Culture
Books
A win for the funny people: Australia’s richest writing prize adds new award
The John Clarke Prize for Humour Writing, named for the legendary late comedian, will celebrate Australia’s funniest works from 2025.
- by Meg Watson
Latest
I had a miscarriage, but I couldn’t find the words to tell my mother
My mother’s dominant and exclusive language is Mandarin, a language for which I possess the vocabulary of a 10-year-old native speaker.
- by Jessie Tu
Eight great new reads to soak up in the sunshine
Our reviewers cast their eyes over recently published fiction and non-fiction.
- by Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll
It’s hard to convince Google you’re not dead - just ask Tom Faber
The freelancer was shocked to find that the search engine had conflated him with a dead physicist.
- by David Astle
Plenty of facts, truth, and good stories: New non-fiction releases for your to-read list
There is a host of big non-fiction books appearing in the next couple of months.
- by Nicole Abadee
This spy novel is really not bad, but why was it written?
There’s a feeling of deja vu in William Boyd’s new espionage novel set in Africa during the Cold War.
- by Malcolm Knox
The Blackman family letters paint a picture of a cultural moment
The letters between Charles and Barbara Blackman capture a decade in Australia’s cultural life.
- by Chloe Wolifson
Small but perfectly formed – a new trend in writers festivals
Jane Sullivan finds that you don’t lose anything at small regional literary festivals.
- by Jane Sullivan
Walking a tightrope during Stalin’s reign of terror
The protagonist of Malcolm Knox’s new novel is an old chum of Lavrentiy Beria, one of the most sadistic of Stalin’s colleagues.
- by Daniel Herborn
What to read: A documentary novel about the pandemic, and the joys of trees
Our reviewers cast their eyes over recently published fiction and non-fiction.
- by Cameron Woodhead and Fiona Capp
Escaping the bonds of class and ‘the heterosexual dictatorship’
Christopher Isherwood is best known as the creator of the Berlin stories that were turned into the play, musical and film, Cabaret. But there was more to his life than that.
- by Owen Richardson