Fictional politicians may have spoilt the party for the real ones – they’re much more charismatic, dramatic and funny. What would happen if seven of the best competed?
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…
Julianne Moore’s star turn in Still Alice provides a lesson in understanding neurodegenerative diseases.
Icon Film
Still Alice – starring Julianne Moore – tells the story of Alice Howland, a linguistics professor diagnosed with a form of early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Moore has already netted a Golden Globe and is…
Many hands have helped author The Conversation’s first collaborative writing experiment.
We’re starting 2015 with an experiment in collaborative creative writing. What happens when you ask ten academics to write a story together? Taking our cue from the Exquisite Cadaver game played by Surrealist…
Nick Cater’s shortlisted work, The Lucky Culture, is one of several non-fiction options.
AAP /Dean Lewins
This year’s cultural debates about the constitution of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards judging panels are now giving way to consideration of the shortlists and their relative worth. Even as these…
From suicide to heroin addiction, young adult fiction creates open discussion about the darker issues in our society.
Flickr
Problem or issue-based young adult novels are not new occurrences. From John Green’s Fault in Our Stars (2012) to Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why (2007), books aimed at readers as young as 12, and as…
Historical fiction rewards both the readers and writers who love it.
Carsten Tolkmit
Historical fiction is booming. The much-publicised success of Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites, Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries and Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall is just the tip of the iceberg for a genre that rivals…
Irvine Welsh’s book represents the cry of the unvoiced in any cultural place or age.
hélène veilleux
It’s been 21 years since the publication of Irvine Welsh’s groundbreaking and controversial novel, Trainspotting. Since then, it has been widely praised and criticised, rejected by a mainstream audience…
Valley of the Dolls is a novel about wanting. Characters want something badly.
Marta Manso
This year marks 40 years since the temple of airport fiction lost its Chief Vestal. Author Jacqueline Susann maxed out her mortal coil back in 1974, on September 21, felled by cancer. She was only 56…
Plot – above all else – has proven successful for Australian author Reilly.
Peter Morris/Pan Macmillan.
I don’t know whether Australian author Matthew Reilly ever studied Aristotle, but he certainly studied action novels. As the subject of tonight’s Australian Story on ABC, Reilly’s affinity with the Greek…
Crime fiction has become a truly global genre. Books based in Reykjavik, Oslo, or Barcelona now vie with home-grown works set in more recognisable, down-at-heel locations like Manchester or Northampton…
The Church of Conscious Living, which offers ‘believers’ with a religious exemption from vaccination is engaging in astroturfing.
Stefani/Flickr
The akedah narrative – the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac at God’s command – is one that has long inspired and haunted Jews, Christians and Muslims. In being prepared to kill…