George Rudy via Shutterstock
A children’s novelist chooses her favourite books to keep young people happy and absorbed while stuck at home.
Dystopic science fiction provides a reference points for our anxieties during a time of global change.
(Shutterstock)
Pandemic fiction is more popular than ever – but what these books and movies offer us isn’t as straightforward as you might think.
The Banquet in the Pine Forest, one of a number of pictures derived from tales in Boccaccio’s Decameron.
Sandro Botticelli
Western literature began with a plague and ever since, writers have been using pandemics to comment on society.
Shutterstock
With hundreds of book covers displaying previously taboo swear words, are publishers losing the ability to shock readers?
Albert Bierstadt, Rocky Mountain Landscape, 1870.
Literature of the past can help us to make the cultural shift that’s necessary to address climate change.
Copies of ‘American Dirt’ sit on a rack at a bookstore in New York.
Laura Bonilla CAL/AFP via Getty Images
Publishers funnel massive amounts of resources into promoting titles that they think will become bestsellers. But they’ve become spellbound by ‘stories of struggle’ that can succumb to stereotypes.
Merapi Eruption by Night, by Raden Saleh, 1865.
The Tambora-Frankenstein myth silences Shelley’s critique of science.
While 97% of Romance Writers of America members are women, only 14% are people of color.
Refat/Shutterstock.com
The group seemed to be doing all of the right things to diversify its ranks. It wasn’t enough.
‘I want to produce such an impression of utter weariness and ennui that my readers will imagine the book could only have been written by a cretin,’ Flaubert wrote.
Photo by Nadar / ullstein bild via Getty Images
Is a 19th-century French author’s cosmic joke turning into a real-life global nightmare?
PA/Kirsty O'Connor
Boris Johnson’s adviser is asking job applicants to give him their all. And in return? He’ll fire them on the spot if they don’t fit in.
An image from the book cover for ‘SLAY,’ one of the top 2019 five books for young critical thinkers.
(Simon and Schuster)
A list of 5 great reads for young critical thinkers and the adults in their lives — in time for holiday gift-giving.
A modern Christmas Carol.
BBC/Scott Free/FX Networks
We have an innate desire to be reminded of darkness and mortality during the festive season.
Hitoshi Suzuki/Unsplash
These seven cli-fi novels will get you fired up for action.
Louisa May Alcott has delighted readers for generations.
AP Photo/Steven Senne
Reading books from people with diverse backgrounds is good for kids.
Dear Esther is a ghost story, told using first-person gaming technologies.
The Chinese Room
Video games present players with rich and immersive digital worlds.
Best-selling Nigerian novelist and literary superstar Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Armando Babani/EPA-EFE
African literary prizes are slowly becoming more relevant and richer, thanks to writers organising on the continent.
Want to capture the heart and mind of a young reader? The five story senses will set you on the right path.
iam Se7en/Unsplash
When writing for adults, authors look towards capturing the five senses – sight, sounds, touch, taste and smell. When writing for children, however, writers should apply these story senses.
Shakespeare’s plays are still some of the most studied texts in school English.
from shutterstock.com
We compiled a list of the 15 most commonly cited books taught by English teachers we surveyed. It contains only two Australian writers, neither of which are Indigenous.
Teachers often assign older books.
vovidzha/Shutterstock.com
Stories like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Jane Eyre’ are still relevant today.
Shutterstock
The Southern Ocean, as artists have uncovered, is also a treasure trove of cultural narratives.