AustLit

'It’s a baking hot summer’s day in St Ives on Sydney’s north shore, and Essie Davis gives a half smile as she breezes past in dark glasses and a blue kimono during a break in filming Babyteeth, a movie adapted from an Australian play about love, loss and addiction.' (Introduction)

'The conceit of Kate Grenville’s ninth novel is that the author discovers a memoir written by Elizabeth Macarthur, wife of John Macarthur, the British army officer and pioneer of the Australian wool industry. Grenville acts as a “transcriber and editor” and in her foreword observes: “Australian history, like most histories, is mainly about men.” It is precisely this history that Elizabeth’s counter-narrative sets out to question.' (Introduction)

'Novelist and short-story writer Tegan Bennett Daylight’s first nonfiction collection, The Details, is a book about paying attention: to words in books; to life’s patterns and paradoxes. The author credits her mother, a voracious reader, with teaching her to notice details: “When I read, I am still in conversation with her.” This reading lineage is passed down from Daylight to her own children.' (Introduction)