AustLit
Latest Issues
Notes
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Contents indexed selectively.
Contents
- Ecce Homo: An Interview with Christos Tsiolkas, single work interview (p. 24-30)
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Fighting Words,
single work
essay
(p. 42-43)'There are two things I am driven to do: write and fight. My mother taught me to read. One of my first memories is watching her reading in bed without having to sound the words aloud. I remember wondering, how does she do that? My mother had left school at sixteen, but she was a great reader. And she read everything.' (Publication summary)
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The Art of Being a Successful Audience,
single work
essay
(p. 46-47)
'It is said that Oscar Wilde was entering his club one evening after witnessing a less than scintillating night at one of his own plays. 'Oscar, how was the play?' asked one of his friends. 'The play was a great success,' Wilde replied, 'but the audience was a complete failure!'' (Publication summary)
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Curating Cole,
single work
essay
(p. 49-51)
'One of my earliest memories is of looking through the pages of Cole's Funny Picture Book. It was the 1979 edition marking the 100th anniversary of a much-loved family classic, reputed to have sold more than a million copies via its many reprints, editions and updates over a century. My parents, grandparents, greatand even great-great-grandparents may well have had a copy of this book. When I received mine, I was a young boy living in rural Tasmania with no concept of the world outside. Cole's Funny Picture Book, with its fantastic illustrations and worldly wisdom, opened my eyes to a dizzying combination of fantasy and reality in a black hardcover package. The front cover was adorned with interlinked rainbows and a promise to 'delight the children and make home happier': it may not have made my broken home happier, but it certainly delighted and inspired me like little else.' (Publication summary)
- A Mercurial Man, single work short story (p. 58-62)
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Dry Clean,
single work
short story
(p. 65-69)'He was the only person who thought there was something grand about the art of dry-cleaning. His wife, Elizabeth, his four noisy sons - so big now - and the noisy children they'd produced; he knew how they felt about the work he did, something between disinterest and embarrassment. His children had 'professions', Elizabeth boasted to her friends. Dry-cleaning, the work that underwrote their home, their lives; he suspected they were slightly ashamed of that. It was something that smacked of service...' (Publication abstract)
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The Lost Podcast,
single work
short story
(p. 70-74)' 'This is the New Yorker's Fiction Podcast. I'm Deborah Treisman, fiction editor. Each month we invite a writer to choose a story from the magazine's archives to read and discuss. This month, Edgar Bloom, whose fiction has appeared in the magazine since 1986, has chosen "A.C.A.", by his son, Simon. The story was published in the magazine in 2008. He joins us from Blue Haven, in New South Wales. Hi, Edgar.'...' (Publication abstract)
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Three Meetings,
single work
short story
(p. 81-86)' I was leaving the gift shop, clutching my Monet fridge magnet, when I saw him again. Standing there, gazing contemplatively at the installation which dominated the NGV foyer - a shallow pool, lined with a lurid blue PVC, in which floated white porcelain bowls - was Tomas. I was startled, surprised - all that; but not for a moment did I doubt that it was Tomas I was seeing - older, yes, and greyer, too, but Tomas, indisputably. Ponytail, slender face, cheekbones - all intact, all of it as I remembered...' (Publication abstract)
- Blackbirds En Massei"Haute cuisine has always had its tricks", single work poetry (p. 88-89)
- Time Triali"in skin-tight onesie, my body is what it is", single work poetry (p. 90)
- Le Medecini"does your doctor make house calls?", single work poetry (p. 90)
- Ascendi"and then it gets tough", single work poetry (p. 90)
- Tour de France, sequence poetry (p. 90-91)
- My Pelotoni"I left home to push into le Mistrale, scale the Pyrenees", single work poetry (p. 91)
- Descendi"and you thought it was hard, the climb", single work poetry (p. 91)
- Where Did That Come Fromi"and it will never return to the unsaid", single work poetry (p. 91)
- D'accordi"I wear the maillot jaune for you", single work poetry (p. 91)
- The Rabbit Proof Sonneti"Fourteen clunky lines make a sort of endless fence", single work poetry (p. 92-93)
- Looping Outi"set of keys again path front door new breaking sun", single work poetry (p. 94)
- Looping Upi"you idle in top gear raving thoughts do burnouts drift at speed", single work poetry (p. 94)
