's it like releasing a book that you are told, prior to launch, will debut at #1 on the New York Times hardback bestseller list? Ask Sean Williams. He knows.

Rebecca Starford, deputy editor of "Australian Book Review", discusses the price of books in Australia, especially as Penguin have decided to release 50 "Popular Penguins" in Australia at $9.95 a pop. Non-Australian readers might find even that price steep, but in a country where the average paperback starts at over $20, the Penguin price is very, very noticeable. And welcomed.

Anita Heiss prints the speech made by Terri Janke to launch Anita's new novel Avoiding Mr Right.

Anita also mentions that the Australian Society of Authors has donated one dollar for each of its members ($3,078 in total), to the Indigeous Literacy Project.

And on the same topic, Judith Ridge went to a book launch that brought home the significance of the Project.

Philip Pullman lists The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay as one of the 40 works on his essential reading list.

Angela Meyer has published a short interview with the author of I Dream of Magda Stefan Laszczuk (only 5 questions - about the size of our Crime Fiction Snapshots from earlier this year) on her "LiteraryMinded" weblog.

Posted by larrikin at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2008

Spare Parts

Justine Larbalestier asks "Why should a reader keep reading the work of someone who pisses them off?" That is, if you don't like an author's "politics/personality/hygiene/habits" would you stop reading them?

Some of Melbourne's independent booksellers are interviewed about their book preferences and what tjeir customers get up to in their shops: "I caught a guy recently ridiculously trying to shove about four cookbooks down his pants. I don't know how he thought he was going to walk out. He'd been quite friendly and chatty and told us where he worked and was enthusing about the cookbooks. And then suddenly decided he just had to have them, but couldn't afford them."

Back in 2005 I linked to a website devoted to A. Bertram Chandler, an English-born Australian sf writer. Now Steve Davidson has created another such website about the author, but this time concentrating on his Rimworlds series of stories.

John Pilger is elected to the Hall of Fame on the wonderful weblog "If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats".

David Malouf has been awarded the Muriel Spark International Fellowship: "In a special Edinburgh International Book Festival autumn event, Malouf, will be at the Traverse Theatre on 23 September." The previous recipient was Margaret Atwood.

Posted by larrikin at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2008

The Line

Some people can find themselves more than a little overtaken by the personality of certain bush poets.

Danielle Torres includes A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute in her list of books for "War in Fiction, Part 2, WW II".

Matt Rubinstein's novel A Little Rain on Thursday is to get a German edition, titled Ein leichter Regen am Donnerstag. Which pretty much stands as a literal translation. Something new, I think.

Twitchy Finger's favourite part of Banjo Paterson's "Clancy of the Overflow" are the lines:

And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plain extended,
And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.

If you look at the banner of this weblog you'll see mine.

Posted by larrikin at 04:53 PM | Comments (0)

July 31, 2008

Man's Job

Muphry's Law is an adage that states that "if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written."

John Bangsund of the Victorian Society of Editors (Australia) identified Muphry's Law as "the editorial application of the better-known Murphy's Law", and set it down in 1992 in the "Society of Editors Newsletter". You can read more about this on Wikipedia. John Bangsund is one of Australia's greatest ever sf fans. I would also point you to his Wikipedia page, but, unfortunately, there isn't one. Yet another little project I'll have to get to some time soon.

In "The Courier-Mail" Ian Barry speculates that Western Australian author Greg Egan might be one of those who steps up to fill the void left by the death of Arthur C. Clarke earlier this year.

Angela Savage gives a rundown on the panels she moderated and participated in during the Crime & Justice Festival held in Melbourne recently.

"Sunnie's Book Blog" looks at the festival from the other side.

As does Karen on the "Aust Crime" weblog.

And Jane, of the "Speakeasy" weblog has been at the Byron Bay Writers' Festival.

On the "My Book, the Movie" weblog, Jarad Henry discusses how he would like to see his second novel, Blood Sunset, adapted for the screen.

"The Book Grocer" has opened a new shop in High Street, Armadale - the suburb of Melbourne.

Posted by larrikin at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)

July 27, 2008

Instances of Matilda #2

Matilda's, Nambucca Heads, NSW

Posted by larrikin at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2008

Backstreets

Shaun Tan's The Arrival has been adapted for the stage by the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre.

The "Monkey with a Machinegun" weblog posts a possible last paragraph to the "Not-So-Great Australian Novel". Needs to change "sidewalk" to "footpath", however.

Karen spent a fair amount of time at the Crime & Justice Festival lst weekend and has been writing about what she found there on her weblog.

"The Independent" newspaper runs a piece titled "Crime Fiction: Around the World in 80 Sleuths". Two of them are Australian: Diamond Doves by Adrian Hyland, and The Broken Shore by Peter Temple. The rest of the list is pretty damn good as well.

The "Sleepers Alamanac" people have made available podcasts from their Salons held over winter in Melbourne: Ramona Koval in conversation with Zoe Dattner, Sophie Cunningham in conversation with Louise Swinn, and Steven Carroll (this year's Miles Franklin Award winner) also in conversation with Louise Swinn.

D.M. Cornish's Monster Blood Tattoo series now has a book trailer up on YouTube.

Posted by larrikin at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)

July 17, 2008

Human Touch

In "Newsweek", Jennifer Egan, author of the National Book Award finalist Look at Me, chooses Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard as one of her "Five Most Important Books". Also featured is Invisble Man by Ralph Ellison, which reminded me that recently I happened to be switching tv channels in typical male fashion when I came across "Mission Impossible 3". I switched in just as the character played by Laurence Fishburne was saying something along the lines of: "He's like the invisible man. That's Wells, not Ellison." Which I thought was rather witty for a crappy action movie.

The "Rough Front" weblog - which looks at book cover art - is impressed with a recent cover for 1988 by Andrew McGahan.

The International Horror Guild award nominations have been announced and Shaun Tan's The Arrival is on the nominee list for Best Illustrated Narrative. Tan's book is many things, but horror? That seems a bit of a stretch.

Chloe Hooper introduces her new book, The Tall Man, on YouTube. Authors take note.

Back in April, Anne Summers launched Virginia Lloyd's new novel The Young Widow's Book of Home Improvement - which I think is one of the best book titles around - and you can now read the speech she gave. Lloyd indicates that she is scheduled to appear on Australian daytime television sometime in August. She'd better make sure her dancing style is up to scratch.

A while back I made a comment about how there seems to have been a big revival in that great old sf sub-genre space opera. Sean Williams thinks he's about to start a second wave with some new, big ideas. And let me tell you, as far as space opera is concerned, bigger is definitely better.

Sophie Masson loves libraries. Our family does too. When my son visted the local public library just down the street from his school, he was one of the few kids in his class with his own card. I found that rather disappointing.

Posted by larrikin at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)

July 10, 2008

All the Way Home

Margo Lanagan's story "The Goosle", a re-telling of the Hansel and Gretel story, has been causing a bit of a storm around the intertubes.

Andrew Kelly meets an illustrator who has moved away from the electronic medium and back to paper. Which is an excellent idea, as long as what you put on the paper is legible. I'm finding that my writing is getting worse and worse. From a very poor base this is not at all useful and I now find I'm printing letters as often as I scrawl. Makes it at least readable to me. Can't say about anyone else.

Toni Jordan, whose debut novel Addition features on the Richard and Judy book club's summer reading list in the UK, has listed her "Top 10 flawed romantic heroines" for "The Guardian" newspaper. [Thanks to Marshal Zeringue and his weblog "Campaign for the American Reader" for the link.]

The local council in Creswick, Victoria, is developing a playground in the town based on Norman Lindsay's novel The Magic Pudding.

The "Out of Battle" weblog has published Edward Dyson's poem, "Billjim".

Posted by larrikin at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)

July 04, 2008

Born to Run

An odd little item I noticed as I was just about to throw out the racing form from today's morning newspaper: race 2 on tomorrow's racing card from Flemington is called "The Banjo Paterson". Might just be worthwhile having a flutter on the basis of that. Nothing with a name like "Matilda" is listed, however.

Posted by larrikin at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)

July 03, 2008

Over the Rise

"The Vapour Trail" website looks at the history of Richmond larrikins from the early 20th century.

Pavlov's Cat is reading a book about a middle-aged woman who's teaching a writing class, who "has a blog, and a malicious anonymous troll/stalker to go with it." PC is a bit worried about possible similarities.

D.M. Cornish reveals what he's up to.

Sophie Masson writes about her experimentation of making a book trailer for her latest YA mystery, The Case of the Diamond Shadow. She also provides a link to the end product.

"The Times" newspaper picks its best Summer Reads - for the Northern hemisphere - and includes some familiar works: His Illegal Self by Peter Carey, Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones, A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz, and The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser.

Michael Evans, Defence Editor of "The Times", picks On the Beach by Nevil Shute as one of his top six books on "nucleur (sic) war". Maybe he's taking pronunciation lessons from a certain US president.

Posted by larrikin at 05:08 PM | Comments (0)

June 26, 2008

All I'm Thinkin' About

Pavlov's Cat continues her run with the Miles Franklin Award by successfully picking this year's winner.

I'm stating to think I should set up a separate category for posts about all the prizes and awards that Shaun Tan has been nominated for. The latest is "The Harvey Award". Forbidden Planet has the details.

Tracey Rolfe is a writer, editor and teacher of writing and editing at Victoria university (TAFE). On her weblog, "Speculating about Fiction" she contemplates the role of writer as celebrity.

In an article titled "Workplace Wisdom Found in Fiction" in the "U.S. News & World Report", Michael S. Wade includes Max Barry's novel Company in the category of "Insane Workplaces". Also listed along with Barry are Something Happened by Joseph Heller, and Catch-22 by Heller. Impressive.

Posted by larrikin at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

June 19, 2008

Straight Time

Roly Sussex, brother of Matilda correspondent Lucy, writes about the use and origins of the "F-word"; Gordon Ramsay gets a large mention, of course. The author mentions that the Scottish poet Robert Burns used it and I've heard it being used occasionally in the dialog of the television series "The Tudors", which concerns Henry VIII of England and his marital problems. Though whether this last example is historically accurate is another matter entirely.

Shaun Tan speculates about a movie version of his book The Lost Thing. And, in the process, mentions a possible adaptation of The Arrival.

The administrators of the 2008 Aurealis Awards have made some changes which Jonathan Strahan agrees with, and some not. In this era when we're attempting to reduce our paper usage, why would you drop electronic submission from the awards' process? Yes, reading stories on screen is difficult, but do you really need to receive a 300 page book to read one story of 15 pages? If you really want to read it on paper, then print it out. The relevant paragraph from the Rules and Conditions reads: "Electronic submissions are not permitted. Nominations must be submitted in hard copy to the relevant judges. However, when multiple printed copies of the work/s are difficult or expensive to obtain, nominators (particularly individual authors or small presses who face financial hardship) are encouraged to contact the Awards Coordinator to discuss. We endeavour to do all we can to assist the nomination process." [It's about half-way down.] So, does that mean if you ask nicely they'll let you submit a short story electronically? I've got no idea.

Following on from this piece, the editors over at the Science Fiction Awards Watch weblog make a suggestion about how to resolve the issue. I'm not sure it's the full, or right answer, but it would be better than the current situation.

Nim's Island by Wendy Orr and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak have been chosen as part of "The 50 Best Summer Reads" list in "The Independent".

Posted by larrikin at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)

June 12, 2008

Restless Nights

Dean, from the "HA" [Happy Antipodean] weblog, decided to head up to the Northern Tablelands of NSW to visit the site of the Myall Creek Massacre. A recent book on the massacre was discussed last week on the ABC's "First Tuesday Book Club" program.

I'm with Susan Johnson as she strips away the artifice from Ali Smith's novels and as she longs for substance over style.

Michael Gorey went to Dingley Dell, the cottage where Adam Lindsay Gordon once lived.

Steve Meacham, in "The Sydney Morning Herald", reveals that Kenneth Slessor's masterpiece, "Five Bells", was almost titled "Six Bells".

Jonathan Strahan took part in a roundtable discussion on the "SF Signal" website on the topic: "Who Are Tomorrow's Big Genre Stars? (+ The Top 18 Genre Authors To Keep an Eye On)". Keep an eye out for Margo Lanagan and Cat Sparks.

D.M. Cornish has seen the cover of the French edition of Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling, and, as one of his commenters says, it looks a bit like Edward Gorey. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Posted by larrikin at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2008

Something in the Night

Dr Anita Heiss is an Author Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Project, along with Alexis Wright, David Malouf, Tara June Winch, Andy Griffiths and Geraldine Brooks. She attended the launch of the 2008 project and listened to a speech given by the project's patron, Therese Rein.

Chris Lawson, on the "Talking Squid" weblog, alerts us to the new issue of "Steam Engine Time" from Jan Stonson and Bruce Gillespie. In particular he focusses on an article in the issue by James Doig regarding the banning in Australia, in the 1940s, of Olaf Stapledon's novel Sirius. Seems there was something about a territory-marking scene that one censor took exception to. Given the recent "censorship" fracas over a series of photos you'd be forgiven for thinking that more such territory-marking was currently underway.

David Pullar, on the "PopMatters" weblog, explains the reasons behind the size of Australian publishing and the reasons why more Australian work is not read overseas. It's simple really: "Australia is not exotic enough for publishers to see escapist potential, but is too foreign to be an easy sell."

Adelaide sf writer Sean Williams is quoted in a "TimeOut London" article about film novelisations: "As Williams notes, 'People don't buy tie-ins to get the same story again; that's what DVD players are for. They want a whole new layer, and that is often a psychological or world-building one. And sometimes OTT is exactly what you want. How else is a writer to compete with a $200 million FX budget?'"

The "Mental_Floss" weblog lists Poor Fellow My Country by Xavier Herbert, at 850,000 words, as only the 10th longest novel ever.

Posted by larrikin at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)

May 30, 2008

The Big Payback

Dean, of the "Happy Antipodean" weblog, went along to see Christos Tsiolkas and Gideon Haigh read from Tolerance, Prejudice and Fear commissioned by Sydney PEN. While there he also bumped into Helen Garner.

Stephen Carroll was in South Africa for the award ceremony for the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and has written an account of his time there for "The Age".

Susan Wyndham was a judge in the Australian Book Design Awards, and writes about the winners for "The Sydney Morning Herald".

In July, the Australian Chamber Orchestra will tour the eastern states playing a composition based on Shaun Tan's book The Red Tree.

There's a theory that Waltzing Matilda was only written to impress a woman? Yeah, so?

Anita Heiss was one of the editors of The Macquarie PEN anthology of Aboriginal Literature, and writes about what the project meant to her personally and professionally.

Bob Carr, ex-premier of New South Wales, has only just published his latest book and is already looking to his next project, as he tells "The Brisbane Times": "My Reading Life has a chapter on Australian political history and biography, but Carr had neither time nor space to cover Australian literature other than Patrick White's 'comic novels' and Colleen McCullough's ancient Rome series. He would like to do so in another book. 'I've got to write something about novelists who capture Sydney and it's the unwritten chapter of this book,' he says."

Cynthia Clampitt visited Elsey Station and came across the grave of Aeneas Gunn, author of We of the Never-Never.

Posted by larrikin at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2008

Lift Me Up

Susan Johnson, who seems to be blogging more as the publication of her novel approaches, has come to the conclusion that she just isn't going to read ANY reviews of her new work. This is probably a good thing from a writer's perspective: if it's a bad review you'll only get worried or annoyed, and if it's a good review it won't make one skerrick of difference and you'll only get worried. There's a pattern there.

"The Australian" newspaper challenges the new Rudd government to "fix" the study of literature in Australia.

You might struggle to find new editions of many Australian classics but the second-hand market offers many opportunities: provided you can afford it.

Ben Peek's story "The Funeral, Ruined" is now available on the web.

Melissa Bellanta writes of larrikins in Brisbane: "'The larrikin loves Saturday night', wrote a journalist for the Brisbane Courier in December 1888, 'and in all the glory of high heels -- of the French pattern -- bell-bottomed pants, and bobtailed coats, decked with many buttons, he propels himself against hotel walls ... and bespatters the fooway with his copious expectoration'." It's the "bell-bottomed pants" I particularly object to.

Regarding the Sydney Writers' Festival

Jonathan Shaw attended Jeanette Winterson's opening address: "It was a terrific speech about the centrality of creativity and art to human experience, imagination as a necessity rather than a luxury, the importance of rejecting the notion that things are important only to the degree that they make a lot of money for someone."

Judith Ridge chaired a session on speculative fiction and writes about the experience. Also featured were writers D.M. Cornish (Monster Blood Tattoo) and David Kowalski (The Company of the Dead), and editor of Aurealis magazine Stuart Mayne.

Posted by larrikin at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2008

Better Days

Last year's Australian/Vogel Award winner I Dream of Magda is now out.

Text Publishing have instituted The Text Young Adult Prize worth a $10,000 advance against royalties. Entries close on 31 July 2008.

Susan Johnson discusses the vexed question of "blurbs", wondering who she will ask to blurb her upcoming novel Life in Seven Mistakes.

Juliet Marillier was in Melbourne for the Children's Book Council of Australia Conference, the one with Neil Gaiman and Shaun Tan, and writes about it on the "Writer Unboxed" weblog.

Gemma, on the "Meet Me at Mike's" weblog, has posted a set of photos taken from C.J. Dennis's Book for Kids on Flickr.

Jean and Doug, of the "Left Home" weblog, went out to Toolangi to visit C.J. Dennis's Singing Gardens, and have posted a photo of the copper beech tree that was planted by John Masefield, Poet Laureate, when he visited Dennis there in 1934. They say 1938, but it really was 1934 - see Dennis's piece from earlier today.

"The Little Professor" is teaching Picnic at Hanging Rock, but is forced to consider the film as the novel is not in print in the US.

Dean, at the "Happy Antipodean", reviews The Pixie O. Harris Fairy Book, first published in 1924, and poses the question "We've got a Miles Franklin prize - why not a Pixie O'Harris prize for children's literature?"

Posted by larrikin at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

May 07, 2008

Slip Sliding

In one of the best literary association questions I've seen since I-don't-know-when, Jeff VanderMeer got a number of authors to answer the question: "But which beer goes with this?" Meaning, of course, their latest literary work. Margo Lanagan chooses a local (ie New South Wales) brew, and just goes to show that if she struggles with her next novel she can always take up reviewing beer.

I thought I was obsessive, but John Huxley goes further down that road than even I would venture as he considers the inaugral edition of the NSW version of "Who's Who".

Laurie Duggan describes what it was like to be named one of the "High Flyers of 88" by "Bulletin" magazine.

And speaking of that magazine there's a story doing the rounds that it may be revived.

Judith Ridge went along to the Children's Book Council Conference in Melbourne over the May 2-4 weekend, and has posted her first thoughts about it.

Susan Johnson has picked up on a problem with a lot of recent reviews of The Disquiet by Julia Leigh.

Around Anzac Day there is always a number of books published depicting Australians at war. In "The Australian", Patrick Walters looks at a batch of them.

Marshal Zeringue, on the "Campaign for the American Reader" weblog, asks Sean Williams what he is reading.

Posted by larrikin at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2008

The Web is a Book

Pavlov's Cat puts into context the recent announcement of a new Chair of Australian Literature at the University of Western Australia.

"The State" webpage, which styles itself as South Carolina's home page, carries a video interview with Janette Turner Hospital.

Les Murray's poem, "Noonday Axeman" is here.

As his new novel Breath is close to being launched, Tim Winton will only be appearing once in Sydney, on May 11.

LiteraryMinded has been at Varuna and is all fired up to enter the Vogel award.

[The title of this entry is adapted from a quote from St Augustine: "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page."]

Posted by larrikin at 03:27 PM | Comments (1)

April 14, 2008

Not All Those Who Wander are Lost

"The Australian" newspaper is reporting that the Western Australian State Government is instigating

...the new Premier's Australia-Asia literary fund, worth $1.2 million over four years and touted as the richest of its kind in Australia, will be managed jointly by the department and the State Library of WA. It will be judged by a panel of three: an Australian author (to be appointed) and two international authors who have already been selected.

They are Sri Lankan-born author and journalist Nury Vittachi, founder of Asia Literary Review, who has played a key role in setting up literary organisations in the Asian region; and Karachi-born novelist Kamila Shamsie, who has judged Britain's Orange prize for new fiction.

Unlike the contentious Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the panel will make the final decision about the winning book. The winning author's prize will be more than the $100,000 offered by the PM's prize.

Sophie Cunningham, the new editor of the Australian literary periodical "Meanjin", opens a cupboard in the magazine's office and discovers 68 years of back issues. Some of the covers are wonderful.

Genevieve provides the details about a new Chair of Australian Literature being created by the Rudd Government at the University of Western Australia.

Judith Ridge reports on the launch of Woolshed Press, a new Australian children's book imprint from Random House publishers.

Lonely Planet Publishers find themselves in a spot of trouble over news that an author plagiarised most of the details in one of their travel guides. I'm not looking to visit Colombia anytime in the near future, which is probably a good thing - on a number of levels.

Angela Savage clocks in with Milestone #1, the completion of the first draft of her new novel - a follow-up to Behind the Night Bazaar. The author featured in our recent "Australian Crime Fiction Snapshot."

Justine Larbalestier found a copy of her novel Magic or Madness in a German bookshop - the German edition of course - and found it sitting next to a book by John Marsden. "I've been stunned by how many Aussie books I've been seeing in translation on our travels. Oodles of them by the likes of Trudi Canavan, Sara Douglass, Sonya Hartnett, John Marsden, Garth Nix, Marcus Zusak etc., etc. World domination!"

Posted by larrikin at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2008

Miscellaneous Interesting Stuff

You may remember the interview I did with Sophie Masson here on Matilda for the Crime Snapshot last month - if not, why not? - and now Sophie has posted the cover art for her new YA Mystery, The Case of the Diamond Shadow, that we discussed.

Jonathan Strahan, Hugo-nominee and co-editor with Gardner Dozois of The New Space Opera, talks about, yes, space opera on the SFSignal website. (His piece is 4th down.) "I'm aware that we all think we live in some kind of post-cyberpunk world, and that Philip K. Dick's crazy paranoia seems to be keeping Hollywood in business these days, but how could you possibly argue that space opera is NOT mainstream when we live in the same world as Star Trek and Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica and so on and so forth?"

Susan Wyndham's new book, Life In His Hands: The True Story Of A Neurosurgeon And A Pianist, is now out, and in "The Sydney Morning Herald", she discusses it and other recent books about death and dying.

Susan Johnson reveals on her weblog that, shock, horror, the main character of her novel-in-progress is named "Susan". No such a big deal you might think, but you have to keep in mind all the discussion about Helen Garner's latest novel, the main character of which was also named "Helen". Johnson provides an explanation in advance to forestall the grilling she is sure she is going to get. I wish this wasn't necessary, but I see her point. I wonder how many "ordinary" readers (ie non-journalists) will worry about it. I'm sure I won't. In City of Glass, Paul Auster wrote about a writer turned private detective descending into madness, named "Paul Auster"; which tends to take things about as far as they can go. Auster was deemed to be "post-modern". Not a phrase I have heard in connection with Helen Garner, nor, I suspect, will I hear it when reading about Susan Johnson's next novel.

Posted by larrikin at 11:36 AM | Comments (2)

April 03, 2008

Short, Sharp Shocks

Henry Rosenbloom, publisher at Scribe, has had quite enough of the antiquated colonial practice of British publishers considering Australia and New Zealand as still part of some colonial empire. He makes a good argument for the belief that Australian book sales are helping to prop up some inefficient publishing efforts in the UK.

A couple of years back, as she explains on her weblog "The Vapour Trail", Melissa Bellanta went to see her sister appear in a stage production of C.J. Dennis's "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke". She was struck by the different ways audiences of today and the 1910s would react to the humour. She expands a bit more on the larrikin style in a further post.

This beginner's list of Australian crime fiction is a little bit old now, but as Karen of the "AustCrime Fiction" weblog said recently, she keeps getting asked about it and she's always updating it.

Marshal Zeringue, of the "Writers Read" weblog, asks Peter Corris what he is reading: crime and Hemmingway it would appear.

"RMIT news" (that's the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) gives a rundown on the success being enjoyed by a number of the current and former students of their PhD (Creative Media), Master of Creative Media (Creative Writing) and Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing programs. Names such as Kvein Rabelais and Toni Jordan appear.

Posted by larrikin at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2008

Diversions Among the InterTubes

If you've ever wondered how authors go about writing outlines for their books, then Sean Williams has the details for you.

"The American Book Review" has compiled its list of the 100 Best Last Lines from Novels [PDF file]. Patrick White's Tree of Man makes the list at number 71 with "So that, in the end, there was no end."

Back in 1960, Miles Franklin Award shortlisted author Christopher Koch spent some time in Stanford. Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, remembers him. And check out who else was there.

Chris Mansell was peeved that she couldn't figure out where poetry fitted into the new Prime Minister's literary awards, so she wrote to the adminstrators to find out. She wasn't impressed with the reply, and it's easy to see why.

In a review by Nicholson Baker in "The New York Review of Books": "[Wikipedia] worked and grew because it tapped into the heretofore unmarshaled energies of the uncredentialed. The thesis procrastinators, the history buffs, the passionate fans of the alternate universes of Garth Nix, Robotech, Half-Life, P.G. Wodehouse, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charles Dickens, or Ultraman -- all those people who hoped that their years of collecting comics or reading novels or staring at TV screens hadn't been a waste of time -- would pour the fruits of their brains into Wikipedia, because Wikipedia added up to something. This wasn't like writing reviews on Amazon, where you were just one of a million people urging a tiny opinion and a Listmania list onto the world -- this was an effort to build something that made sense apart from one's own opinion, something that helped the whole human cause roll forward."

Penni Russon, of "Eglantine's Cake" and The Indigo Girls fame, has been touring the Wimmera talking to children in schools and libraries, and found "some groups were switched on, happy to be there, interested in me and what I was talking about. And some groups were frankly depressing and shocking. In one, after half an hour of talking to restless, blank kids I finally asked in desperation 'Hands up who reads.' One hand went up straight away. Fifteen LONG seconds later, another drifted up into the air. In a room of about thirty kids, two boys and no girls were willing to admit to being readers. I looked at those two kids and thought you are the bravest kids in this room. I'm not worried about you. Not just because I think reading is important but because they're not afraid of extending themselves, they're not afraid of where reading might take them. With this same group I asked them to write down a lie about themselves. The girls I looked at had written, as their lie, 'I am gay.' It seemed to me these girls were scared of their interior lives, of their feelings betraying them, of being different in any way. No wonder books scare them."

Posted by larrikin at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2008

Instances of Matilda #1

A bit of explanation is needed for here.

Dave Langford, sf writer and fan, produces a monthly sf newsletter called Ansible, out of his home in Reading, UK. Each week he, with the help of his readers, includes a section called Thog's Masterclass, the main aim of which is to highlight those, shall we say, stylistic and grammatical diversions to which all writers are prone. In other words he's extracting the urine out of anything and anyone in the sf field by pointing out their authorial bloopers. It's all in good fun.

From the latest issue comes the following entry:

Eyeballs in the Sky. 'Matilda was lovely, but she had bright burning eyes that you could feel creep down your face and into your belly.' (Arthur N. Scarm, The Werewolf vs Vampire Woman, 1972)

Posted by larrikin at 08:22 AM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2008

Interesting Turns on the Wallaby Track

Genevieve, on the "reeling and writhing" weblog informs us that Readings bookstores in Melbourne now carry reviews of new stock as well as details of upcoming events on an RSS feed. Readings is an independent book chain worth supporting, with the Hawthorn store being my local.

With another couple of scandals doing the publishing rounds, the "LA Times" has published a list of "Memorable Literary Hoaxes". Good to see Australia gets two entries in the list: "Margo Morgan, Mutant Message Down Under" (1994)"; and "The poetry of Ern Malley, an Australian mechanic who had died in 1943".

Changing horses, or in this case publishing houses, mid-stream can be a little tough in anyone's life. Juliet Marillier found she had comletely re-arrange her writing schedule, dropping one book midway through, and starting the planned second one first. Needless to say, complications ensued.

Posted by larrikin at 01:17 PM | Comments (1)

March 05, 2008

A Few Slivers of Interest

Susan Wyndham and Ed Wright put arguments for and against Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn (or maybe that should be "against and for" given the order of the authors). Personally, I was "for" it.

Justine Larbelestier gets cranky: "Ever since I [became] a YA writer I have been hearing certain people accusing me and my colleagues of writing books solely for the sake of being as dark/bleak/shocking/perverted/[insert your own personal bugbear in adjectival form here]. 'Why did you have to put x into your book?' is a question that almost all of us seem to hear at one time or another.

"It drives me nuts."

ABC TV is picking up on the crime fiction buzz by producing a special book program titled Jennifer Byrne Presents Crime. Not many details as yet but the program will air on ABC 1 on Tuesday 11th March at 10:00pm, and be repeated on ABC 2 on Sunday 16th March at 7:00pm. ABC TV is pretty good at making videos of these programs available on the web for viewing after the event. I'll keep an eye out for it. [Thanks to the AustCrime weblog for the link.]

Posted by larrikin at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

February 29, 2008

Smatterings of Interest

John Birmingham has an encounter with Shane Maloney at a readers' festival. There's also someone else invloved who he doesn't name.

Art Neuro isn't too happy with Les Murray's response to a request for a blurb. Best comment: "Maybe Puncher & Wattmann [the publishers] should ask the other Les Murray for a blurb."

I mentioned last year that Tim Winton's collection of short stories, The Turning, was being adapted for the stage. Now comes news that the adaptation started at the Playhouse Theatre in Perth on 22nd February. The play runs till Saturday March 8.

And speaking of Winton, he will be attending the upcoming Brighton Festival in the UK (May 3 to 25).

Long time sf fan, artist and all round good guy Nick Stathpoulos has been shortlisted for the 2008 Archibald Prize - Australia's premier portrait prize initiated by J.F. Archibald. Nick's painting is of movie critic David Stratton snoozing in a cinema. Nick previously entered the competition with a portrait of ABC television puppet character Mr Squiggle, and his creator Norman Hetherington. [Thanks to Judith Ridge of the Misrule weblog.]

Posted by larrikin at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2008

Just a Few Items of Interest

Sophie Masson discusses the differences between authors who write for children and young adults, and their counterparts in the adult literary world. It's all down to the readership.

Steve Tolz, author of A Fraction of the Whole, is touring the US.

Australian poet Les Murray is sick of being asked to write blurbs for other poets' books and has come up with a rather obscure method of saying "no".

Murray does, however, have other work on his plate as he is announced as the new visiting professor attached to Macquarie Dictionary, at the University of Sydney.

Wendy Orr, author of Nim's Island, is off to Los Angeles to walk the red carpet for the premiere of the film of the book. The film opens in Australia April 3.

Posted by larrikin at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2008

2012 edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Ben Payne

Ben Peek has alerted me to the upcoming publication of 2012 edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Ben Payne, an anothology of sf stories by Australian writers which imagines australia as it wil be in four years. The book is upcoming from Ticonderoga Publications. As the blurb says:

Each of these stories presents an original take on the imminent future of humanity. Each has something to say about who we are and who we might want to be. 2012 is both a call to imagine the future of the world and a call to create it.

Deborah Biancotti Martin Livings Dirk Flinthart David Conyers Simon Brown Lucy Sussex Tansy Rayner Roberts Kaaron Warren Angela Slatter Ben Peek Sean McMullen

The question is: were these stories written before last year's Federal election, or after? And would that make a difference?

Posted by larrikin at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2008

Miscellaneous Items of Interest

A number of sf editors and writers are asked the salient question: "What purpose does short fiction serve?" Among those polled are Jonathan Strahan ("A lot of the great ideas in the field started in short fiction. If you want to read the best, get the purest Sfnal fix, it's often to be found in short fiction. Also, it's a great way to sample a bunch of new writers, get a feel for them before committing to novels."); and Jack Dann ("What do readers get out of a short story? They get a whole world wrapped up in a few minutes. They get that shiver down the spine real-quick. And then they can go on to another story, an entirely different world, plot, experience. It's reading novels on speed...except, of course, you don't get a novel. You can't relax for days in the experience. You get the rush fast, and a case might be made that the short form is a more perfect 'product' than a novel.")

Davey announces "I'm very excited to say that I've been successful in obtaining funding from Arts Victoria to develop a new collection of poems, based on correspondence between Australian poet Bernard O'Dowd and American bard Walt Whitman...The correspondence (which has been preserved in the State Library of Victoria and also published in Overland magazine) is notable both for Whitman's brevity (he was, after all, on his death bed), as for O'Dowd's idolisation of the man he calls 'master', and once even 'comrade'." And it's odd that I should be skimming through a recently purchased copy of I Recall by R.H. Croll - the man who introduced C.J. Dennis to John Garibaldi Roberts - when I came across a note about this very correspondence. Croll and O'Dowd were in the same Melbourne readers' group in the early 1900s.

BookTagger is an Australian version of LibraryThing. Both perform similar functions - social networking groups for book lovers - though BookTagger has a ways to go to catch up to LibraryThing's 23 million cataloged books. Gotta start somewhere though.

Posted by larrikin at 09:23 AM | Comments (0)