Category Archives: Books
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
Books
The Boy and the Crocodile
Our friends at Affirm Press are working on a book with the children from the Hope Familia orphanage, about an hour out of Dili. Publisher Martin Hughes tells us about the inspiration behind The Boy and the Crocodile, and how you can help. If you’re a regular … Read more
Books
The quiet achiever of Irish literature: Claire Keegan’s Foster
Since she debuted just over a decade ago, Claire Keegan has developed a reputation as the quiet achiever of Irish literature. Despite critical acclaim and several awards for her first two books, the short story collections Antarctica (1999) and Walk the Blue Fields (2007), she has emerged … Read more
Books
Summer Reading: The Donald Friend Diaries – Chronicles and Confessions of an Australian Artist (ed. Ian Britain)
For a man who is known principally as a visual artist, Donald Friend’s written work has received extraordinary praise. In the foreword to Text’s 2010 edition of Friend’s diaries, Barry Humphries brands the work ‘among the most evocative and amusing writings in all of Australian literature’. … Read more
Books
Summer Reading: Patti Smith’s Just Kids
I sobbed my way through the final pages of Patti Smith’s Just Kids. It’s a reaction I’ve not had since reading Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness, and the novelisation of My Girl before it. In many ways, Smith grasps romance in the same elegiac and breathtaking … Read more
Books
Summer reading: Sherman Alexie’s War Dances
When I came across Sherman Alexie’s 2007 book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I was surprised to see the controversial word ‘Indian’ where I might have expected the legal and technical term ‘Native American’, which I have dutifully preferred since I was a spotty … Read more
