TIM WINTON Juice. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Tim Winton’s new novel dives into a post-climate-change world where violence seems the only solution. The opening of Tim Winton’s new novel Juice cannot help but put readers in mind of Cormac McCarthy’s seminal work The Road. A man, possibly an ex-soldier, and a young...
JOCK SERONG Lines to the Horizon: Australian surf writing. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
These six essays provide insights into the world of surfing both as individual passion and national symbol. In his introduction to this collection of Australian surf writing, Jock Serong asks whether surfing is a sport or a culture. It is estimated there are between...
TIM WINTON The Shepherd’s Hut. Reviewed By Tom Patterson
The Shepherd‘s Hut is more than a novel: it has the shape and pattern of a very Australian, very modern, epic. Tim Winton can be hard on his characters. He drowned the Lambs’ favourite son, then only half gave him back. He sent Scully on a chase through Europe...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on the short story story
As an undergraduate I wrote self-regarding verses (I can’t dignify them as poems), which I submitted to student magazine editors who rightly rejected them. As a postgraduate I tried writing short stories. They were derivative of Hemingway and Maugham and were also...
KAREN LAMB Thea Astley: Inventing her own weather. Reviewed by Suzanne Marks
The first full biography of Australian writer Thea Astley is a rollicking read that reveals a complex maverick who pushed against both the limits of her time and her own doubts. ‘There was never a time when multi-award-winning Australian novelist Thea Astley was...
IAN SHADWELL Slush Pile. Reviewed by Linda Funnell
This cautionary tale takes aim at the literary life. ‘I am not a normal person. I am a writer,’ declares Michael Ardenne, the antihero of Ian Shadwell’s takedown of literary narcissism. Michael is a prodigy, having won the Booker Prize for his first novel before he...The NRB 2013 Boxing Day Quiz: QUESTIONS
Here’s a quiz, just for fun. Sport in Australian literature – not much, but some. How well do you know it? (Answers will be posted separately.) Questions 1 What is the title of Nicole Hayes’s young adult novel about AFL? 2 What is the title of Malcolm...The Godfather: Peter Corris’s top ten writing tips
Having never taught creative writing and having avoided writing workshops, mentoring and such things, I’ve always been reluctant to give writing tips. Over the years I’ve trotted out the same pat answer: Imitate the manner of the writer you most admire, using your own...
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