Category Archives: Books
Books
I don’t wanna grow up: Gen X in the suburbs
At last, Generation X – who were threatening to be forever known as disaffected cynics with a yen for disco drugs and urgent sex with strangers in toilets – are now being taken seriously as ‘grown-up novelists’. Christos Tsiolkas’ novel, The Slap, has recently accumulated even more … Read more
Books
Let Down by Location: Why Dracula lovers should never visit his castle
Photo: Amy Roil Witches, demons, ghouls and vampires have always held sway over me. Perhaps they fuel my desire for a supernatural dark side or perhaps my Mr Hyde is simply closer to the surface than is healthy. Whatever the reason, the thoroughly evil and wizened witches … Read more
Books, Television
Australian stories: ABC TV’s The Slap
When Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap was published in 2008, it was one of those suddenly ubiquitous novels – everyone seemed to own a copy and everyone was talking about the social issues it raised. Read more
Books
Story of a Cover: Cargo
I’ve always had a nerdish fascination with book covers and the design-by-committee process through which they are made. After all, a book doesn’t start out with a cover. It begins life as text, faceless to the outside world. Typesetting, fonts, embossing and finish – all that comes … Read more
Books
The Long and the Short of It: Affirm Press and short fiction
Last year my company, Affirm Press, an emerging publishing company with more ideals than commercial sense, embarked on an initiative called Long Story Shorts. It was a commitment to publish six individual collections of stories by new and emerging writers, the last of which – Two Steps … Read more
Books
The story of Sectioned
Self-publishing your first book can be a terrifying prospect, even when you know what you’re doing. When I was a child I wrote a story about a polar bear, typed it up, added pictures, designed a cover and bound it into a rather crude-looking book. Little did … Read more
Books, Reviews
The Fascination with Frida Kahlo Endures: Jay Griffiths’ A Love Letter from a Stray Moon
A Love Letter from a Stray Moon is haunted by a ghost book, an ‘intensely autobiographical narrative of emotions’ that Jay Griffiths, after writing, decided was too personal to publish. So while this fictional autobiography of Frida Kahlo ‘tickles the literal’, it uses the character and story … Read more
Books
‘I saw a deal of blood’: The Roving Party by Rohan Wilson
The Roving Party is the poised debut of Rohan Wilson, and the deserving winner of the 2011 Australian/Vogel award. Set in 1829, the novel is a re-imagining of the ‘Black War’ that saw the indigenous population of Tasmania hunted, killed and corralled by British Colonialists. Read more
Books
Daytime / Nighttime books: Literary pleasures in the darkness and light
The distinction fascinated me – the idea that the way one reads a book, the coupling of certain novels with time or place has the ability to compliment the narrative, in the same way that certain colours affect mood. Read more
Art, Books, Issue Six
Judging a book by its cover: Noir narratives in Kill Your Darlings
When we first dreamed up the concept of Kill Your Darlings, we had a clear vision for the aesthetic – film noir. Svelte, shadowy, 1940s kitsch and costume, the hint of danger. A story was integral to the covers – the characters tell their own story, and it was narrative that progressed with the changing season. Read more
