Peter Carey – Still Not Fussed

What the papers are saying today about books

Books July 25, 2015

“The women who led us so magnificently into our own modernist age in Australian literature are lost to time,” argues Natascha Robinson in The Australian. And this means that fine authors like Eleanor Dark, Stella Miles Franklin, Katherine Prichard and Rosa Praed are under-appreciated, if known at all. Read the full article.

Steve Romei argues that Peter Carey “under appreciated” Amnesia may be Australia’s best hope for the upcoming Man Booker Prize long list. And he’s got some tips on who else might be there.

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Book or Kindle? There’s no method in the madness

Books May 16, 2015

When to Kindle and when not to Kindle, that is still the question. In a touching article in the New York Times recently, Nick Bilton wrote about how, after the death of his mother, he found he was “bound in spirit and print” to her through her love of books. “She spoke passionately about being able to smell the pages of a print book as you read, to feel the edges of a hardcover in your hands,” Bilton wrote. “And that the notes left inside by the previous reader (often my mother) could pause time.” He describes how she gathered a library of more than 3,000 books and scoffed at his embrace of the Kindle.

That was me, not all that long ago. Books were king. However, after a

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Queensland brings back public funding for state literary award

Books May 13, 2015

The premier of Queensland, Australia, has announced she will bring back public funding for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards which had been cancelled by her predecessor and former premier Campbell Newman in in 2012. Annastacia Palasczcuk committed $125,000 to match public

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Counting the days to Sydney Writers Festival

Books May 11, 2015

As with travel, a great deal of the pleasure of book festivals lies in the planning. Hours can be whiled away pouring over brochures or web sites, drawing up timelines and bemoaning a clash of favorites. And as the almost final decisions take place there is that delightful frisson of anticipated pleasure followed by a flurry of preparatory reading.

Sydney Writers Festival, which kicks off next week, has grown from a rather modest, largely parochial affair, to a weeklong extravaganza with such variety of offerings that have earned it an international reputation. Although there are sessions spread around the city the main venue is the Walsh Bay precinct with its awesome outlook over Sydney Harbour. There is a constellation of internationally recognised guests from Australia and

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Shortlist for Australia’s NSW Premier’s Literary Award announced

Books May 3, 2015

Peter Carey, Joan London, David Malouf and Favel Parrett are among the ten authors who are in the running for the top prize in the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards in Australia. The full list is: Amnesia by Peter Carey (Hamish Hamilton) Golden Boys by Sonya Harnett (Hamish Hamilton)…

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2015 Australian Book Industry Awards finalists announced

Books April 13, 2015

Australian literary heavyweights Joan London, Liane Moriarty, Peter Carey and Helen Garner are all included in the shortlists for the 2015 Australian Book Industry Association awards announced today. There are 11 categories this year including two new ones specifically targeting small publishers.

The full list is:

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Ricard Flanagan wins Man Booker Prize with The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Books October 14, 2014

Richard Flanagan has won the Man Booker Prize 2014 with his book The Narrow Road to the Deep North which was described by the chair of the judges, philosopher AC Grayling, as “an absolutely superb novel, a really outstanding work of literature”. “It is not really a war novel,” Grayling said. “It…

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Can you actually teach someone to write or is it a question of talent?

Books February 23, 2014

Is creative writing a natural talent or can it be taught? Other artistic endeavours, such as painting, dance and film-making are all available at universities or colleges of further education resulting in qualifications like bachelor of fine arts or bachelor of visual arts. Aushor and teacher Tegan Bennett Daylight considers the rise of the creative writing class in an article in the books section of the current The Weekend Australian.

She says that one of the most common problems emerging from the creative writing program is a “kind of flatness; a sameness that results in what American poet Donald Hall called McPoems and McStories.” With a good teacher, she says, that’s easily tackled. “A good teacher of writing won’t congratulate (the) student on his fluency, although she rewards him with decent marks for competency with the language. A good teacher should

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Byron Bay Writers’ Festival

Books July 4, 2013

You know you’ve got the makings of a good Writers’ Festival when you realise that you aren’t going to be able to fit in all the sessions you want to attend. Byron Bay Writers’ Festival is taking place in the specially erected ocean-side tent compound from Friday 2nd August to Sunday…

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