AustLit

'Australian fiction has long been dominated by the realist novel. A new wave of writers continue the avant-garde tradition—but are experimental and offbeat stories always destined to be relegated to a literary niche? '

'In 'Ars Poetica', written around 19 BCE, Horace postulated 'ut pictura poesis'. This formulation, abbreviated by scholars as u.p.p., has been chewed over in the intervening two millennia. Horace's dictum translates to 'as is painting so is poetry'. U.p.p. was a restatement of the claim by Simonides of Ceos that 'poema pictura loquens, pictura poema silens' (poetry is a speaking picture, painting a silent poetry), but with the order of artforms reversed.' (Publication abstract)

'This year’s Miles Franklin shortlist is lyrical in voice, complex in form, and perhaps a little more hopeful than usual. The threads of shared concern across the volumes leave me wondering whether there is something in the zeitgeist.' (Introduction)