The Book Thief, the 2005 novel by Sydney based Australian author Markus Zusak, is Australia’s entry in the inaugural Eurovision book contest. Yes, you read that right. The Eurovision book contest, which is an initiative of the annual Hay Festival, a literary festival held in Hay- … | Continue reading
Short-form video hosting service TikTok certainly has its nay-sayers. Security analysts believe the app may be compromising the privacy of users, while lawmakers in some countries are considering banning it. But the news isn’t all bad: TikTok appears to be behind a recent surge i … | Continue reading
A recent poll of just over two hundred Australian Society of Authors (ASA) members reveals local authors and illustrators are concerned generative AI technologies pose a threat to their livelihoods. This despite about twenty percent of poll participants stating they made use of A … | Continue reading
Katerina Gibson, George Haddad, and Jay Carmichael, have been named the Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists for 2023. The prize is presented annually for Australian writers under the age of thirty-five, each of whom will receive five thousand dollars. Melbourne … | Continue reading
In 1993 Brisbane based Australian author Helen Demidenko wrote her debut novel, The Hand that Signed the Paper. The work, which was labelled faction, being a story that blends fact and fiction, depicted a Ukrainian family who collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World Wa … | Continue reading
Guess What?, a children’s book written in 1988 by Adelaide, South Australia, based Australian author Mem Fox, has reportedly been removed from school libraries in the US state of Florida. An image of a character — drawn by illustrator Vivienne Goodman — taking a bath, apparently … | Continue reading
Klara and the Sun, the 2021 novel by British author Kazuo Ishiguro, is being brought to the big screen by New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi. While all parties are yet to sign on the dotted line, it’s looking pretty certain, according to Justin Kroll, writing for Deadline: Sourc … | Continue reading
The 2023 Miles Franklin longlist was unveiled yesterday. Considered to be one of Australia’s most prestigious literary awards, the Miles Franklin honours works of fiction by Australian writers, and is made up of the following eleven titles: Hopeless Kingdom by Kgshak Akec Limberl … | Continue reading
Image courtesy of Michal Jarmoluk. The popular, long running, Star trek science-fiction franchise, thanks to its creator Gene Roddenberry, has given us a lot. There are fantastic starships — all shapes and sizes — capable of traversing the galaxy in a flash. There’s the USS Enter … | Continue reading
Earlier today the 2023 WA Premier’s Book Awards shortlists were published. The WA Premier’s Book Awards recognise the work of writers in Western Australia, in the same way the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, honour authors in those Aust … | Continue reading
Canberra based Australian translator and author Theodore Ell, and Melbourne based writer Harry Reid, have been named joint winners of the 2022 Anne Elder Award. Established in 1977, the award is named for late Australian poet, and former Borovansky Ballet dancer, Anne Elder, who … | Continue reading
Melbourne based Australian author Grace Chan’s debut novel Every Version of You, has been optioned for film. Cognito Entertainment, a new Los Angeles based film production company, whose goal is to bring weird science to life through story, will oversee the book to screen adaptat … | Continue reading
Still from Asteroid City, directed by Wes Anderson. The full program of the 2023 Sydney Film Festival was published earlier today, and the news is especially good for fans of American filmmaker Wes Anderson. His new film, Asteroid City, will have its Australian premiere on Thursd … | Continue reading
Australian authors Lisa Berryman and Tim Winton were yesterday admitted to the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) Hall of Fame, for their decades of contribution to Australian literature. Berryman was recognised with the Pixie O’Harris Award for her work as a publisher of ch … | Continue reading
The Pulitzer Prize, which recognises excellence by American writers, be they journalists, magazine writers, and book authors, announced its 2023 recipients, early this morning, Australian time, with Barbara Kingsolver, and Hernan Diaz being named winners in the fiction category: … | Continue reading
When people started working from home during the COVID pandemic, large numbers of office buildings fell vacant, and many remain that way. So why not convert these once commercial spaces into residential accommodation, and put a roof over the head of homeless people? At first glan … | Continue reading
Another school drama show is making a comeback. British TV series Grange Hill, which was set at a comprehensive school in London, and originally screened between 1978 and 2008, is set to return. The Grange Hill revival follows the 2022 reboot of Australian high-school drama serie … | Continue reading
Australian author Gabrielle Carey, who co-wrote the controversial though iconic novel Puberty Blues, with Kathy Lette, died this week in Sydney. Set in the southern suburbs of Sydney, Puberty Blues polarised readers with its no holds barred depictions of the antics, and sexuality … | Continue reading
The Eight Mountains, trailer, is one movie I’m looking forward to seeing, since I couldn’t get enough of Italian author Paolo Cognetti’s 2016 novel of the same name, when I read it. The story traces the lives of two boys, Pietro, and Bruno, from the time they first meet in the Ao … | Continue reading
Gadigal/Sydney residing artist Julia Gutman has been named winner of the 2023 Archibald Prize, for her painting of Australian musician Montaigne. Awarded annually, the Archibald celebrates the finest works of Australian portraiture. In other presentations, Zaachariaha Fielding to … | Continue reading
The Age Book of the Year prize 2023 winners were announced this evening, at the opening of the 2023 Melbourne Writers Festival. The award, presented annually, is made in two categories for Australian writing: fiction and non-fiction. Limberlost, by Tasmanian author Robbie Arnott … | Continue reading
Generation Z has an identity crisis. People aged between about ten and twenty-six say they struggle to define who they are. Other demographics, I dare say, would have no such trouble. But, according to recent research carried out by in Australia by Snapchat, zoomers, as Generatio … | Continue reading
The Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG) has issued a statement of support for the strike action presently being taken by Writers Guild of America (WGA) members. The AWG has asked its members to refrain from having any involvement with active projects within the WGA’s jurisdiction: Wi … | Continue reading
Some late news to hand, Jarad Bruinstroop has been named winner of the 2023 Val Vallis Award for unpublished Australian poetry, with a poem titled Fragments on the Myth of Cy Twombly. Bruinstroop’s debut collection of poetry, Reliefs, is due to be published by the University of Q … | Continue reading
The Wife and the Widow by Christian White, and The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, are among Australian titles I’ve read that make the 2023 Better Reading Top 100 list. Other books by authors outside of Australia I’ve finished, include Normal People by Sally Rooney, and … | Continue reading
Image courtesy of SanderSmit. I was pleased to see the back of my (admittedly modest) collection of vinyl records a decade or two ago. I was not a fan of the format. The records (and their covers) needed to be handled with great care, the vinyl seemed to scratch all too easily, a … | Continue reading
Here’s a coincidence, just days after I saw Taxi, also known as Tehran Taxi, a film made in 2015 by Jafar Panahi, news comes through that a travel ban placed on the Iranian filmmaker fourteen years ago has been lifted. His travel ban was first imposed in 2009, after his attendanc … | Continue reading
Earlier this year we saw what might have happened had Star Wars creator George Lucas made 2001: A Space Odyssey. But instead of asking what might have happened had Stanley Kubrick made a Star Wars film, what about imagining Wes Anderson doing so instead? Well, imagine no more. So … | Continue reading
America is the land of hope and glory. According to legend, it’s the place to make a new start in life. And, more importantly perhaps, is also home to Disneyworld. The prospect of visiting the entertainment complex is an enticement Lucia (Martha Reyes Arias) has offered her young … | Continue reading
It’s been a good couple of years for poetry at the Stella Prize. And for the University of Queensland Press (UQP). This evening Queensland born Australian author Sarah Holland-Batt was named winner of the 2023 award, with her collection of poetry, The Jaguar, published by UQP, in … | Continue reading
Cairns, Queensland, based Australian artist Andrea Huelin, has been named winner of the 2023 Archibald Packing Room Prize, with her portrait of New Zealand comedian Cal Wilson, titled Clown Jewels. In addition, fifty-seven works were selected as finalists for the 2023 Archibald P … | Continue reading
The American Library Association (ALA) has published a list of the top ten books subject to some sort of challenge, based on their content, or subject matter, in the last twelve months. While the majority of challenges related to books written by, or about, people of colour, and … | Continue reading
A recent survey conducted by British book industry magazine The Bookseller, found a little over half of first time authors did not finding the publishing experience positive: Among the majority who said they had a negative experience of debut publication, anxiety, stress, depress … | Continue reading
Jenny Brown Associates, a literary agency based in Edinburgh, Scotland, announced the launch of a literary prize for emerging authors aged fifty and over, the Debut Writers Over 50 award, at this year’s London Book Fair. Speaking at the event, which was held last week, agency ass … | Continue reading
Image courtesy of Enrique Meseguer. Too Long; Didn’t Read: Glitchcore is a type of electronic music that features noisy digital artefacts including distortion, static, crackle, interference, and other warning sounds that means something’s not right. But there’s nothing wrong with … | Continue reading
It’s been a busy several days for literary awards. Since last Friday, shortlists for The Age Book of the Year, the International Booker Prize, and the Australian Book Industry Awards, have been published. And to cap off the week, the 2023 BookPeople Book of Year shortlist was ann … | Continue reading
A sleepover in a bookshop, especially one that is reputed to be haunted, sounds like a fun way for bookworms to spend the night. That’s what happened recently at the Last Bookstore in Los Angeles, when the bookshop made fourteen sleepover spots available every night for two weeks … | Continue reading
Libraries are more than somewhere to go to merely read, or borrow, a book. They’re often places were people study, work, and, to a degree, socialise. In short, libraries are community hubs. But the idea that libraries could be expanded upon — subject to certain caveats — to offer … | Continue reading
Cold Enough for Snow, by Melbourne based Australian author Jessica Au, is a heart-warming story of a young woman and her mother, who holiday in Japan together. A young woman has arranged a holiday with her mother in Japan. They travel by train, visit galleries and churches chosen … | Continue reading
Another day, another literary award shortlist announcement, this time it’s the 2023 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) shortlists. All up, seventy-one books have been shortlisted across fourteen categories, including Audiobook of the Year, Biography Book of the Year, several … | Continue reading
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, book cover. The 2023 International Booker Prize shortlist was announced earlier this evening (east coast of Australia time) at the London Book Fair, and includes these six titles: Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated from Catalan by Julia Sanches … | Continue reading
Paper, or physical, books are by no means relics of a bygone era, if sales thereof in the UK last year are anything to go by. Six hundred and sixty nine million books were purchased in 2022. Against a population of sixty seven million people, that equates to about ten books per p … | Continue reading
It’s not being remade, but it is being re-released. Whether you’re ready or not. The Big Lebowski, trailer, the slapstick comedy crime caper by American filmmaking auteurs, Joel and Ethan Coen, is having a special theatrical re-run in some parts of the world this week. The move m … | Continue reading
The Age Book of the Year awards 2023 shortlists were announced this afternoon. The awards are split into two sections, one for fiction, and the other for non-fiction. The shortlisted titles for the fiction award are: Limberlost by Robbie Arnott Every Version of You by Grace Chan … | Continue reading
Brisbane based Australian photographer Glenn Homann has been named the 2022 Grand Prize winner in the twelfth annual Mobile Photography Awards, with a portrait titled “Old Mate”. Glenn Homann’s mobile photography is remarkable on so many levels. He takes us with him through a bro … | Continue reading
The Harry Potter stories are being rebooted — already — this time in the form of a television series, that will play out over a decade, says an announcement from producers of the show, Warner Bros Discovery: “The series will feature a new cast to lead a new generation of fandom, … | Continue reading
Katherine Day writing for The Conversation: “The entire industry is based on hunches,” says literary agent Martin Shaw, who was head book buyer at Readings for 20 years before he became an agent. “More than half the books you publish either lose money or don’t make money. And tha … | Continue reading
The latest feature from Kurzgesagt, those veritable video virtuosos of educational storytelling, explores the possibility of Earth being invaded by an advanced extra-terrestrial civilisation. While Kurzgesagt stresses much of what they present here is speculative, some of the poi … | Continue reading