The importance of a good metaphor should never be underestimated.

John Kinsella is one of the finest and most versatile of Australian authors – poet, editor, critic, author of fiction besides being a principled champion of ecological causes

Marija Pericic won the Vogel Award for her debut novel that plays around with the crucial friendship between Max Brod and and the doomed Franz Kafka.

None of her contemporaries ever mistook the mother of Ned Kelly for being a woman who meekly submitted to the expectations and demands of respectable folk.

The great distinction of the American writer's work is that it is both truthful and confected.

As human beings, some writers disappoint us. In extreme cases, they disgust and horrify us, to the point where we can barely bring ourselves to read their books.

The story of the shipwrecked James Morrill is one of survival and sanctuary with the Aboriginal people of far north Queensland.

Kim Stanley Robinson's novel is a slow-burn political thriller that reads like a futuristic version of 19th-century realism.

In Dominic Smith's reimagining of 19th-century bohemian Paris, Louis Daguerre is obsessed with capturing 10 images before he dies.

John Safran seems to have an inexhaustible supply of characters whose apparent awfulness is offset by the oddness of their path to extremism.

Each story in Alison MacLeod's fine collection examines what it means to be alive.

Rich People Problems is focused on an extended, ultra-rich Singaporean clan, it is full of conniving relations and conspicuous consumption and reads something like the Asian century's answer to Dynasty.

Behind the smiling portraits and the sad, droopy moustache, was a dark side to Henry Lawson – alcoholism and domestic violence

Louise Milligan writes her case for the damnation of George Pell in her latest book.

There are flaws in The Hot Guy but it will keep you turning the pages.

James Boyce's investigation of the gambling industry in Tasmania is an eye-opening tale.

Timbuktu had always been seen as a kind of African El Dorado. But no westerner knew for sure because they'd never found it.

It is extraordinarily difficult to authors to be able to support themselves purely with their writing, so they often have to take on other work to make ends meet.

The years that the Durrell family spent on Corfu were formative to the family's two great writers, Lawrence and Gerald.

A slim volume of poetry written by a Canadian poet who made her name on Instagram outsold all other authors at this year's Sydney Writers' Festival which delivered its second biggest box office takings in 20 years.

Literary news and events in Canberra.

• Books

Chloe Esposito's 'feminist' debut novel is full of sex, conflict and humour. No wonder it's been snapped up by Hollywood.

The author found Jane Austen's Persuasion a great help in writing her new novel.

• Wordplay

Spoken English isn't always correct in its usage and the consequences of that are not always obvious.