National Film & Sound Archive
Miles Franklin’s masterpiece features an untamed, unapologetic heroine, positing a choice between career and love rather than women ‘having it all’.
Perfecto Capucine/Unsplash
Many important Australian books have found themselves out-of-print and hard-to-find. The Untapped project aims to change that, bringing classics to a library near you.
Kate Winslet in the 2015 film The Dressmaker. The film was based on the novel by Australian writer Rosalie Ham.
Screen Australia, Film Art Media, White Hot Productions
Literature funding has been cut brutally in recent years and writers’ incomes are disastrously low. Yet books shape our national identity, forming an often invisible bedrock for the wider economy.
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A new book contains much wisdom on the question of ageing and the search for meaning.
Germaine Greer at The Chelsea Hotel in 1972.
AP
First published in October 1970, The Female Eunuch has never been out of print.
Eddie Coghlan/Unsplash
Set in the smoky shadow of Australia’s 2019 and 2020 bushfire season, Flanagan explores the loss of our world through the shattering of a family.
Hachette
Kokomo by Victoria Hannan has been touted as a ‘millennial novel’ – but its search for love and connection are timeless.
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Sci-fi, fantasy and rom-coms: books with LGBTQIA+ characters are as diverse as their readers.
Tara June Winch, author of The Yield.
The winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin award is a powerful and deeply moving book, unstinting in its depiction of sociopolitical disasters.
Elizabeth Farm, painted by Joseph Lycett, c1823.
Wikimedia Commons
The newest novel from the author of The Secret River is an imagined diary, detailing the ‘true’ story of Elizabeth Macarthur.
Becca Tapert/Unsplash
This year’s six shortlisted novels shimmer with relevance.
Mark Hodges/Flickr
Kylie Tennant’s hut is fondly remembered by locals, tourists and aspiring writers who have visited since the 1980s.
Simon Maisch/Unsplash
Felicity Volk’s novel Desire Lines traces two families across the 20th century, from the Arctic Circle and to the Blue Mountains of New South Wales.
Blair Fraser/Unsplash
Australia’s literary journals are produced within a fragile ecosystem – becoming more vulnerable every year.
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From humble beginnings, poet Bruce Dawe became a genial voice, capturing everyday humanity with wry focus. For many Australians, he provided a first taste of verse.
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Award-winning playwright Stephen House turned to poetry to capture glimpses of life. He writes verse until his composition ‘feels right’.
South Australian Film Corporation
Australia has a long history of gothic storytelling in literature and cinema. A new podcast series shows how ordinary life can have an edge of malice.
Reading The Trauma Cleaner is a visceral experience.
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Sarah Krasnostein’s book is not only a provocative premise. It is beautifully written with power and precision.
It is important for young people to read literature that reflects their own life and also expands their experiences of the world.
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Reading texts by and about diverse Australians will change the ways all young people see themselves and their communities. Here are five such books.
An unlikely television star, Clive James shone a light on absurdity but let us make up our own minds about it.
Alan Porritt/AAP
Clive James will be remembered for his dry wit, distinctive voice and his unlikely yet hugely appealing screen presence.