Sophie Hardcastle’s memoir Running Like China is not just about shattering the stigmas of mental illness or about providing a safe place for those who may be going through similar issues. Running Like China is also about an artist who finds her true self through the good and the bad times, and who emerges victorious…
Read more
Geraldine Brooks is a genius. Historical biographical fiction is difficult to write at the best of times because of issues with source evidence and conflicting views; Brooks does a superlative job in her latest novel, The Secret Chord, taking inspiration from a historical figure from three thousand years ago. King David’s story of rags to…
Read more
Elizabeth Harrower’s ‘new’ collection of short stories, A Few Days in the Country: And Other Stories, is enchanting. By which I do not mean that it contains magic, or the promises of happy endings. No; Harrower’s writing is pure, unadulterated realism. Her stories occupy the real world, and make an effort to reveal the lives…
Read more
Writing a memoir is a monumental task. And I write that as someone who has never attempted to do so. Consolidating decades of one’s life into a work small enough to be held in one hand seems titanic, especially given the complexity of its primary source: memory. The subtle art of memoir has been beautifully…
Read more
I’m picky when it comes to crime novels. If there isn’t a delightful balance between character, believability and suspense, I’m apt to put the book down and forget about it. Thankfully, Good Money by J.M. Green balances all of these elements. Green is a debut author whose book was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s…
Read more
This review contains some spoilers. Cass Moriarty’s The Promise Seed, which was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards in 2013, delves into the lives of two, at first, very estranged characters: an old man and a young boy. Both grew up in different eras and don’t seem to have anything in common, yet throughout the…
Read more
Not Just Black and White: a conversation between a mother and a daughter is the inspiring and harrowing true story of mother and daughter duo Lesley and Tammy Williams. The novel follows the lives of these two Murri (Aboriginal) women in the form of written conversations between mother and daughter. This puts a light tone…
Read more
When you open a book and it starts with the chronology of an entire country, it can be daunting. I’m not the type to remember dates or places, and when this was followed by a “list of characters in order of appearance” and a glossary, I freaked out a bit. I don’t know anything about…
Read more
This year’s Melbourne Writers Festival kicked off on 21 August with a whole day dedicated especially to discussing women in the media and female writers. One of the events was Women Writing Film, in which Filmme Fatales editor Brodie Lancaster and film critic Rebecca Harkins-Cross discussed the role of women in film, both in front…
Read more
Can you recall the first feminist book you ever read that opened your eyes and had you nodding your head along with every sentence, every idea, every truth? * “‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine,’ growls Godmother of Punk, the girl who just wanted to look like Keith Richards, Patti Smith. With her…
Read more
Earlier this year I was working at the Auckland Writer’s Festival where Helen Macdonald was promoting her critically acclaimed memoir H is for Hawk. So far it’s snapped up both the Costa Book of the Year and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. But as I glimpsed her signing books, at the front of a…
Read more
There’s a very good chance that Harper Lee never meant for you to read this book. This is an important fact to bear in mind when considering cracking the spine of Go Set A Watchman, the “sequel” to Lee’s classic 55-year-old novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. It is a fact that I didn’t know when…
Read more
Belinda McKeon captivatingly examines youth and sexuality in her second novel, set in late ’90s Ireland. Tender focuses on a loving turned obsessive friendship between Catherine and James, recent arrivals to Dublin from their respective rural communities. Catherine is studying English and art history at Trinity College Dublin while James is pursuing his dreams of…
Read more
Katelin Farnsworth’s short story ‘Round’ won Lip’s 2015 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Here is an interview with Katelin, plus her award-winning story! Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? Hi! I’m Katelin and I’m a writer from Melbourne. I’m currently studying Professional Writing & Editing, trying to complete my first novel, and…
Read more
