The Dictionary of Lost Words

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams The poppies burgeoning from a small wooden suitcase on the cover of Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words (Affirm Press) beguile the reader into this well-told story of words, Oxford, history and the changing role of women. Esme’s mother Lily has died and she is being […]

This Taste for Silence by Amanda O’Callaghan

Brisbane author Amanda O’Callaghan has crafted a thoughtful, darkly-hued work in This Taste for Silence (UQP). This, her debut collection of short stories seems to be set in both Australia and the UK. The cover, with its still-life arrangement of three flying porcelain ducks and a comfortable but empty (apart from a painting) chair in […]

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

Nothing to See Here (Text Publishing) by US author Kevin Wilson of The Family Fang fame (also a movie with Nicole Kidman) is piercing, funny and original. Protagonist Lillian has had a deprived childhood but snared a scholarship at a prestigious school, Iron Mountain, where she became best friends with beautiful, privileged Madison. They are […]

There Was Still Love By Favel Parrett

I treasure Favel Parrett’s debut novel Past the Shallows and have found There Was Still Love (Hachette Australia) to be similarly gemlike and told with shards of pain and love. It explores three generations of a family living in Prague and Melbourne in a fragmentary and episodic style with several points of view. These all […]

Brisbane Writers Festival 2019 Tony Birch, Melina Marchetta & Melanie Cheng

At this year’s Brisbane Writers Festival I was fortunate to moderate the memorable session, People in the Margins. Melina Marchetta, Melanie Cheng and Tony Birch discussed their recent novels The Place on Dalhousie, Room for a Stranger and The White Girl respectively to explore the lives of people living on the margins of society. These […]

Brisbane Writers Festival 2019 ‘Compassion’ with Tim Costello, Eve L Ewing & Ben Hobson

‘This Way Humanity’ was the theme of the Brisbane Writers Festival this year. I was honoured to moderate a session, The Incredible Uplift of Compassion, a subject that embodied the theme. Authors on the panel were the venerable Tim Costello, vivacious Chicago-based Marvel writer Eve L. Ewing and Ben Hobson, Brisbane-based author of two recent […]

Children’s & YA Literature Panel at the SLQ

I was fortunate to be part of the children’s and YA literature panel at the inaugural ‘Share the Vision: Teachers and Librarians Symposium 2019’ at the State Library of Queensland this week. The program and presenters are on the website. The wonderful @RhiannaPatrick from ABC Radio chaired our panel. Here are Rhianna’s questions and some […]

The Aunts’ House by Elizabeth Stead

I am very interested in the work of Elizabeth Stead, niece of Christina Stead who wrote the Australian classic The Man Who Loved Children. I relished Elizabeth’s 2007 novel, The Gospel of Gods and Crocodiles, set on an island that reminded me of somewhere in Papua New Guinea, although the place was unidentified. Elizabeth Stead […]

NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Celebrating 40 years

The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards celebrated 40 years in grand style in the beautiful Mitchell Library Reading Room at the State Library of NSW last night. It was a great celebration of quality, diverse books. Michael Mohammed Ahmed, winner of the Multicultural Award for The Lebs (Hachette) opened with a prayer for the victims of […]

Gravity is the Thing by Jaclyn Moriarty

Gravity is the Thing (Pan Macmillan Australia) is now in a bookshop or street library near you. Anything is possible in a Jaclyn Moriarty novel. You never know where she will take you. Remember the audacious Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie, one of the ‘Ashbury/Brookfield’ books for young adults; the unique, colourful world of the […]