Clik here to view.
The case for Randolph Stow’s To the Islands
A deeply moving novel about loss, grief and an unconventional coming of wisdom.yaruman5Randolph Stow’s To the Islands (1958) is an astonishing novel, a work of poetic skill and political subtlety – and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book reviewing is an art, in its own way
All serious writers should take their own work, and the efforts of others, seriously.photosteve101There should be no hard and fast rules concerning book reviewing. That’s because reviewing constitutes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mozart goes to Bathurst: classical music in regional Australia
Regional tours such as Opera Australia's cross-country circuit with The Magic Flute deliver real benefits to the communities they visit. Albert Comper, Opera AustraliaSince July, Mozart’s popular...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Assertive female sexuality is pathologised time and again
Sharon Stone, in Basic Instinct, dramatised the catastrophic actions of a clever yet unhinged woman. EPA/ Peter FoleyMental illness and women’s sexuality are frequently aligned – on screen and off. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Give and take: the anxiety of gift giving at Christmas
Giving a gift is a complex transaction. So what makes a gift good?MattysFlicks/Flickr, CC BY-SAThe anxiety attached to gift giving is worth considering.The Christian commemoration of Christmas is about...
View ArticleClik here to view.
True Detective, Breaking Bad – the simple truth about complexity
Matthew McConaughey as Rust Cohle and Woody Harrelson as Martin Hart in True Detective.Courtesy of FOXTELNothing is produced in a cultural or social vacuum. All forms of representation intersect and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Brandis effect on regional Australia? Just look at Bathurst
To write off towns outside of Sydney and Melbourne as being bereft of culture is an arrogant falsehood.Briony Osei, Eve Beck and Jack Griffiths in The Bacchae. Photo taken by T J LeeSince Senator...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The JFK assassination and other ‘truths’ lost forever out there
John F Kennedy’s murder in 1963 has spawned countless books, films and conspiracy theories. Wikimedia CommonsThis year marks 25 years since the release of Oliver Stone’s JFK (1991), starring Kevin...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How The Bachelor turns women into misogynists
Channel Ten is currently screening Australia’s fourth series of the reality TV program The Bachelor (2013-), a franchise imported and adapted from the US. The show seems a guilty pleasure for its...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Where are the epic women’s coming of age screen stories?
Films like Mean Girls often show the high school jungle, but they lack the gravitas of films such as Boyhood.Paramount PicturesThere are some astonishing male coming of age films. For instance, Richard...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hanging out with the boys: how bromance often steals the spotlight in The...
Bachelorette Sophie Monk with this year's contestants.Channel TenThe celebrated Australian trait of mateship is very much on display in the third season of Channel 10’s The Bachelorette. But this is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Podcast series Oz Gothic breathes new life into Australian gothic storytelling
South Australian Film CorporationThe gothic developed as a European architectural phenomenon in 12th-century France, where awe-inspiring cathedrals reflected a world drenched in religious piety and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Set in a 19th century Australian leper colony, Eleanor Limprecht’s The Coast...
Sotnikov Misha/ ShutterstockEleanor Limprecht’s new historical novel The Coast recreates a lost world that was once damned to obscurity. Set in a formerly remote coastal area known as Little Bay, just...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How a new art project in Bathurst is embracing the many identities of the town
Kate SmithFor many, Bathurst’s Mount Panorama is exclusively a car racing venue. For Indigenous Australians it is a place called Wahluu, where First Nations women once offered their sons for tribal...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Noir and nostalgia inform Chris Womersley’s tale of forgery, grief, and the...
Kevin Laminto/UnsplashBefore prospective readers can get to the opening chapter of Chris Womersley’s new novel The Diplomat, they will find themselves assailed with several pages listing past awards...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Property woes and punk sensibilities define Paradise Estate, Max Easton’s...
MPIX/ShutterstockMax Easton’s novel Paradise Estate offers a variation on the share-house drama epitomised by Monkey Grip (1977), Helen Garner’s chronicle of communal living in Melbourne.In contrast to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mattel’s new athlete Barbies might seem like a win for feminists and young...
Mattel released a new range of Barbie dolls this week honouring nine trailblazing women in sport. The recognised athletes include Matildas soccer star Mary Fowler, tennis champion Venus Williams and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In No Church in the Wild, Murray Middleton shines a light on conflicts that...
Javier Catano Gonzalez/ShutterstockBefore commencing Murray Middleton’s new novel – the follow-up to his Vogel Award-winning debut When There’s No Where Else to Run (2015) – some readers might be taken...
View Article