The public image of Gwen Harwood as a suburban housewife is belied by the raw sensuality of her erotic poetry. And in her personal life, she claimed her right to move – and love – where she would.
Siang Lu’s debut novel suggests whitewashing Asians for the screen is profitable. ‘People pay to see foreignness repackaged as stereotypes – and thus rendered virtually invisible.’
Miles Franklin Award winning novelist Amanda Lohrey explores the political and the personal in a way that makes her unique among contemporary Australian writers.
David Ireland’s masterful mosaic novels explored sweeping existential issues and their impact on the lives of those oblivious to them. They were characterised by his vision, compassion and wit.
The five shortlisted novels share various threads concern – childhood stories, themes of migration and male violence – but are infused with a sense of play and measured optimism.
Noongar author Claire Coleman’s new novel forces us to question what we value and how we live by combining dystopia and utopia, in a near-future very like our own.
From mythical Moth people, who kidnapped children, to threatening desert fairies in loincloths, early Australian fairy tales helped sanitise white settlement, expressing colonial fears.