Women Writers Feature in Australia Day Honours
Five women represented the writing community in this year's Australia Day Honours. Historian Inga Clendinnen became a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for 'service to scholarship as a writer and historian addressing issues of fundamental concern to Australian society and for contributing to shaping public debate on conflicting contemporary issues.' The AC is awarded for 'eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or to humanity at large.'

Doris Pilkington and Eleanor Spence each became Members of the Order of Australia (AM). Spence was recognised for her contribution to children's literature and her support for people with autism. More than ten of Spence's books have been honoured in the Children's Book Council of Australia awards across four successive decades from the 1960s to the 1990s. One of those books, The October Child, deals with a family struggling to adapt to life with an autistic child. The other AM conferee, Doris Pilkington, told Tony Stephens (Sydney Morning Herald, 26 January 2006) she initially wondered whether to accept the offer of the award, given the association of the Honours with white settlement in Australia. On reflection, Pilkington thought '"Hey, you've made it." And it wasn't just my honour, but it was for my mother, Molly [Craig], and all the other women who were taken away, had their children taken away.' Pilkington's moving account of her mother's separation from her family, and her attempts to re-join them, is told in Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence.

The Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) was presented to both Jill Hellyer and Hilarie Lindsay. The two women were recognised for their own writing and for their contributions to writers' associations – Hellyer with the The Australian Society of Authors and Lindsay with the Fellowship of Australian Writers (NSW) and the Society of Women Writers (NSW).

Local Publishing House Sold to Time Warner Books
Australian publisher, Lothian, has recently been acquired by the international publishing house, Time Warner Book Group. In a timely concurrence Time Warner was seeking a base in the Australian market just as Lothian's managing editor, Peter Lothian, was seeking a buyer.

Ursula Mackenzie, chief executive of Time Warner (UK), said: 'This is a fantastic opportunity to gain a publishing presence in such a significant market.' (Lothian website) Peter Lothian believes the deal is beneficial to all concerned. He told Jason Steger (Age, 26 December 2005): 'When you're in a family business the options faced are pretty obvious. My children don't want to be in it and this is a good solution for staff – an opportunity to progress with a larger outfit – and shareholders. And it's a good outcome for Australian publishing. Time Warner will be a player so it's good for authors and publishers.'

Lothian began business in Australia in August 1888 when John Lothian started a book distribution outlet in Melbourne. Its publishing era began under the direction of Thomas Carlyle Lothian with the publication of Bernard O'Dowd's The Silent Land and Other Verses. This slim volume was followed by further selections of poetry from O'Dowd and other colonial poets such as E. J. Brady and John Le Gay Brereton (Jnr), and reprints of Adam Lindsay Gordon books. In later decades Lothian was well known for its publication of children's and young adult fiction.

The acquisition of the Melbourne publisher by Time Warner will see the Lothian name continue as an imprint of the larger conglomerate. Other Time Warner imprints include Little Brown, Virago Press (women's writing), Orbit (science fiction and fantasy) and Atom (young adult fiction).

Australia and Japan Celebrate Friendship and Cooperation with Dramatic Australia Festival
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Australia and Japan. To celebrate the milestone the two countries are embarking on a 'Year of Exchange' to further enhance the bilateral relationship. Events across a range of cultural, scientific, business and sporting endeavours will be held in both countries. In Tokyo, Yoshio Wada, director of Japan's Rukutendan Theatre, will host the Dramatic Australia Festival from 12 September to 9 October 2006.

Wada is working with an organising committee that includes Robyn Archer and Aubrey Mellor among its Australian representatives. Mellor is strongly committed to the Festival and has already planned some National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) classes to be run through the Australian Embassy in Japan. He is also providing technical assistance to the Festival. Mellor believes the growth opportunities for writers in taking their work overseas are enormously beneficial. They 'begin to see their work very differently, given that amount of respect from another culture.' (Sydney Morning Herald, 12 December 2005)

Several works are already confirmed for production. These include Wesley Enoch's latest play, 'Cookie's Table'. Enoch, the recently appointed associate artistic director of Sydney's Company B, developed the play during a 2002 residency in Paris and it was featured at the 2005 Australian National Playwrights' Conference. 'Cookie's Table' revolves around an argument over who should inherit a family heirloom. Other definite starters for the Festival are:

• Ruby Moon by Matt Cameron
• Cosi by Louis Nowra
• Milo's Wake by Margery Forde and Michael Forde
• Love Child by Joanna Murray-Smith

and

• The Return by Reg Cribb

Each of the plays has been translated into, and will be performed in, Japanese. Updates on the programme can be found at either the Festival's Japan-based website or the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

ABC Radio National Expands Commitment to Books and Writing
On 23 January 2006 Ramona Koval began broadcasting The Book Show on ABC Radio National. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Koval said: 'There'll be two major book interviews a week, but there are other conversations we can have about publishing, song lyrics, editing, book groups, screen-writing, blogging – anything to do with the written word.' (19 December 2005)

The 40-minute programme airs on weekdays at 10.00am. A cut-down version is replayed on Sunday evenings at 7.10pm.

First Volume of Gilmore's Collected Verse Launched
Poet Rodney Hall has launched the first volume of the planned two-volume work, The Collected Verse of Mary Gilmore. The launch marks the publication of the seventh title in The Academy Editions of Australian Literature series. Speaking at the Wagga Wagga City Library in October 2005, Hall reflected on meeting Mary Gilmore in the late 1950s. Although she was into her nineties at the time, Gilmore's lifelong engagement with political life was still evident. Five hundred of Gilmore's previously uncollected poems are available in this scholarly edition, each accompanied by an annotation and textual history. As Hall remarked, '[h]ere's everything you need to know about her verse.'

Academy Editions will publish Australian Plays for the Colonial Stage 1834-1899, edited by Richard Fotheringham, in February 2006. This will be followed later in the year by a new edition of Rolf Boldrewood's Robbery Under Arms. The second volume of Mary Gilmore's poems is due to be published in 2007.

Coetzee Launches New Journal
J. M. Coetzee recently launched the new literary magazine, Wet Ink, in Adelaide. Coetzee, a visiting fellow at the University of Adelaide, pointed out that no one has ever made fame or fortune through such a venture. 'We are gathered here' he said, 'to witness a brave act, the launch of a new magazine of the arts'. (Advertiser, 10 December 2005) A community-based publication, Wet Ink will appear quarterly. It features short stories, poetry, photography and interviews and will sell for $14.95. More information is available on the Wet Ink website.

Potter Magic Reignites Novel Interest
News that 'Harry Potter' heart-throb Daniel Radcliffe is starring in the film adaptation of Michael Noonan's The December Boys has sent international publishers racing for their cheque books. The University of Queensland Press (UQP) reported strong interest in the overseas rights to Noonan's young adult novel at the October 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair. Publishing deals for the novel are being negotiated, and in some cases have been finalised, for Germany, Japan, Brazil, Canada, the USA and the UK and Israel.

New interest in the novel shot copyright concerns to the forefront. For several months during 2005 there was confusion as to who owned the copyright to the book following Noonan's death in 2000. UQP printed a reissue while unaware that it no longer owned the copyright. The matter has now been resolved – copyright lies with Noonan's widow, Jan Pearce – and UQP will be releasing a new edition of The December Boys in March 2006 as well as a film tie-in towards the end of the year.

Filming of the movie was completed in South Australia in December 2005. The film is due for release in late 2006.

Brooks's March Selected for UK Book Show
Geraldine Brooks's 2005 novel, March, is one of ten featured books for British television Channel 4's 2006 Richard and Judy Book Club. The Book Club, similar to Oprah Winfrey's USA-based club, is hosted by talk show celebrities Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. Each Wednesday for a ten-week period a new book is discussed and ideas provided for reading groups. The programme's website also provides online reading notes.

According to Susan Wyndham (Sydney Morning Herald, 22-23 December 2005) selection for the Book Show can generate 100,000 additional book sales.

• Aviva Tuffield, deputy editor of Australian Book Review and a freelance literary journalist and reviewer, on the withdrawal of large multinational publishers from the literary fiction market and the entry of smaller, local publishers:
  'Perhaps we should declare a temporary ceasefire; encourage and celebrate those new publishers of fiction, in part because of their small print runs; and, as book-buyers and readers, go forth and discover some great Australian novels from this year's crop. Believe me, they're out there.' ('Small, but Perfectly Formed', Age, 21 January 2006)



• Michael Campbell, newly appointed director of the Brisbane Writers Festival, on the cultural contribution of writers:
  'I firmly believe that writers are the chroniclers of our times. They talk of our hopes and aspirations, record and comment on the life we live – in essence, they write our stories. And I am constantly revitalised by the extraordinary communication that happens on the page, when the distillation of experience, captured in words, is passed from author to reader.' ('Message from the New Director', Brisbane Writers' Festival website, 16 January 2006)



• Peter Craven, literary critic, on the paucity of excellence in current Australian television drama:
  'Are we such a nation of cultural losers that we don't realise we have a literature that at every level from the classical to the commercial and popular could fuel our TV drama?' ('Drama We're Overdue', Sydney Morning Herald, 28-29 January 2006)

Australians Dominate Commonwealth Writers' Regional Award
Australian writers flooded the shortlists for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the South East Asia South Pacific Region categories. Nine of the ten nominees for Best Book were Australians, as were seven of the ten shortlisted writers in the Best First Book Category. The eventual winner of the Best Book was Kate Grenville for The Secret River; the Best First Book went to Malaysian writer Tash Aw for The Harmony Silk Factory.

Commending The Secret River, the judges said: 'The novel is almost majestic in its movement with the narrative moving inevitably towards the secret of the river (hence its title), the secret of Aboriginal massacre that haunts the lives of the settlers ... Kate Grenville writes a well-balanced story, neither hysterical nor evasive, but sympathetic and revealing. There is remarkable wisdom here, wisdom that seeps through every page of this outstanding novel.' ( Commonwealth Foundation news release, 30 January 2006)

A full list of shortlisted works from all regions is available in the news section of the Commonwealth Foundation's website. The overall winners of the 20th Commonwealth Writers' Prize will be announced in Melbourne on 14 March 2006 as part of the Cultural Festival being held in conjunction with the Commonwealth Games.

ACT Literature Awards Announced
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Chief Minister and Minister for the Arts, John Stanhope, presided over the December 2005 announcement of the ACT Book of the Year and ACT Poetry Awards. The judges declared Tony Kevin's A Certain Maritime Incident the winner of the Book of the Year prize, saying it was 'passionate and daring'. Kevin's book investigates the circumstances surrounding the 2001 sinking of an Australia-bound boat carrying 353 asylum seekers.

Several new categories were inaugurated in the Poetry Awards. Instead of a single poetry winner there are now four categories named after some of the ACT's most revered literary identities. Awards for published and unpublished poems and poetry collections by both Australian and ACT poets honour the names of Rosemary Dobson, David Campbell, Judith Wright and Alec Bolton. Joint winners of the Judith Wright Award for a published collection by an Australian poet were Joanne Burns for Footnotes of a Hammock and Sarah Day for The Ship.

Feathered Wisdom Wins Prize for Emma Jones
New South Wales poet, Emma Jones whose poem 'Zoos for the Dead' won the 2005 Newcastle Poetry Prize, says she was inspired by a newspaper story about a parrot. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald's Steve Meacham, Jones told of reading of the parrot that was 'the last living being to know the words of this indigenous Australian language.' Jones used the idea to explore 'the problem of being a white Australian and feeling an intense guilt about these things, but not really having the right to speak about it.' (30 December 2005)

The Newcastle Poetry Prize was judged by Judith Beveridge and Judy Johnson. In awarding Jones's poem they said, '"Zoos for the Dead" is quite unlike any other poem either of us have encountered in terms of its ambition and scope ... This poem both leaps off the page and draws the reader in to sink in its waters, waters "thick with currents of birds moving with fish". We felt there was a true grandeur and courageous consciousness behind this multi-layered poem.' (The University of Newcastle media release, 25 November 2005)

Jones's poem, together with other winning and shortlisted poems, appears in Sunweight : The 2005 Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology.

New Awards Recognise Theatre Excellence in Sydney
Following a ten-year hiatus, Sydney has its own theatre awards once again. The Sydney Theatre Critics Circle last offered awards in 1995, but a new group of critics has now banded together and established the Sydney Theatre Awards. Theatre productions for 2005 were recognised at an informal event at Sydney's State Theatre on 16 January 2006. Stephen Sewell's 'Three Furies' took out the honours for Best Mainstage Production and Best New Australian Work while Rebecca Clarke's monologue, 'Unspoken', won the award for Best Independent Production.

Graham Pitts Honoured for Tireless Community Commitment
The Australia Council has recognised the dedication and achievements of Graham Pitts in the community arts and cultural development field. Pitts received the 2005 Ros Bower Award for his outstanding contribution over a 25 year period. Australia Council Community Partnerships Committee Chair, Timothy O'Loughlin, acknowledged Pitts's work for 'community cultural development practice in every state and territory in Australia.' (Australia Council media release, 14 December 2005) Pitts co-founded Sidetrack Theatre and has written more than 50 community plays. The best known of these is Emma, an adaptation of the life story of Italian migrant, Emma Ciccotosto.

The Ros Bower Award is presented annually 'to recognise distinguished effort in fostering and furthering the principles of Ros Bower', founding director of the Australia Council's Community Arts Board.

Australian Writers Honoured in the USA
Two Australian writers have been recognised in this year's Michael L. Printz Award for 'a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.' Margo Lanagan's Black Juice and Markus Zusak's The Messenger were two of the four honour books in the American prize. The award, announced during the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio in late January 2006, is named after a school librarian who actively promoted books for the young adult market. It is sponsored by Booklist, an ALA publication.

Lanagan was also acknowledged by the World Fantasy Convention held in Wisconsin in November 2005. Black Juice won the Convention's award for Best Collection and one of the stories in the book, 'Singing My Sister Down', won in the Short Fiction category. Lanagan has now won or been shortlisted for eight awards for Black Juice.

Travel Writing Award to Lonely Planet Founders
Maureen Wheeler and Tony Wheeler have been honoured by the American University and the Society of American Travel Writers Association for their contribution to travel writing. The Wheelers received the inaugural Eric A. Friedheim Travel Journalism Lifetime Achievement Award in the USA in September 2005 and were commended for their integrity and high ethical standards. Dean of the School of Communication at the American University, Larry Kirkman, said 'Lonely Planet guides redefined travel writing and independent travel ... Maureen and Tony Wheeler have given us the compass points and courage to explore our world.' (American University press release, 19 September 2005)

Lonely Planet is the world's biggest independent guidebook publisher. In 2005 the Wheelers published the story of founding the organisation in the early 1970s under the title Once While Travelling.

World Premieres on Australian Stages
Theatre-goers can travel the length and breadth of the country this year to see world premieres of new Australian plays. At Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre the Summer/Autumn programme kicks off on 10 February with a production of 'Cargo : The True Adventures of Mary Bryant', a play based on the true story of First Fleet convict Mary Bryant who made an extraordinary escape from Botany Bay across uncharted seas to Timor. 'Cargo' is followed at Malthouse by a collaboration between director Neil Armfield and playwright Stephen Sewell. Sewell's new play, 'It Just Stopped', follows hot on the heels of the Sydney production of his 'The United States of Nothing' at Griffin Theatre. 'It Just Stopped' asks the questions: 'what will we value the day the world just stops, and what would we be willing to trade for our survival?' (Malthouse Theatre media release, November 2005)

The Adelaide Festival will host the premiere of Peter Goldsworthy's 'Honk If You Are Jesus' on 18 February (see 'Goldsworthy Play to Showcase at Adelaide Festival', AustLit News December 2005/January 2006) while further west Perth's Black Swan Theatre Company will stage 'The Carnivores'. 'The Carnivores' is the latest play from award-winning British-import Ian Wilding; it deals with the struggle of two brothers who must decide whether to turn off their mother's life support machines.

In Brisbane, 4,500 kilometres to Perth's north-east, La Boite Theatre Company will present Janis Balodis's 'Perfect Skin', an adaptation of the Nick Earls novel of the same name. This production will be followed by adaptations of two more quintessentially Brisbane novels – Stephen Edwards's version of David Malouf's Johnno and Shaun Charles's take on Andrew McGahan's Last Drinks.

In November, Sydney's Griffin Theatre premieres 'Holding the Man', a specially commissioned adaptation written by Tommy Murphy and based on Tim Conigrave's 1995 autobiography, also titled Holding the Man. Recalling the original work, David Berthold, Griffin's artistic director, says 'I don't know anybody who has read the book without weeping – sobbing – at its unguarded portrayal of unconditional love.' Berthold continues, Murphy 'has transformed this joyous book into a celebratory play, with the perspective of his generation. We think it's a gift.' (2006 Griffin Season)

For further details of these plays, and other Australian works being launched in 2006, follow the links from the theatre company websites.

Inventions, Intrigue and Influence
Multi-award winning writers Marion Halligan and Gail Jones have each completed new novels. Gail Jones's Dreams of Speaking is set in Paris and explores themes of displacement and belonging. Main character Alice Black 'is entranced by the aesthetics of technology and, in every aeroplane flight, every Xerox machine, every neon sign, sees the poetry of modernity. Mr Sakamoto, a survivor of the atomic bomb, is an expert on Alexander Graham Bell. Like Alice, he is culturally and geographically displaced. The pair forge an unlikely friendship as Mr Sakamoto regales Alice with stories of twentieth-century invention.' (Random House website)

Marion Halligan has chosen to hone her already impressive writing skills by placing herself within the constraints of the crime genre for her latest novel. Speaking to Frances Atkinson (Age, 28 January 2006) Halligan said, 'I was interested in this notion of a genre with rules. Writing what you want to write in your terms but following someone else's rules was very interesting to me.' The result is The Apricot Colonel, a novel described by publisher Allen & Unwin as taking the reader into 'murder, match-making and the dark arts of book editing' in Canberra's underbelly.

Joining Halligan in embracing a Canberra setting for crime is first time novelist Kel Robertson. Laced with humour, Dead Set erupts in the world of politics 'when the high-profile federal Minister for Immigration is found brutally murdered in her Canberra flat. Tracey Dale's proposed refugee policy was always controversial, and the list of suspects ... includes neo-Nazis, ambitious colleagues and a vengeful wife...' (Text Publishing website)

Also publishing his first novel is West Australian-based David Whish-Wilson. The Summons, set in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, explores the seductiveness of propaganda and the role of choice in tumultuous times. Whish-Wilson joins a flush of writers developing novels as part of their work in creative writing courses. Other recent examples are Peter Kocan (Fresh Fields) and Annabel Smith (A New Map of the Universe).

And watch out for:

• a second novel by D. B. C. Pierre, Ludmila's Broken English (March 2006)

and

• a new collection of poems by Les Murray, The Biplane Houses (April 2006)

Alan Marshall Short Story Award
Entries are invited for the 2006 Alan Marshall Short Story Award. The award is sponsored by the Nillimbik Shire Council – a region of Victoria that includes Alan Marshall's home town of Eltham. Entries of up to 2,500 words can be submitted in one of three categories – open, local writers and young writers. The judge for 2006 is award-winning author of Hiam and The Marsh Birds, Eva Sallis.

Entries close on 24 February 2006. Further details, including guidelines and an entry form, are available on the Council's website.

University of New South Wales Literary Fellowship 2006-2007
Nominations are invited for the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Literary Fellowship to be taken up during an academic session in 2006-2007. The Fellowship is awarded every two years to a distinguished writer (in any field), desirably with a work in progress that would benefit from a period at the University, and with a willingness to contribute to university life.' The Fellowship is offered for a minimum of two months, either full-time or extended part-time, and attracts a stipend of $12,000. Previous Fellows include Alex Buzo, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, David Foster, Les Murray, Kate Grenville and Frank Moorhouse.

Applications for 2006-2007 close on 28 February 2006. Further information is available from Meg Brewer at the Office of the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education & Quality Improvement), UNSW. Ms Brewer can be contacted via:
Phone: (02) 9385 1094
Fax: (02) 9385 1039
or
Email: m.brewer@unsw.edu.au

ASAL Puts the Historical Image under the Microscope
The Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) will hold its annual conference at The University of Western Australia (UWA), Perth from 3-5 July, 2006. The Conference theme is 'Spectres, Screens, Shadows, Mirrors' and it will discuss those ideas in relation to all aspects of Australian culture. 'Participants are asked to attend creatively to these themes, and to extend their suggestive metaphorical, political and aesthetic significances. Interdisciplinary dialogues are encouraged, and cross-cultural studies are welcomed.'

For further information see the Conference website.

Writers' Festivals Offer a Smorgasbord of Literary Treats
Australian readers and literature aficionados are being offered a wealth of riches at writers' festivals across the nation throughout 2006. Here is a sampling of what's on this year:

• Perth International Arts Festival – 23 February - 1 March 2006
  First cab off the rank is Perth Writers' Week. A component of the University of Western Australia's International Arts Festival, Writers' Week begins the Australian season of festivals by offering 'a feast of reading, writing, ideas and debate.' Sessions range from 'Sun, Sea and Sand', where local writers Kim Scott, Brenda Walker and John Kinsella will discuss the influence of Western Australia on their writing, to 'Sex, Drugs and Jazz', where Emily Maguire, Julienne Van Loon and Mandy Sayer will talk about losing self-consciousness while writing difficult subject matter.
  
  A full programme for the Perth events is available on the Writers' Week website.



• Adelaide Writers' Festival – 5-10 March 2006
  Now in its fifth decade, this year's Adelaide Writers' Week will 'focus on Dutch writing, acknowledging the 400-year process of European discovery and (un)settling.' Indian writers and literature will also be highlighted, 'explaining the enduring and dynamic contact between India and Australia.'
  
  The public can participate in readings, panel discussions, 'Meet the Author' sessions and lectures. Tessa de Loo will be visiting from the Netherlands and Vikram Seth will make the journey from India. A host of Australian writers will also be in attendance including South Australian natives Peter Goldsworthy and James Bradley. For further information, go to the Adelaide Writers' Week website.



• Sydney Writers' Festival – 22-28 May 2006
  The Sydney Festival for 2006 boasts a visit from the most recent Booker prize winner for the third year in succession. John Banville, who won the 2005 prize for The Sea, will be one of the major international guests at this year's Festival. The latest Booker winner was preceded at the Festival by Allan Hollinghurst (The Line of Beauty) in 2005 and D. B. C. Pierre (Vernon God Little) in 2004. The 2006 Festival will be the last directed by Caro Llewellyn before she heads to New York in 2007. Watch the Festival website for further details closer to the event.



• Canberra Readers and Writers Festival – 25-27 August 2006
  The theme for the fourth Canberra Readers and Writers Festival is 'Deserts and Desertion: Landscape and Escape'. The Festival will be held at the National Library of Australia and will provide opportunities for readers to mix with international, national and local writers.
  
  Further details will appear in the coming months on the ACT Writers' Centre website.



• The Age Melbourne Writers' Festival – 25 August - 3 September 2006
  The Age Melbourne Writers' Festival will be directed for the first time by Rosemary Cameron who has taken over the role of Festival Director from Simon Clews. Cameron has previously directed the Brisbane Writers Festival and has run her own arts management company.
  
  Details of the Melbourne Festival will be added to the Festival website as they become available.



• Brisbane Writers' Festival – 14 September - 17 October 2006
  Taking Rosemary Cameron's place in Brisbane is Michael Campbell who has relocated from Sydney where he has been running the literary events programme at Gleebooks since 2002.
  
  Events for the 2006 Brisbane Writers' Festival will appear progressively on the Festival website. Meanwhile developments can be monitored via the online newsletter.



• ... and What about Tasmania?
  Those yearning for a major literary excuse to visit the Apple Isle may have to wait until 2007. Ten Days on the Island is held in Tasmania every two years and the next event is from 23 March - 1 April 2007. Robyn Archer directed her final Island festival in 2005. The new director is Elizabeth Walsh who was previously executive producer of Ten Days on the Island and who has a long history in festival administration.
  
  For those who can't wait that long, and who particularly enjoy brisk, winter weather, a trip south for the Antarctic Writers' Festival may be in order. Ice Cold Words will run from 23-25 June 2006 in Hobart. It is being presented by the Tasmanian Writers' Centre and will include presentations by Australian and international writers who have travelled to Antarctica or who have written about the region. See the Tasmanian Writers' Centre website for more information.

Authors Approach Birthday Milestones
Significant milestones are in store for a number of Australian writers during 2006. Some of those marking major birthdays are:

• Turning fifty are poets Judith Beveridge and S. K. Kelen, children's and young adult authors Ian Bone and Anna Fienberg, and novelist and editor David Owen.



• Those marking sixty years include children's writer and literacy activist, Mem Fox, crime writers Gabrielle Lord and Peter Temple, and essayist, memoirist and critic Drusilla Modjeska.



• Consummate book illustrator, Robert Ingpen, will turn seventy as will Alex Miller and Judith Rodriguez.



• Jessica Anderson and Bernard Smith are each approaching their ninetieth birthdays. Smith's prize-winning autobiography, The Boy Adeodatus, was republished by University of Queensland Press in 2004 while Anderson's The Impersonators and The Commandant are both available through Sydney University Press's Classic Australian Works series.
  
  Also born in 1916, but now deceased, were Harold Stewart and Morris West. Stewart is widely remembered for his role in the Ern Malley affair. Some twenty years after the publication of the mischievous poems, co-authored with James McAuley, Stewart moved to Japan where he immersed himself in the study and practise of Buddhism. His cycle of poems, By the Walls of Kyoto, reflect that influence. Like Stewart, Morris West spent many years living overseas. West was based in Italy for much of the 1960s and 1970s. His highly popular novels often reflected his deep knowledge the Roman Catholic Church and the internal workings of the Vatican. Both themes are central to his final novel, The Last Confession.

New AustLit Records
During December 2005 and January 2006, the Content Development Team added:

• 3,743 new works
• 1,054 new agents (individuals and organisations)

In addition to these new records, over 5,052 existing work and agent records have been upgraded and enhanced.

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