Negative reaction by other authors to Salman Rushdie’s book ratings demonstrates how sensitive writers can be. But why shouldn’t an author give however many stars they like to a book?
The “MONA effect” has set Tasmania’s arts scene on fire – will Richard Flanagan’s Man Booker win do the same for its literature?
EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA
Richard Flanagan’s 2014 Man Booker Prize has put Tasmanian writing in the spotlight – and the announcement of new state literary prizes has helped too. So what is distinctive about Tasmanian literature?
Evie Wyld, author of All The Birds, Singing, is one of the guests at this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival.
Evie Wyld will be a guest at this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival. Here, she speaks with a passionate reader about the success of her award-winning book, All The Birds, Singing.
Young adult dystopian characters like Insurgent’s Tris are inspiring their female fans to shatter the glass ceiling.
Lionsgate Films
Social media entrepreneur Belle Gibson is not the first to be accused of fabricating a personal recovery story for public consumption. So what responsibility do publishers have in such cases?
The six finalists of the Stella Prize, announced yesterday, include three authors who have been shortlisted based on their first major works of fiction. That’s definitely something to celebrate.
A long list of commercial success stories has emerged from the self-publishing boom, sometimes with sales in the millions.
Nicolas DECOOPMAN
Once pivotal to the English canon, Jane Austen has been adapted and readapted for Hollywood and Bollywood – and that kind of popularity comes at a cost.
Adam Smith used parables, morality tales, and canine analogies to explain his theories of economics.
Kasper Flörchinger
A careful study of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations reveals that its influence lies not in Smith’s ability to construct an argument – but in his skill as teller of tall tales.
Some 23 years after his death, Australian artist Brett Whitely’s vision continues to have resonance and will likely remain a defining representation of late 20th century Australia.
The new waterfront in Australian literature: Parramatta.
Lina Hayes/Flickr
Despite boasting a population of 2 million people – more than South Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania and the ACT combined – Western Sydney has, to date, had little impact on the literary pulse…
Reading about the beauty and destruction of the bushfire may help us live alongside it.
Jason Verwey
Historically, bushfires have played an important role in Australian literature, adding a touch of exoticism in fiction written for readers back in Europe, while also offering insights into the dangers…
Harper Lee, pictured circa 1962, has announced a return to the literary world.
Wikimedia Commons
By now there can be few people who don’t know Harper Lee’s supposedly long-lost manuscript, Go Set a Watchman, will be published in July. It will be the first book published by Lee since To Kill a Mockingbird…
Literary translation has occurred for centuries (the Bible is a prime example). And with Nobel Prize winners like French author Patrick Modiano, it’s unlikely to disappear anytime soon.
Wikimedia Commons
I recently stumbled upon a post that describes the process of literary translation as “soul-crushing.” That’s news to me, and I’ve been engaged in literary translation for the better part of four decades…
Lee’s second novel, Go Set a Watchman, will have a more adult centre of gravity.
Chris Burke
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, and was voted The Greatest Novel of All Time in a London Daily Telegraph poll of 2008…
Scandinavian cultural exports are showing the world a different mode of representing struggle, crime, and death.
edittrix/Flickr
The Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard is the most recent export of a particularly Scandinavian expression of personal struggle. This ethos of resistance to larger socio-political forces, coupled with…
As long as the history of English literature is taught in universities, the charm of the immortal poem “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns will endure in China. I first came across the poem by the national…
This week, as part of Sydney Festival’s Bankstown: Live program, Michael Mohammed Ahmad will present a stage-adaptation of his debut novel. The Tribe, published in 2014, tells the story of three generations…
Claire Wright won the Stella Prize in 2014, the Year of Reading Women Writers, but it’s ok to read her work in 2015.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
When we waved goodbye to 2014, we also farewelled one of my favourite initiatives – The Year of Reading Women. After reading Joanna Russ’ 1983 book How to Suppress Women’s Writing in December 2012, author…