In Above Us Only Sky, Michele Young-Stone, an MFA grad and the author of The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, once again digs into a quirky pseudo-realism that’s based in the great conflict of growing up. In an interview, she admits that Above Us Only Sky is a few different things rolled into one: it’s…
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Jo Baker’s A Country Road, A Tree is an emotive novel that spans the World War Two experiences of Nobel Prize–winning author and playwright Samuel Beckett. On the heels of Baker’s bestselling work Longbourn, an homage to Pride and Prejudice, her second novel shines under critical spotlight. Samuel Beckett is introduced to the reader first…
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About thirty seconds of googling will turn up innumerable think pieces that proclaim the end of the novel or lament the decline of the reading public. Yet print book sales are happily on the rise again and even non-readers can get their narrative fix in the form of recent film adaptations. Despite the distractions of…
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Katy Warner’s story, One Hundred and Fifty Seconds, won 1st place in the 2016 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Here is an interview with Katy, plus her award-winning story! * Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? I am a playwright, sometimes actor and writer based in Melbourne. I grew up in Perth…
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Jude Bridge’s story, Mother of Invention, won 2nd place in the 2016 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Here is an interview with Jude, plus her award-winning story! * Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? I live in Perth and am always thinking of a new story, or play, or song. In a…
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Laura Elvery’s story, La Otra, won 3rd place in the 2016 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Here is an interview with Laura, plus her award-winning story! * Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? I’m a writer and PhD researcher from Brisbane. What do you think it takes to win an award-winning story?…
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Laura McPhee-Browne’s story, The Tallest Girl in the World, was Highly Commended in the 2016 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. * Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? I am a 31 year old social worker who writes short stories, and sometimes other stuff. What do you think it takes to win an…
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Jane Harper’s debut novel The Dry is a compulsive read. It opens with an apparent double-murder/suicide in the drought-stricken farming community of Kiewarra in rural Australia. Aaron Falk, a Federal Police investigator and former Kiewarra resident, comes back for the funeral – but soon finds himself using his investigative skills when the facts of the…
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Alison Whittaker’s debut collection, Lemons in the Chicken Wire, is a refreshingly authentic and accessible new addition to the Australian poetry landscape. The collection is grounded in simplicity yet explores complex issues such as sexuality, racism and family negligence. Whittaker, who received the State Library of Queensland’s black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship, also explores the history…
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This is a review of a session held at the 2016 Sydney Writers’ Festival. * It’s not often that you’re able to sit in a room filled with proudly self-proclaimed feminists, listening to a panel of admirable and notable female authors, thinkers and activists describe exactly why you should have the right to rule the…
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This is a review of a session held at the 2016 Sydney Writers’ Festival. * What is it that we find so fascinating about a reclusive novelist? There are plenty of writers who have attempted anonymity, with varying degrees of success: Harper Lee and Thomas Pynchon both spring to mind. These authors have chosen…
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This is a review of a session held at the 2016 Sydney Writers’ Festival. * When I first entered the room and upon seeing so many older women, I was unsure if I would feel comfortable as a member of the new generation of feminism. I wondered whether Gloria Steinem, a prominent 82-year-old American…
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Burnt Rotis, With Love is a bold collection of 54 poems by Prerna Bakshi. The collection deals with powerful themes of poverty, patriarchy, and oppression. Many of the poems focus on issues particular to India—Partition, the caste system, and the specific environment of Indian domestic life—but even these poems have roots in universally recognisable struggles…
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What is the role of a mother? And how does the relationship between a mother and her child shape that child’s life and actions? What makes some children grow up to be like their mothers, while others are motivated to turn away and do something completely different? The new book Things My Mother Taught Me…
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