AustLit

'Rick Morton, author of the acclaimed memoir One Hundred Years of Dirt, was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder in 2019. His second - dare we say exquisite - memoir My Year of Living Vulnerably explores not only complex PTSD, but also love, history and forgiveness.

'Rick has been a journalist for more than 15 years. He was a social affairs writer for The Australian, and he is now a senior reporter for the Saturday Paper. Rick regularly appears on television, radio and panels discussing politics, the media, writing and social policy.' (Production introduction)

'With The Saturday Paper’s controversial experiment with pseudonymous book reviews coming to an end, what have we learned?' (Introduction)

'When The Saturday Paper launched in March 2014, we chose to experiment with publishing book reviews anonymously. As with everything else, we wanted to test the orthodoxy of our culture. More correctly, these reviews have been pseudonymous, with writers retaining a consistent set of initials. We wondered, in light of the country’s highly concentrated literary community, if bylined reviewers – particularly when authors themselves – could be candid in their assessment of others’ work when faced with frequent professional and personal contact. Were reviewers pulling their punches so as to avoid awkward encounters with publishers or fellow panellists at writers festivals? Were we missing out on the expertise of writers shy of such discomfort? Were we missing honest assessments of new writers, in the interests of being supportive, or established writers, in the interests of not challenging the reputational status quo? And does anything say “cosy scene” like being unsure of whether to give a review credence if you don’t know the identity of the person who wrote it?' (Introduction)