Culture
Books
Australian author Charlotte Wood makes Booker shortlist
No Australian woman has ever won the Booker. Wood is among six finalists announced overnight.
- by Kerrie O'Brien and Kate Lahey
Latest
After a troubled year, former volunteer takes reins of Melbourne Writers Festival
Veronica Sullivan, most recently head of programming at the Wheeler Centre, sees the recent wave of personnel change as an opportunity for a fresh start.
- by Jason Steger
‘Aggressive, drunken, lascivious, sexist’ - Bob Hawke before he was PM
David Day’s biography of Bob Hawke’s first 50 years could only have been published after this famously thin-skinned subject’s death.
- by Frank Bongiorno
From a Nobel winner comes a feast of culture – highbrow and low
Olga Tokarczuk’s latest novel owes a debt to the great feminist horror writer Shirley Jackson.
- by Bram Presser
Elon Musk: Is he the special one, or just a bully and hypocrite?
Why did Elon Musk buy Twitter, rename it as X, then destroy the company’s influence? Whatever the case, good riddance.
- by Gideon Haigh
PM’s Literary Award brings 48 hours’ relief from poet’s life of self-doubt
Amy Crutchfield has won the $80,000 poetry prize for her first book, but she’s not letting it go to her head.
- by Jason Steger
A win for the funny people: Australia’s richest writing prize adds new award
The John Clarke Prize for Humour Writing, named for the legendary late comedian, will celebrate Australia’s funniest works from 2025.
- by Meg Watson
I had a miscarriage, but I couldn’t find the words to tell my mother
My mother’s dominant and exclusive language is Mandarin, a language for which I possess the vocabulary of a 10-year-old native speaker.
- by Jessie Tu
Eight great new reads to soak up in the sunshine
Our reviewers cast their eyes over recently published fiction and non-fiction.
- by Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll
Opinion
WordPlay
It’s hard to convince Google you’re not dead - just ask Tom Faber
The freelancer was shocked to find that the search engine had conflated him with a dead physicist.
- by David Astle
Plenty of facts, truth, and good stories: New non-fiction releases for your to-read list
There is a host of big non-fiction books appearing in the next couple of months.
- by Nicole Abadee