Spotlight on Research : The Play's the Thing
Dr Clay Djubal, a specialist variety theatre historian, joined AustLit in 2006 to work on the new Australian Popular Theatre subset.

The establishment of the Australian Popular Theatre subset results from a successful funding application to The University of Queensland's internal research infrastructure development program. The project is led by Professor Richard Fotheringham under the auspices of The Australian Drama Studies Centre within the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at UQ.

During the course of research for his PhD thesis, 'What Oh Tonight' (UQ, 2005), Dr Djubal gathered extensive information on Australian-written musical theatre and the pre-1930s variety industry. That data is now being made accessible to AustLit subscribers through the development of the subset. Dr Djubal writes, 'The Australian Popular Theatre subset is designed to provide information on popular culture entertainment history. To date this area has received little analysis, but is increasingly being recognised as a key site for the expression of ideas about Australian people, identities, and behaviour.

'The subset aims to comprehensively map Australian-written popular culture theatre activity from the 1840s through to the current day. At present several thousand individual works have been identified. These comprise such musical theatre genres as: minstrel burlesques, vaudeville turns, revues, revusicals, comic opera and musicals, along with other popular culture forms like comedy routines, sketches and plays. Each record, whenever possible, comprises an abstract, production details and historical notes. An example of the level of detail possible can be seen in Chu Chin Chow, a musical extravaganza by Oscar Asche.'

Also included in the subset are biographical records pertaining to Australian-born or Australian-resident practitioners. Several hundred biographies have been compiled as part of Dr Djubal's research (most of which have not previously existed in the historical record). Three recent inclusions are:

• Nat Phillips (of Stiffy and Mo fame)
• Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre

and

• Sydney-born composer George Clutsam, who carved out a successful career on the London stage with his songs, musical comedies and operas between 1900 and 1942.

New AustLit Records
During June and July 2006, the Content Development Team added:

• 6,646 new works
• 1,509 new agents (individuals and organisations)

In addition to these new records, over 11,000 existing work and agent records have been upgraded and enhanced.

New Head for Literature Board
Dr Imre Salusinszky has been appointed Chair of the Australia Council's Literature Board for a three-year term. Dr Salusinszky has previously been head of the English Department at the University of Newcastle and has lectured at the University of Melbourne and at Yale. Since 2003 he has been the Australian newspaper's New South Wales political reporter and a regular columnist.

Speaking of his appointment Dr Salusinszky said, 'It's an opportunity to advance the promulgation, dissemination and development of Australian literature, something that I have been involved in for 15 years before I returned to full-time journalism with the Australian in 2003. I know the appointment will be regarded as controversial by some, but in an organisation such as this, few things are more valuable than fresh approaches, fresh ideas and new energies.' (Weekend Australian, 17-18 June 2006)

Dr Salusinszky has previously served on the committee of Literature Board (1982-1984). He takes over the role of Chair from Dr Peter Goldsworthy.

Dorothea Mackellar Becomes Subject of New Musical
A new musical on the life of one of Australia's most famous poets, Dorothea Mackellar, will have its world premiere in Tamworth, north-western New South Wales, on 20 October 2006. The musical, written by former ABC radio presenter Bill Gleeson, will be presented by the Tamworth Musical Society (believed to be the oldest amateur company in Australia). According to Gleeson, the musical explores Mackellar's character 'through her wealthy upbringing, her particularly strong opinions of Australia, her deep love of the land and its beauty, and the sadness of her unfulfilled lonely later life.'

Gleeson confesses that writing the melody for Mackellar's much-loved 'My Country' was the most difficult aspect of the work. 'How do you find a melody good enough for one of the best pieces of Australian literature ever written?', he asks. The tune came to him unexpectedly as he was 'driving from Moree to Tamworth late one afternoon just on sunset when the countryside (drought-stricken) went orange in the light. The first four bars came into my head and I raced into the first pub I could find in Bingara to jot it down on a coaster. After 3 drinks I had the whole thing!'

The gala premiere of 'Dorothea' will be attended by Di Morrissey, who lived next door to Mackellar on Sydney's Pittwater as a young child, and by Susan Duncan, author of Salvation Creek. Duncan currently lives in Mackellar's former Pittwater home, 'Tarrangaua'.

Books Alive Commissions New Book
Books Alive has commissioned a new novel from Monica McInerney for its 2006 campaign. McInerney has written Odd One Out, the story of Sylvie who is approaching thirty, back living with her family, and stuck in a rut. Sylvie responds to her brother's offer to re-locate to Melbourne on the condition she takes part in a mysterious treasure hunt. McInerney says the book is about 'a young woman trying to find her place not just in her family, but in the world...' (Books Alive website) Odd One Out is available free when buyers purchase a book listed in the 2006 Good Read Guide.

After last year's Guide drew criticism for its promotion of foreign authors, the 2006 Guide nominates a majority of books by Australian writers. Ranging across fiction, history, popular science, travel, biography, young adult and children's books, the fifty-strong list includes:

• Weapons of Choice : World War 2.1, an historical thriller by John Birmingham
• Rhubarb, by first time novelist Craig Silvey
• What Price Love?, a regency romance by Stephanie Laurens
• A Man's Got to Have a Hobby, a family memoir by William McInnes
• Kids Night In 2, an anthology of children's stories

and

• Does My Head Look Big in This?, a young adult novel by Randa Abdel-Fatteh

The Books Alive campaign runs from 26 July to 31 August. The Good Read Guide is included in the 25 July issue of the Australian Women's Weekly and is also available from libraries, bookshops and public transport hubs.

Dixon Appointed to Sydney Chair
Professor Robert Dixon, currently Professorial Fellow at the School of Australian Studies, University of Queensland, has been appointed Professor of Australian Literature, University of Sydney. Professor Dixon takes the Chair following the retirement of Professor Elizabeth Webby. In his new role, Professor Dixon will join the AustLit Advisory Board.

Professor Dixon's research interests include Australian literature and literary criticism, Australian cultural studies, and colonialism and its culture. He has written Prosthetic Gods : Travel, Representation and Colonial Governance (2001) and co-edited Authority and Influence : Australian Literary Criticism 1950-2000 (2001). Professor Dixon's current projects are an illustrated edition of photographer Frank Hurley's diaries, and the book 'Travelling Mass-Media Circus : The Spectacular Career of Frank Hurley'. These will be published by Melbourne University Press in 2006 and 2007.

Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund Dispensing the Dollars
The Cultural Fund of Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) is ten years old. Established by the Agency to 'provide an infrastructure for the Australian book and journal culture to flourish', the fund has distributed grants totalling $4 million to organisations across the country. From this year, individuals can also be beneficiaries. The increase in revenue from collecting licence fees on behalf of writers, artists and publishers has enabled CAL to direct more money into the Cultural Fund and, in 2004, appointed Susan Hayes as co-ordinator. Her endeavours have resulted in a doubling of the annual grants for 2005-2006 to $750,000.

CAL's chairman, Brian Johns, told the Sydney Morning Herald (28 July 2006) that he hopes the Fund's activities will inspire more corporate sponsorship. 'I like to see our money as a catalyst. We're not interested in propping up institutions or people for years. We're not the literature board, but we fill in the cracks.'

Among those benefiting from the Fund this year are the Centre for Youth Literature's Inside a Dog website, the Walkley Award for Best Non-Fiction Book, the fellowship programme at Varuna and Australian Book Review's new Calibre Prize for essays.

Influential Australians
A panel comprising media presenter Julie McCrossin, journalist Philip Knightley and historian Michael Cathcart has selected a list of the 100 Most Influential Australians. Published in the Bulletin on 4 July, the list nominates a 'top ten' among the 100 names. Included in this higher echelon are J. F. Archibald and Patrick White. Of Archibald, co-founder of the Bulletin, the magazine says, he 'deliberately cultivated an air of mystery, which made it easier for those who succeeded him to bury his memory. Powerful editors are not easy ghosts to live with, and Archibald, in his underhand fashion, harnessed power in a way no editor before or since has done in this country.' Of White, the Bulletin's columnist writes, he 'brought a new continent and its characters into worldview and widened the focus of his successors.'

Others creative writers among the 100 selections are Henry Lawson, Norman Lindsay, Ruth Park, A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson, David Williamson and Tim Winton. Bookseller and publisher George Robertson is also included.

A complete list, with related columns and biographical sketches of all 100 nominees, is available on the Bulletin's website.

ABR Expanding Its Appeal
Responding to popular demand Australian Book Review (ABR) is adding personal advertising to its monthly publication. 'Whether you're after companionship, penpals, or something a little more,' says ABR, 'there's no better way to communicate with like-minded literary souls than our personals column.' Using the London Review of Books as its model, ABR has included some sample personal ads on its website to give readers a taste of what's to come.

In other innovations ABR has begun a free monthly e-newsletter and will soon launch a blogspot. See the ABR home page for details.

• Neil Armfield on discovering that the seats of Ireland's Aer Lingus fleet have the words of the nation's poets woven into the upholstery:
  'Oh to live in a country ... that glories unequivocally in the achievements of its artists.' (Address to the 2006 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. An edited version is published in the Bulletin, 25 July 2006.)



• Dorothy Porter pondering the connection between A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson's 'Waltzing Matilda' and the New Australian nationalism:
  '... is ['Waltzing Matilda'] a song and sentiment completely out of step with the New Australian nationalism? It's not a song about WINNING ... It's a ghost story about rural poverty and crime. It's about a loser.' And yet, Porter notes, it was sung with vigour by some of those present at the December 2005 Cronulla race riots. 'The words meant nothing. The song had degenerated into bluster and belligerence. I wondered what Banjo Paterson would have thought of it.' (2006 Colin Simpson Memorial Lecture. Full text available on the Australian Society of Authors website)



• Imre Salusinszky following the rejection by major Australian publishing houses of a manuscript containing a chapter from Patrick White's The Eye of the Storm:
  'The study of classic Australian literature in universities thrived only during a brief interval – say 1975-90 – sandwiched between cultural snobbery (no Australian belongs in the canon) on one side and cultural studies (there is no canon) on the other ... As former NSW premier Bob Carr has argued in connection with the study of history, the study of literature, too, is a vocational necessity in an information economy where the ability to organise and express complicated ideas is at a premium.' (Weekend Australian, 29-30 July 2006) See This Month's Spotlight for a development of this theme.



• Angela Bennie on the influence of critics:
  'Newspaper critics carry enormous weight: they affect the national experience of art and they have an essential [role] to play in [the] artistic and cultural life of the community. That such enormous power and responsibility rest on the simple notion that their opinion counts is mind-boggling.' (from Crème de la Phlegm : Unforgettable Australian Reviews (2006), quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, 29-30 July 2006)

McDonald's Epic Ballad Wins Miles Franklin
On the eve of his 65th birthday Roger McDonald won his first Miles Franklin Literary Award. McDonald, who has been nominated on four previous occasions, had thought it would be a case of '[f]ive times a bridesmaid never a bride'. He was therefore 'very surprised when I got the "proposal"'. (Canberra Times, 23 June 2006) Responding to the win, McDonald said the best part was that 'it brings a book into the light ... if a book isn't read, it doesn't live; it's like keeping a painting in a dark room.' (Australian, 23 June 2006)

The Miles Franklin judges described The Ballad of Desmond Kale as 'an historical novel in a grand, operatic style, an affectionate and bravura performance by a novelist at the height of his powers ... it echoes a clutch of Great Australian and American Novels, from Moby Dick and Tom Sawyer to His Natural Life and Such Is Life.'

Following the award announcement McDonald has been engaged in the first Miles Franklin winner's touring programme. The programme, supported by Copyright Agency Limited (CAL), enables the winner to tour regional libraries, predominantly in New South Wales and Victoria. During July McDonald visited Darwin, Goulburn, Orange and Wagga Wagga. Early August takes him to Bendigo, Shepparton and Ballarat. McDonald has also found time to celebrate with his local community in Braidwood, southern New South Wales. At a civic event in the town's heritage-listed public library, McDonald told friends and neighbours of his love for Braidwood: 'It's a beautiful town, and reminds me of several of the towns I grew up in.' While acknowledging the hardship that the current drought is inflicting on rural communities, McDonald said, 'I couldn't write without the Australian countryside, walking around the crackly earth ... Drought years are some of the most beautiful years, the land is burnt to its bare bones.' (Canberra Times, 20 July 2006)

McDonald has lived in the Braidwood area since 1980. When his present round of commitments ends he will return to his home to continue work on his next project. McDonald told the Canberra Times (24 June 2006) that he has been doing a lot of background reading: 'That's what I tend to do – I spend about a year kind of like kneading dough, pushing it and punching it and rolling it around to see what shape it reveals and then I start writing.' He will not reveal anything further: 'I can never talk about what I'm going to do, it disappears.'

Emeritus Award to Langford Ginibi
Dr Ruby Langford Ginibi is the Australia Council's Writers Emeritus Award winner for 2005. The $50,000 prize, 'the richest and most established career achievement prize in Australian literature', was presented to Dr Langford Ginibi during the recent Sydney Writers' Festival. Australia Council CEO Jennifer Bott said the award recognised Dr Langford Ginibi's lifelong contribution to Australian literature: 'Over the past thirty years [she] has changed the face of autobiographical writing in Australia. She has used the spark of her own life to deliver a fiery condemnation of many of the injustices of Australian society,' Ms Bott said. 'Anyone who has read Dr Langford Ginibi's groundbreaking Don't Take Your Love to Town can testify to the power of her stories in giving readers insight into the unique experiences of Aboriginal women.' (Australia Council media release, 26 May 2006)

Responding to the announcement, Dr Langford Ginibi said, 'As a proud elder of the Bundjalung nation in northeast NSW, I have spent the past 30 years educating white and multicultural Australia about Aboriginal history, culture and politics. It is an honour to be recognised by this award.' In addition to Don't Take Your Love to Town, Dr Langford Ginibi's other major autobiographical works are My Bundjalung People (1994) and Haunted by the Past (1999). She has also published a poetry and prose collection, Real Deadly (1992).

WA Awards Honour Fine Writing
One hundred and thirty-four books and scripts were submitted for judging in the 2005 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards. The judges said the awards demonstrated that Western Australia 'is blessed with many fine writers'.

Carrie Tiffany added to the clutch of prizes she has received for Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by taking out the Fiction Award. The judges praised her quirky, sardonic and engrossing' style. The Poetry Award was won by Rod Moran's The Paradoxes of Water with the judges describing his poems as 'sharply observed and keenly felt'. Reg Cribb's 'Last Train to Freo' won the Script Award. Cribb's psychological thriller is set in a rail carriage on the Midland to Fremantle train. A tense battle of wits carries the travellers to their 'shocking denouement'.

In the two categories for writing for younger people, the Children's Book Award went to Wendy Binks's Where's Stripey?, the tale of Crikey the emu searching for his lost chick. Judges were impressed by Binks's 'lively text begging to be read aloud' and her 'vivid illustrations'. Kirsty Murray won the Young Adults Award for A Prayer for Blue Delaney. Colm McCabe, the novel's central character, is one of many child migrants sent to Australia from the United Kingdom during the 1950s. Murray weaves significant events and motifs from this era of Australia's history into her story including 'Aboriginal struggles, life on a cattle station, Chinese immigrants ... and the coming of television in Melbourne at the time of the Olympic Games.'

A complete list of winners and shortlisted works is available on the State Library of Western Australia's website.

Inaugural Book Industry Awards
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) this year inaugurated the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) offering prizes in eighteen categories. The Minister for the Arts, the Hon. Senator Rod Kemp, presented the awards on 26 July. Kate Grenville's The Secret River won the top honour as the 2006 Book of the Year and was also awarded the Literary Fiction Book of the Year prize.

Explaining the new awards, APA CEO Maree McCaskill said, 'It was great to see the Australian Book Industry gathering together to celebrate the talent and creativity of its authors, publishers and booksellers. This year, we decided to be adventurous and we created a new ABIA Academy – made up of representatives of 75 booksellers and 75 publishers – who chose the winners of the major awards. We think the system worked brilliantly and we congratulate the winners across all categories.' Other winners include:

• Far from a Still Life: Margaret Olley by Meg Stewart (Biography)
• The Legend of Little Fur by Isobelle Carmody (Younger Children)
• Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah (Older Children)
• The Broken Shore by Peter Temple (General Fiction)

and

• A Man's Got to Have a Hobby by William McInnes (Newcomer)

Individual awards were made to Julie Watts (Pixie O'Harris Award for Services to Children's Literature) and John Marsden (Lloyd O'Neil Award for Services to the Australian Book Industry), and Allen & Unwin was declared the Publisher of the Year.

Thiele Honoured for Lifetime Contribution to Children's Literacy
Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) has awarded its 2006 Children's Language and Literature Award to eminent children's author Colin Thiele. SPA's National Head, Trish Bradd, said the award 'formally acknowledges Colin Thiele's lifetime commitment to the development of children's literacy in Australia and we are honoured to induct him into the Hall of Fame.' Thiele has written over 100 books including such classics as The Sun on the Stubble (1961), Storm Boy (1963) and Magpie Island (1975).

The Award was presented on 26 July during SPA's national conference in Brisbane. Thiele was unable to attend due to failing health and received the honour at his home. He was represented at the award ceremony by his biographer, AustLit team member Dr Stephany Steggall, who spoke about Thiele's life in writing.

SPA also awarded Book of the Year prizes in three categories:

• Young Children – Deborah Niland for Annie's Chair
• Lower Primary – Lisa Shanahan for The Postman's Dog
• Upper Primary – Steven Herrick for Naked Bunyip Dancing

Watermark Fellow Selected
The Watermark Literary Society has awarded its 2006 Fellowship to Barbara Brooks. The Fellowship enables Brooks to undertake an eight-week residency in the Camden Haven on the mid-north coast of New South Wales under the mentorship of Eric Rolls.

Sydney-based Brooks is working on a novel that explores 'the mandala of house, verandah, garden, bush and the way we live in Australia with our backs to the continent, looking out to sea.' She expects the 'dedicated writing time, near the water and outside the city, will be very valuable.'

The Watermark Fellowship is offered biennially to a writer from Australia or New Zealand. In the alternating year, the Society holds the Watermark Literary Muster. Planning for the 2007 Muster is underway. Invitations to attend have already been accepted by Sandy McCutcheon and Graeme Kinross-Smith.

Wilderness Society Honours Environmental Writing
The Wilderness Society has announced its 2006 awards for writers and illustrators who 'best encourage an attitude of caring, wonder and understanding of the natural world' or who 'promote an awareness of environmental issues.' The winner of the fiction prize is Nicole Plüss for Hope Bay. The Wilderness Society's Susanna van Essen describes Hope Bay as 'a moving and thought-provoking novel' whose characters 'require compassion and courage to cope with the unfolding events that confront them.'

Other shortlisted books this year include Janeen Brian and Greg Holfeld's comic story about an invention to combat traffic pollution, The Super Parp-Buster, and Margaret Spurling and Danny Snell's Seadragon Sea, about a young seadragon seeking its way home.

Award winners receive a cast bronze trophy in the form of a platypus. Writers and publishers of winning and shortlisted books each receive a certificate. Instead of prize money the Wilderness Society sells the winning books through its stores, offering increased publicity and potentially heightened sales.

ASA Awards Mentorships
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has awarded twelve mentorships for its 2006-2007 programme. ASA Executive Director Dr Jeremy Fisher reports that 190 applications were received for the mentorships and the quality of candidates was 'extremely high'. Ten writers from the genres of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, young adult and children's writing have been chosen along with two picture book illustrators. The awardees are: Gloria Burnley, Jill Burnside, Karen Cunningham, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Minh Hien, Krissy Kneen, Stu Hatton, Kelly Jones, Vincent Matthews, Anne Naylor, Fiona Palmer and Ann Shenfield.

The successful applicants will work with a mentor of their choice for 20 hours over the next six to twelve months. Mentors will include Judith Lukin-Amundsen, Gary Crew and Delia Falconer.

Maguire Joins Longlist for Inaugural Dylan Thomas Prize
Emily Maguire, the Sydney author of Taming the Beast, is one of thirteen writers longlisted for the inaugural Dylan Thomas Prize. The prize will be awarded 'to the best published writer in English under the age of 30 from anywhere in the world' and the winner will receive £60,000. Maguire is joined on the list by a clutch of English, Welsh and Irish writers, plus one American and one Zimbabwean.

Shortlisted writers will tour schools, colleges and community-based writing groups through Wales and the United States, and organisers hope the Prize will focus the energies and ambitions of young people.

The full longlist and news updates can be viewed on the Dylan Thomas website. The winner will be announced at the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Wales, on 27 October 2006.

Other Recent Award Winners

• Grace Leven Poetry Prize to Alan Gould for The Past Completes Me : Selected Poems 1973-2003
• Helpmann Awards for Performing Arts in Australia, Best Presentation for Children to Richard Tulloch for 'Stella and the Moon Man'

and

• Romance Writers of America RITA Award, Best Traditional Romance to Marion Lennox for Princess of Convenience

White Rejection Creates Storm
In recent months the Australian newspaper conducted an experiment – it submitted chapter three of Patrick White's The Eye of the Storm to a group of Australian publishers and literary agents for assessment. The 'manuscript' was submitted under the title 'The Eye of the Cyclone' by the author Wraith Picket (an anagram of White's name). Ten of the twelve readers rejected the manuscript; none recognised its 'literary genius'. (Weekend Australian, 15-16 July 2006) The experiment, conducted by the Australian's Jennifer Sexton, was similar to that undertaken in 2005 by the Sunday Times in England. The British newspaper submitted the writing of V. S. Naipaul to UK publishers and got a similar response on an eminent writer's abilities to that delivered by Australian publishers.

In the Australian scenario, Pan Macmillan suggested the author attend a writers' workshop while Mary Cunnane recommended a reading of Penguin's The Art of Fiction. Lyn Tranter and Aviva Tuffield emphasised the need for a publishing representative to believe in a work – and neither of them did. At Hudson Publishing, Nicholas Hudson responded, 'What I read left me puzzled ... It was very clever, but I was not compelled to read on.' Hudson later told the Australian that he was being kind in his letter of response: 'I was trying to be polite. I thought it was pretentious fart-arsery. I don't like White.' (The Age's Jason Steger subsequently reported that Pan Macmillan's assessor was a fiction himself. 'Daniel Carlyle' is simply a name used by the publisher when corresponding with authors about their manuscripts.)

Critic Peter Craven thought the whole exercise showed the publishing industry in a dispiriting and disgraceful light. Writing in the Australian several days after Sexton's exposé, Craven was stout in his defence of White and his writing, describing the Nobel Prize winner as 'a colossus of Shakespearean proportions'. (20 July 2006) In Craven's view the writing exhibited in the third chapter of The Eye of the Storm is, self-evidently, 'the work of a significant novelist at the height of his powers, with a masterful command of pace, drama and point of view ... The writing is brilliant through every register.' Craven concluded that the trick at the publishers' expense suggested 'an entrenched philistinism and a quite hapless lack of expertise'.

The experiment prompted Imre Salusinszky to reflect on the 'young commissioning editors' populating Australia's publishing houses. Rather than bemoaning 'some purported decline in modern civilisation that means genius is no longer recognised', Salusinszky turned his sights to the reading curriculum afforded to the editors during their education – they 'have not read [The] Eye of the Storm or sufficient Patrick White to recognise his style.' Broadening his argument, Salusinszky suggested that school and university curricula need to take literature studies 'as far back as Shakespeare' because the 'proper study of Australian literature requires a grounding in European literature'. While not denigrating the presence of cultural studies in today's universities, Salusinszky believes that avenue of investigation should 'come after, not before, an immersion in literary works studied for their own sakes as imaginative structures.' (Weekend Australian, 29-30 July 2006)

Another issue raised by the Australian's experiment is the viability of publishing literary fiction in the current book climate. Shona Martyn, publishing director at HarperCollins, told Jennifer Sexton that those who read the sample chapter 'may well have recognised [the literary talent] but made the decision it was not viable [...] publishing is a business and we are looking at what Australian readers want to buy.' Martyn's opinion reinforces the unease felt by some at the use being made of data derived from the Nielsen BookScan. BookScan is a retail sales monitoring service that collects data from bookshops at 'point of sale'. The information collected can then be used as a commissioning guide and a predictive sales tool by publishers. Bookscan's founder, Michael Webster, thinks BookScan forces publishers 'to see themselves as an industry. It's bringing that cold, hard commercial side to it ... If it's a business, you don't produce a product that nobody wants, and keep producing that product ... We can't force people to read a book because it's worthy or it's good.' (Weekend Australian, 22-23 July 2006)

What then of the future for writers of so-called 'difficult' novels? Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, has his own opinion. Speaking to Richard Aedy on ABC Radio National's Life Matters, Zusak said there is a temptation to make his writing more accessible, 'more like junk food'. With The Book Thief he decided to resist that urge: 'Somebody's going to have to do a little bit of work here, but they'll be rewarded as they go through.' Zusak is encouraging younger readers to understand that 'reading is a tougher thing to do than sitting in front of a PlayStation'. (31 July 2006) His message to audiences in high schools is that reading is not an easy option. It requires work and readers can be educated to expect that.

New Online Review Journal
The British Australian Studies Association (BASA) has launched an online journal, Reviews in Australian Studies. The new journal has a 'multidisciplinary focus, with an interest in reviewing all publications concerning aspects of Australian experience and endeavour. Reviews are academically peer-reviewed.' The current issue of Reviews (available online here, and indexed by AustLit) includes reviews in the fields of History, Environment, Media, Poetry and Migration Studies.

For a comprehensive view of new publications in Australian literature, plus reviews and critical articles, see AustLit's Hot Off the Presses listing.

ABC Short Story Competition
ABC Radio is calling for entries for its short story competition. The competition 'is open to writers from regional Australia ... all stories must be original, previously unpublished and less than 1,000 words in length ... The winning writers will each receive $700. A further 10 runners-up will have their stories published on the ABC website and will receive a $50 ABC Shop gift voucher.' Judges for this year's competition are authors Robert Drewe and Sarah Armstrong, editor/publisher Bruce Sims, and Book Show presenter Ramona Koval.

'The competition is open to Australian residents who live outside the metropolitan areas of the major state and territory capital cities (although residents of Hobart and Darwin are eligible to enter). It opens on Monday 17 July and closes at 5pm AEST on Friday 18 August 2006.' Details on how to enter can be found on ABC Radio's Short Story Project website.

Asialink Residencies
Applications are now open for the next round of Asialink Residencies. Up to ten residencies will be offered in 2007 enabling writers to spend an extended time working in an Asian country. Applications close on 1 September 2006. Full details are available on Asialink's website.

A Live Literary Journal
The South Australian Writers' Centre is developing Animate Quarterly – a live literary journal. Readers of the journal will be invited to meet at a venue in Adelaide to 'to see, hear and smell the journal, all while sitting next to other writerly types with a drink in your hand.'

Submissions of short stories, poems, letters, Agony-Aunt questions, and reviews are invited, as are applications from prospective editors to select readers if the original authors are unable to attend the animated venue. Writers and editors will be paid. Email submissions and expressions of interest to: animatequarterly@yahoo.com.au or write to Animate Quarterly, c/o The SA Writers' Centre, PO Box 43, Adelaide SA 5000.

Share the News
AustLit welcomes news of events, applications and other literary opportunities of interest to the Australian literature, teaching and research communities and the general public. If you have relevant information for inclusion in the AustLit Events Directory please complete the form provided on the Events Submission page on our website.

Les Murray Correspondence
Dr Peter Alexander is currently editing the correspondence of Les Murray in preparation for publication. He would be grateful to hear from anyone with Murray letters or postcards. If you can help, contact Dr Alexander via email at: p.alexander@unsw.edu.au or by mail at: School of English, UNSW, Sydney NSW 2052.

Tracing Isobel Rentoul and Spendthrift
Dr Michael Sharkey is compiling an anthology of war poems by twentieth-century Australian women poets. He is seeking information about the identity of Isobel H. Rentoul, whose poem 'The Big Grey Ship' appeared in the Bulletin on 24 February 1916. (AustLit currently lists four poems by Rentoul, including 'The Big Grey Ship'.)

Dr Sharkey is also interested in any information about a Queensland newspaper or magazine called the Spendthrift. A cutting from a publication with this name is included in the Zora Cross papers in the Fisher Library at the University of Sydney. The cutting features a poem called 'In Action', and the probable date is 1915-1916.

Dr Sharkey can be contacted via email at: msharkey@une.edu.au or by mail at: School of English, Communication & Theatre, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351.

Lisa Bellear (1961-2006)
Lisa Bellear's impact on the lives of Australian people is evident from the range of tributes that followed her sudden death. From the Australia Council and major metropolitan dailies to community newspapers and weblogs, there has been a grateful recognition of Bellear's contribution to Indigenous peoples, the arts, the university sector, and numerous grassroots organisations.

Bellear's creative and personal talents were manifold. A Minjungbul woman, she was a gifted poet, photographer, performer and teacher. She contributed extensively to campaigns such as Sorry Day and the National Day of Healing, and worked with the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Committee. The Koori Mail (19 July 2006), with the approval of Bellear's family, printed a tribute to Bellear from the National Sorry Day Committee. It reads in part: 'She recognised the humanity of all people. Even those she disagreed with, and often defused difficult situations with respect, humour, truth and compassion. She will long be remembered as a powerfully positive force whose wit, warmth and wisdom continue to inspire us to create a better world together.'

At the time of her death Bellear was working towards a PhD at La Trobe University. Her thesis dealt with 'Contemporary Indigenous issues through radio and photographic texts'. Always active on campus, Bellear last year told Agora: The Magazine for La Trobe University Graduates, 'I want to put the issues out there, so there can be no more excuses ... If you don't know, let me refer you to a poem, then go away, think and see if you are prepared to make a change – personal and political.'

Bellear's voice continues to sound in her poetry:
'For the future I release this silenced
voice. For the future I will go beyond
my hidden pain and expose a snap shot
insight into an urban/rural Indigenous
survivor. For the future, if there is to be one,
we must listen, talk and share. For the
future.'
(from 'A Significant Life', in Untreated : Poems by Black Writers, Alice Springs, Northern Territory : Jukurrpa Books, 2001)

Madeleine St John (1941-2006)
Madeleine St John, who left Australia during the 1960s, had a short, but noteworthy, writing career. Her four novels were published in the space of six years from 1993 to 1999. The third book, The Essence of the Thing (1997), was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and forms the middle work in a loose trilogy. It is bookended by A Pure Clear Light (1996) and A Stairway to Paradise (1999). The three novels are set in Notting Hill, London, where St John lived for most of her adult life.

St John's childhood and young adult years were spent in post-war Sydney. She attended Queenwood School for Girls as a boarder and then studied at the University of Sydney. Her contemporaries included Richard Walsh, Germaine Greer, Clive James, Les Murray, Robert Hughes, John Bell and Bruce Beresford. (Beresford is her literary executor.) St John's father, the outspoken Liberal Party politician and barrister Edward St John, would later represent Richard Walsh in the 1964 Australian obscenity trial over the controversial magazine, Oz.

St John suffered from emphysema for over a decade before her death and was virtually a recluse in her Notting Hill Housing Trust flat. She left strict and precise instructions for the conduct of her funeral in a final letter to her vicar, Father Alex Hill. She was adamant that no reference was to be made to her life during the service. According to St John's obituarist, Christopher Potter, Father Hill managed to circumvent her instructions by speaking about her before the service began, 'a sly and witty ploy that [St John] would surely have appreciated'. (Independent, 6 July 2006)

We welcome your feedback on our service, and will work hard to develop content and services to meet your needs. If you have any comments and suggestions, please contact us at:

info-austlit@austlit.edu.au

Or spend two minutes filling out our User Survey form.