Liz Allan’s story, ‘Our Voices, Fierce’, won the 2018 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Here’s a Q&A with Liz, plus her award-winning story! * Congratulations on winning this year’s RFP for Fiction, Liz! Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? Thank you so much for awarding me this prize and this fantastic opportunity….
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Emily Clements’ story, Post, placed 2nd in the 2018 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. Here’s a Q&A with Emily, plus her award-winning story! * Congratulations on placing 2nd in this year’s RFP for Fiction, Emily! We first met last year when your story, The Glass Half was highly commended in the 2017 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. For…
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Feminism is defined as “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities”. The broad spectrum of feminist ideologies (from radical, Marxist to liberal) have different expressions of this core belief, but they are all fighting to create an egalitarian society. Many branches of feminism also place emphasis on intersectionality, which considers…
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David McAllister’s production of The Sleeping Beauty first premiered in 2015. Although it has made slight changes to content since then, it is still a lavish and extravagant production. As the most expensive production in the company’s history, no cent was wasted to create a stunning set design and exorbitant costumes. The aesthetics of the…
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Walking into the playground, early on in primary school, two of my friends got into fight. There was hair pulling, slapping and screaming. A crowd gathered, cheering them on. “You fucking bitch,” yelled one, using the colourful language we were just starting to learn. “You’re a monkey,” said the other. Watching on, I had never…
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In 1967, literary critic Roland Barthes wrote in his seminal essay The Death of the Author that writing is the destruction of every voice, of every point of origin. Writing is that neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of…
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Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s The Love of a Bad Man begins with tenderness: ‘Baby, wake up,’ he says, and he’s kissing my eyelids, my cheeks, trailing his fingers over the bib of my nightgown and it’s so soft it must be a dream. Woolett’s short-story collection focuses on the lives of twelve women (or in the…
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So Sad Today is a book of personal essays by Melissa Broder, detailing her struggles with addiction, anxiety, panic disorder, relationships and an overwhelming fear of death. The book originated from an anonymous Twitter account of the same name in 2012, tweeting about the human condition in catchy one-sentence bites that were in equal parts…
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“Good daughters hold their tongues, obey their elders and let their families determine their destiny. Rebellious daughters are just the opposite.” Rebellious Daughters is an anthology of essays by Australian female writers that explores rebellion, identity and the familial bond. Editors Maria Katsonis and Lee Kofman have curated a challenging and important collection of pieces….
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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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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. * Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales’ Sydney Writers’ Festival event Our Reading Year was a delightful charm offensive from beginning to end. The two stalwarts of Australian political media had the sold-out crowd barking with laughter within minutes, and their meandering…
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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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