Debating the utility and function of book reviews—especially the reviews in The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian—is a near constant presence in the contemporary Australian publishing field. These debates typically centre around three distinct themes: reviewers should not review the books that their friends wrote; who is the reviewer writing for (is it … Continue reading Unfortunately, Book Reviews Actually Matter
Melbourne is known as a City of Literature. The city hosts north of fifty writers festivals, with new ones cropping up every year. Melbourne is home to a plethora of literary journals and Indie bookstores. Writing competitions have become a sport for those who would rather flex a biro than a bicep. These opportunities provide a springboard for locals to expose their work – a tapestry of tales that enrich the nation.
By David McVey Libraries. We all love them. You can read books, consult books, borrow books or simply breathe in the atmosphere of books. You can work, study, research, use the wifi and, these days, relax in the café. What would we do without them? Much has been written, and rightly so, about the vital … Continue reading Working in the Library
This article almost didn’t happen. The initial brief was simple: write a story about an issue affecting young people. My mind swam with ideas—the housing market, climate change, an acquaintance of mine who recently joined a cult. Yet every time I sat down to write, I couldn’t. I would sit and stare, then despair, and … Continue reading Like Drawing Blood: Writing in 2019
Pagan Malcolm has always dreamed of becoming an author – she began writing when she was just five years old, and even handwrote and illustrated a twenty-page story in year four, convinced that it would be her debut. ‘[It] was a blatant rip off of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ she admits in retrospect. But … Continue reading Why marketing is essential to your writing career: With Pagan Malcolm
A writer friend who’d begun teaching her craft at a university once advised me that, with my experience, I could teach ‘editing’, pronouncing this word as if naming Milo Yiannopoulos. Because that’s a subject close to my heart (editing, not Yiannopoulos), I was miffed at her acid tone. But typically, my response came to me … Continue reading Shakespeare had some help: editing and the myth of the solitary genius writer
Social media is a small numbers game: 280-character tweets, 15-second Instagram stories, 10-second snapchats. Generally speaking, if you were looking for 7,000-word longform, feminist fiction – social media is not the place to find it. Well, that was until a simple story about bad sex and imaginary cats surfaced the web last year. Published … Continue reading Millennial Feminist Writing in #MeToo Literature
