Portrait of John Mitchel (1848).
Public domain
The question behind Tom Keneally’s latest novel is how a political idealist striving for his country’s freedom could end up supporting slavery.
Antigone Kefafa.
Giramondo Publishing
Antigone Kefala’s brilliant fiction, memoir and poetry is written in a new revived English.
Alessandra Caretto/Unsplash.
With its lovingly rendered characters and sharp aphoristic prose, Sweeney and the Bicycles is a study in radical self-absorption.
Humpback whale.
Zorankovacevic/Wikimedia Commons
Robbie Arnott’s third novel, Limberlost, is an exquisitely written tale of human and ecological destruction, with a thread of hope.
Founding editor of Meanjin, Clem Christesen (1911–2003).
Baillieu Library
In Emperors in Lilliput, Jim Davidson examines legacy of Clem Christesen and Stephen Murray-Smith.
Shutterstock
A story of ‘falling upwards’, Childhood examines the author’s painful memories with detachment and unsparing honesty.
Tilly Devine, State Reformatory, NSW, 1925.
Public domain/Wikimedia commons
A panoramic tale and an in-depth character study, Iris immerses its readers in a world of impoverishment and struggle.
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.
Burnt bushland, the Blue Mountains, December 2019.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Shaun Prescott’s second novel is a gothic tale of skin-crawling, psychological dysfunction.
Crazy Rich Asians film poster (Warner Bros), The Whitewash book cover (UQP), The Mysterious Dr Fu Manchu original film poster, The Mask of Fu Manchu film poster, The Conversation.
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.’
Les Murray.
Alan Porritt/AAP
Les Murray’s habit of rearranging and recontexualising his poetry was a reflection of his distinctive way of perceiving the world.
Lidcombe sunset.
Cameron D'Arcy/Shutterstock
In his third book, An Ordinary Ecstasy, Luke Carman conducts an immersive conversation with literature and life.
Amanda Lohrey.
Richard Bugg/AAP
Miles Franklin Award winning novelist Amanda Lohrey explores the political and the personal in a way that makes her unique among contemporary Australian writers.
Nimblefoot, winner of the 1870 Melbourne Cup.
State Library of Victoria
A blend of fact and fiction, Nimblefoot imagines the life of a long forgotten Australian sporting hero.
The Lincoln Coffee Lounge, Rowe Street, Sydney (1950), the birthplace of the Sydney Push.
Brian Bird/State Library of New South Wales
Hard Joy is an intimate and often idiosyncratic work that speaks of the importance of honest relationships and a rich life of the mind.
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.
Jennifer Down.
Photo: Monique Ferguson
Bodies of Light is brutally precise in its portrayal of the enduring consequences of a traumatic childhood.
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.
Kevin Laminto/Unsplash
Shades of classic literature are discernible in The Diplomat, a novel that delves into the disreputable worlds of art and drug addiction.
Gwen Harwood (1920-1995).
A.T. Bolton/Wikimedia commons
Two new books examine the life and legacy of an inspiring poet whose work resisted patriarchal constraints.