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Wordplay: Shakespeare's creative coinage bursts the muzzle

<i>Illustration by Simon Letch</i>

Whenever Henrietta went to the opera she shut her eyes to block out the lascivious throats, the heaving breasts, the strapping torsos. Meanwhile a night of Shakespeare enforced the same lass to clap her palms over her ears, lest she absorb an innuendo.

Ian McEwan

Novelist departs from his recent style: Ian McEwan.

The narrator of Ian McEwan's new novel could be the youngest in all literature _ he is in his third trimester as a fetus.

Turning Pages: unpretentious words smash taboos

English Comedian Alexei Sayle has mellowed a tiny bit.

When she was young, Magda Szubanski used to read Enid Blyton and her father's old anatomy books. "I knew by the age of eight how to dissect a person," she told the Melbourne Writers Festival. "I performed it as a party trick."

Richard Flanagan lauds Nauru files as great Australian writing

Author Richard Flanagan has questioned why Australian politicians have such hostility towards writing.

If anyone was expecting a gentle trot through the whys and wherefores of writing, the pros and cons of great writers in Richard Flanagan's first public lecture as inaugural Boisbouvier Professor of Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne they were in for a surprise.

Man Booker winner says writing should challenge us

Man Booker-winning author Richard Flanagan at the University of Melbourne.

Man Booker-winning novelist begins the public element of his role as Boisbouvier professor of Australian literature at the University of Melbourne on Thursday with a lecture at Melbourne Writers Festival.

How the internet killed the critic

Lev Grossman is in Sydney to speak at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

There are no good books, says American writer Lev Grossman - an unnerving opinion from a successful author of five novels who also spends much of his working life assessing other writers' books as critic for Time magazine.

Turning Pages

Maxine Beneba Clarke: Delivered a rousing speech when opening the 2016 Melbourne Writers Festival.

Writers at the first weekend of the Melbourne Writers Festival talked about the many paths and experiences that had led to the creation of their books.

Top 10 Independents

The 78-Storey Treehouse By Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton

The latest instalment of Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton Treehouse books is delighting young readers around the country.