Robert Forster has been accused of avoiding the darker elements of life in the Go-Betweens in his memoir. Over mounds of oysters, he tells Karl Quinn why he did so.

The judges of this year's Prime Minister's Literary Awards have announced joint winners in three categories.

Hannah Kent's second novel is the best-selling book in the country.

Pinchas Goldhar's stories deal with the struggle to find a cultural and ethical foothold in the darkest of times.

Katherine Johnson does create a brooding atmosphere in her story of a war-damaged father and his vulnerable boys.

Garth Nix returns to the fantasy world of Lirael and resurrects her nemesis, Chlorr of the Mask.

The twist is classic P.D. James, as is the steady crumb-trail of clues in the Adam Dalgliesh story The Twelve Clues of Christmas.

Clive Hamilton, professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, shares a list of books that have influenced him from The Women's Room to the Old Testament Book of Job.

The reclusive Italian writer Elena Ferrante may never publish another book following a journalist's apparent exposure of her real identity, warns her American translator.

Cate Blanchett and Quentin Bryce reflect on the profound impact of being judges on the Brotherhood of St Laurence's first literary prize.

Fiction

The era of the computer keyboard means that we may well witness the end of handwriting.

Andrew P. Street's take on Australian politics stresses its circus-like nature.

Graeme Simsion's third novel is alert to many kinds of emotional pain within its story of lost and found love.

It was really the character of Prospero who drew Margaret Atwood into The Tempest. She first wrote about him years ago, in his capacity as a magician.

I was pleased but not ecstatic about Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize in Literature last month.

Literary news and events in Canberra.

Writing her latest novel has changed the way Jodi Picoult sees the world

One of the mysterious, successful writers in the world, Elena Ferrante tells her publisher how some of her novels have disgusted her.

This month marks two big events in language – the first you can't avoid, the second you probably missed. Yet the occasions are cousins despite their differences. They share a messy history, both born of vox-pops, hatched in the gutter. One talks big and makes empty promises; the other cousin mumbles and pops egos with a pin.

Matthew Reilly's latest action-packed thriller has gone straight to top spot of the bestselling books in Australia.

Mark Edmundson reminds us that writers often get better as they age.

Charlotte has had an accident and things aren't quite how she remembered. And that's just the start ...

"The Heart of Henry Quantum" is a reader-accessible American Ulysses, in a way, with a one-day time frame and a one-city setting.