Dailies

» Bursting the Carbon Bubble

By Michael Green

One of the world’s fastest-growing social movements is calling for citizens and institutions to sell out of fossil fuels – but it’s not just a matter of morality. Hard-headed analysts say there’s a growing risk of a collapse in the value of fossil fuel investments. Taken… read more

» Thin Skins and a Small Scene: Musicians and Critics on Music Criticism

By Jon Tjhia

Musician, radio producer and sometime critic Jon Tjhia examined the current state of music criticism – drawing on his own experience and interviews with industry insiders – for The Lifted Brow’s music issue.

In this excerpt, he talks to musicians and critics about what it’s… read more

» Judy Blume Goes to Hollywood: Tiger Eyes

For bookish women of a certain age, nothing evokes childhood so sharply as the name Judy Blume. Iconic books like Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret, Deenie, Blubber and Superfudge are still in print – and being discovered by new generations of readers – today.

And this month, the first f… read more

» Working with Words: Michelle Grattan

Michelle Grattan is one of Australia’s most respected and awarded political journalists. She has been a member of the Canberra parliamentary press gallery for more than 40 years, during which time she has covered all the most significant stories in Australian politics.

As a former editor… read more

» Is Childhood Bipolar Over Diagnosed?: Fashion and the DSM

The DSM – the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – is recognised today as the bible of psychiatry. A comprehensive list of all the mental illnesses that officially exist and their symptoms, this book is extraordinarily powerful: the words within its pages have… read more

» Fear, Failure and Fraudulence: On writing and inadequacy

By Angela Meyer

The morning after the Stella Prize was awarded, writer and reviewer Angela Meyer blogged about her own feelings of writerly inadequacy and being at events where fellow writers wear their ‘envy on their sleeves’.

We asked her to explore the nervy underbelly of the writing… read more

» Friday High Five: Digital Spies, Canned Soup and Clive James

You’re not paranoid if they’re really spying on you

The US National Security Agency has gained direct access to the servers of nine prominent internet companies, ‘enabling the spy agency to track e-mails, photographs, and video, among other forms of digital communciation’. The program is … read more

» All Right for Us, But Not for Them: Selectivity in Australia's Human Rights Protection

By Hugh de Kretser

Whether it’s our treatment of asylum seekers or the current debate around free speech, we seem to be confused -about the notion of free rights for all. Australians care about human rights, but we’re also dangerously complacent about the lack of protections that exist &ndash… read more

» Working with Words: Jane Rawson

Jane Rawson has been a travel editor and writer, mostly for Lonely Planet. These days she lives in Melbourne’s west and edits the environment and energy section of The Conversation. Her first novel, A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists was published this month by Transit Lounge… read more

» Baileys Prize for Women's Fiction

The Women’s Prize for Fiction has found a new sponsor – it no longer needs the Prince-like moniker of ‘the prize formerly known as the Orange’. After more than 20 sponsors competed to take up the mantle, the board chose Baileys, who signed up for an initial three years.

… read more

» F**k Flattering: Makeover Culture and Unrealistic Expectations

By Mel Campbell

Mel Campbell reflects on makeover culture and the unrealistic expectations that come with it – that a sophisticated new look will deliver a new self (and life) to match. But even when it works, who does the social power of beauty serve? And why should the approval of… read more

» Friday High Five: Stalking Neighbours and Turkish Delight

Our picks from the internet this week.

Guardian Australia launch

There’s been a huge buzz this week about the much-anticipated launch of Guardian Australia, which finally happened on Monday. Original Australian content includes David Marr’s first piece as staff writer, reporting on George… read more

» Working with Words: Pepi Ronalds

Pepi Ronalds is a freelance writer based in Melbourne – and a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellow. Her work has been published in Meanjin, Outback Magazine, Killings, Open Manifesto and A List Apart. She blogs at The Future of Long Form.

We spoke to Pepi about juggling writing with a job that… read more

» Seasonal Reading: Breakfast at Tiffany's in Autumn

By Michael Green

Michael Green shares why he loves re-reading Breakfast at Tiffany’s in Carlton, every autumn … and why it surprises him every time. Quoting Norman Mailer, he says it is ‘so extraordinary a work that it incites not writerly envy but pride’.

‘I am always drawn back to places … read more

» Why We Need a Literary Award To Engage Male Readers

By Paul Mitchell

It’s been the year of women on the Australian literary award scene – not only was the first Stella Prize for Australian women’s writing awarded, but the Miles Franklin shortlist was, for the first time in its history, all women. (It has been all-men four times.)

Paul… read more

» Asperger's Syndrome: Illness or Identity?

By Jo Case

Watch the video of Jo’s Lunchbox/Soapbox talk

Articles and commentaries on Asperger’s Syndrome are rife with references to the ‘condition’, ‘sufferers’ and ‘disability’. But many people who live with an Asperger’s diagnosis – for… read more

» 'Great Indeed': Estelle Tang Reviews Lydia Davis

Micro-fiction writer Lydia Davis won the 2013 International Man Booker Prize yesterday. Celebrated in her native US, though less well known elsewhere, she has published several collections of (very) short stories, most of the stories no more than three pages long – and some of them as… read more

» Working with Words: Sam Twyford Moore

Sam Twyford-Moore is the director of the Emerging Writers' Festival, which kicks off tonight with the announcement of the winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. He’s also a writer and an editor, who has been published in Meanjin, the Australianread more

» First Nations Australia Writers Workshop

By Lucy De Kretser

The Wheeler Centre’s Lucy De Kretser was recently a participant in the inaugural First Nations Australian Writers Workshop in Queensland. She reports back on her highlights, from writers as diverse as Alexis Wright, Kim Scott, Anita Heiss and Sam Wagan Watson.

On May 9… read more

» Book Covers: Design As You Read

Chicago designer Jenny Volvoski has set herself a fascinating new project – she designs her own covers for the books she reads.

They’re documented on her blog, From Cover to Cover.

‘I think a lot about book cover design while I am reading, and thought it would be a nice exercise to… read more

» Eco-Friendly Buildings Around the World

We share some amazing (and innovative) eco-friendly buildings from around the world – from the world’s first vertical forest in Italy to a stunning mountain hut that generates 90% of its own power in the Swiss Alps.

Bosco Verticale, Milan

The world’s first vertical forest is being erected i… read more