Articles
Out-of-copyright texts to be made available online
The Italian ministry of cultural heritage has agreed to allow Google to scan up to a million books housed in the Italian national libraries of Florence and Rome.
The agreement covers out-of-copyright texts,published before 1866 and including works by the likes of Galileo Galilei.
Dessaix barred from Australian Writers' Week
The Age reports that the writer Robert Dessaix has been refused a visa to attend Australian Writers' Week in China on the basis of his HIV positive status.
Fame spotting
Irvine Welsh will speak at the Wheeler Centre tonight.
The unofficial poet laureate of drugs, sex and grime talks about his latest book Reheated Cabbage with the ABC’s Alan Brough.
Sarah Dunant at the Wheeler Centre tonight
Sarah Dunant will discuss her latest blockbuster, Sacred Hearts, tonight. Set in Renaissance Italy, it's a tale of power, creativity and passion.
Book tickets now.
'Quite possibly the best living writer in Britain'
There are still a few tickets left for tonight's 6pm event with the writer Zadie Smith dubbed "a national treasure".
Book for Geoff Dyer here.
Let Prof Pods boost your brain power
Presented by The Wheeler Centre with the Australian Poetry Centre, Ezra Bix, aka Professor Petri P Podsapoppin PhD, hosts the Fed Square Book Market this Saturday.
Wheeler Centre podcasts
You can subscribe to podcasts of Wheeler Centre events, with video and audio-only feeds now available. Subscribe directly via iTunes using these links: video and audio-only, or use these links if you use a different podcast tool: video and audio-only.
Germaine Greer: still a female eunuch?
Louis Nowra talks to Germaine Greer in the latest issue of The Monthly, 40 years after her seminal book, The Female Eunuch, was published.
IQ2 Debate
Tonight's IQ2 debate asks whether Australia should embrace nuclear power. There are still tickets available if you would like to come to this Town Hall event.
The ALR on politicians' reading habits
The Australian Literary Review surveys our politicians about their favourite books, with some interesting results.
War and Peace: Leo Tolstoy
Kapuscinski strayed from the parameters of 'Anglo-Saxon journalism'
The Guardian reports on a new biography of Ryszard Kapuscinski, which claims the world renowned Polish journalist's reportage repeatedly crossed the line between fact and fiction.
Malcolm Fraser at the Baptist Church
The very last tickets for Malcolm Fraser have now been released. Book here to see Fraser in conversation with co-writer Margaret Simons and George Megalogenis tonight.
Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs
So much for health care
The New York Times reviews Lionel Shriver's latest novel, So Much for That, which takes a swipe at US health care and insurance policy, and the impact it can have on middle class families.
Lionel Shriver: So Much for That (HarperCollins)
Malcolm Fraser at the Baptist Street Church
We have a final release of tickets for tomorrow night's event, where former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser will talk about his new memoir, with co-writer Margaret Simons and George Megalogenis.
Hear the personal recollections of one of our most persistent, insistent and controversial political voices.
Adelaide Writers’ Week 2010 Opens
Adelaide Writers' Week, part of the Adelaide Festival, begins. And with a number of their visiting writers, including Geoff Dyer and Sarah Dunant, coming to the Wheeler Centre next week, there's no need to miss out if you can't get to the South Australian festival.
Debut Mondays
Tom Cho is one of four first-time writers talking at the Wheeler Centre tonight as part of our Debut Mondays programme.
Also speaking will be Andrew Croome, Lisa Dempster and LK Holt, so come along from 6pm and enjoy a glass of wine with us.
Fryderyk Chopin's 200th birthday
The Age reports on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Polish composer, Fryderyk Chopin.
Meat & Livestock Australia responds to Peter Singer
Following Peter Singer's Lunchbox/Soapbox appearance yesterday, we invite Meat & Livestock Australia to respond, as well as asking you to join the debate.
Peter Singer
Watch Peter Singer and join the debate here.
David Palmer Managing Director of Meat & Livestock Australia:
David Palmer
"Peter Singer’s suggestion that red meat should be taxed alongside items that are not good for people, such as tobacco and alcohol, is ridiculous and irresponsible. Red meat is an essential part of a healthy diet and the environmental impacts that Peter Singer is attributing to red meat are incorrect.
"Australian red meat production is amongst the most efficient of the major beef producing nations. A recent study by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) found that Australian production systems use considerably less energy to produce red meat than is often quoted in the media and by people such as Peter Singer."
"The UNSW study was a life cycle assessment, which is a form of cradle to gate analysis that attempts to quantify the important environmental impacts of all processes involved in a production system. Based on figures from the research, eating red meat three times a week results in between 164kg to 258kg of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions a year, vastly different to figures quoted that claim up to 1.5 tonnes.
"Australian farmers are also naturally environmentalists, caring for and managing large parts of our amazing country.
"Despite what Peter Singer would like to have us believe, a recent report by Cranfield University in the UK and commissioned by environmental group WWF, found that vegetarians can do more harm to the environment than meat eaters.
"The study found that switching from a diet of beef and lamb to meat substitutes, such as tofu, soy and lentils would result in more foreign land being cultivated and raise the risk of forests being destroyed to create farmland. Meat substitutes also tended to be highly processed and involved energy-intensive production.
"The red meat industry is the only production industry in Australia to have reduced greenhouse emissions since 1990. According to the Australian Greenhouse office we have reduced our emissions by 7.5%, compared to increases in other industries such as transport and electricity, up 26.9% and 54.1% respectively.
"Whilst we have reduced our emissions over this time, we know there are further improvements to be made. This is why MLA has co-invested with the Federal government and other partners in a $28 million programme with 18 research projects that are looking at how to reduce emissions from livestock.
"Importantly, the livestock industry in Australia produces food on land that often can’t be used to produce any other protein source. If we cut out red meat production on this land it couldn’t be used to grow plant based crops. Australian cattle and sheep are raised in a natural environment feeding on pastures with little or no use of fertilizers, it is a natural part of our environment.
"Calculations that are based on emissions alone, such as the ones Peter Singer has used, are simplistic and ignore the carbon cycle. If the carbon cycle is taken into consideration, as recently was done in a report by the Queensland Government (where the industry in that state is 47% of Australia’s cattle) the industry was found to be close to carbon neutral and potentially a carbon sink in the near future.
"Whilst I acknowledge the views of Peter Singer, he is fundamentally a vegetarian/ part time vegan who wants to force his views on free-thinking Australians.
"I wonder if this is not his main motivator for a tax on beef. Frankly I can’t see Australians responding well to a tax on their food."
February 25 2010: Newsletter
Two weeks in and Melburnians have been turning out in droves to our first events, marking a great beginning for the Wheeler Centre.
IQ2
Next week on Thursday March 4, we are partnering what promises to be an exciting event.
The first of our IQ2 debates kicks off with Australia Should Embrace Nuclear Technology.
The godfather of the climate change debate, Dr James Hansen, is coming from the United States to debate this vital issue of the use of nuclear energy as an alternative to the use of fossil fuels.
Joining him, for the affirmative, will be Dr Ziggy Switkowski, outspoken advocate of nuclear power and Dr Erica Smyth.
On the negative will be Molly Harriss Olson, former Presidential advisor to President Clinton on energy, Dr Mark Diesendorf, world renowned writer on climate change and Dr Jim Green.
This event will take place at the Melbourne Town Hall. Tickets are $30, or $20 concession.
Reading the City
March also sees the launch of our Reading the City programme. Eight events across the month of March will examine Melbourne’s unique relationship with art, literature, history, poetry, architecture, fashion and the environment.
All these events are free and tickets can be booked on our website.
Online now
If you missed A Gala Night of Storytelling you can now watch it online.
Nine of the 12 speakers are already on our website, with the other three to follow soon. David Malouf talks about his mother’s English childhood and Cate Kennedy and Chloe Hooper, amongst others, share their ‘stories handed down’.
You can also take a glimpse behind the scenes with pictures from our official Wheeler Centre launch party and the post-Gala drinks at the Town Hall.
Last week also saw our first Jennifer Byrne in Conversation event, with Helen Garner. If you missed it, you can watch the highlights online now.
Visit our website to catch up on events you’ve missed and join the online conversation.
Lunchbox/ Sopabox
As A climate for change mentions in their blog, Peter Singer will be talking at the Wheeler Centre this lunchtime at our first Lunchbox/Soapbox event.
We'll be posting the event online shortly after, so you can join the debate.
The New York Review of Books on the digital future of publishing
Jason Epstein writes about the digital future of publishing and the implications of a future where books are stored electronically,l rather than existing in a physical form.
Tonight Meanjin and Overland join forces at the Wheeler Centre for the first Meanland event, Reading in a time of change, which will look at some of the same questions.
Meanland: Reading in a time of change
Get last minute tickets for tonight's event.
The way we read is changing more profoundly now than at any time since the invention of movable type. E-books, electronic ink, digital readers; the book is reinventing itself at a dizzying rate.
But what does the future hold for readers, for publishers and for writers?
Across 2010 Meanjin and Overland – two of Australia’s finest literary journals – come together for a series of events and articles investigating the impact of new technology, economic change and shifting notions of intellectual property on reading and writing in Australia.
Under the guiding hand and watchful eye of Meanjin editor Sophie Cunningham, the opening event in the series explores what reading might be like in fifteen years time. Discussing these weighty topics are Sherman Young, academic and author of The Book is Dead; Margaret Simons, media commentator and author of The Content Makers; literary critic Peter Craven; and broadcaster and M-book author Marieke Hardy.
Books and architecture
There are still tickets left for tonight's first Reading on Vocation event with Radio National's Ramona Koval, kicking off with a look at architects and the books that have influenced them.
Richard Watts talks to Lally Katz
Tonight Man About Town blogger Richard Watts will talk to playwright Lally Katz about the music that has inspired her in The Writer's Mix Tape.
Death of a poet
On this day in 1821 the poet John Keats died in Rome at the age of 25.
A month later the news was published in a death notice in the Times.
Writers tips for successful writing
The Guardian reviews Elmore Leonard's ten rules for writing fiction, including tips from Geoff Dyer, who will visit the Wheeler Centre in early March.
Andrew Motion on W H Auden
W H Auden, born on February 21st 1907, would have been 103 yesterday. In The Times, Andrew Motion recalls a brief, but profound, friendship with the poet.
Mark Danner: final tickets
In an in-depth interview with Fran Kelly, Mark Danner will uncover the grim realities of some of the world’s broken places, giving his perspective on American power during the last quarter century and reflecting on the state of journalism today.
It will be an unforgettable session and there are a few late-release tickets still available. Book here.
A Gala Night of Storytelling on film: continued
Watch three more writers from A Gala Night of Storytelling online now:
2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize shortlists
Two of our future Debut Mondays writers have been nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, South East Asia and Pacific Region, Best First Book: Tom Cho, for Look Who's Morphing and Andrew Croome for Document Z.
The Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010 shortlists in full were published today.
A Gala Night of Storytelling on film
Footage of the first six of our Gala Night writers is now online, via video or podcast:
A Gala Night of Storytelling: the writers
Watch the video here:
A flying finish for racetrack mystery writer
Following Dick Francis's death on the weekend, the Guardian's John Crace recalls adolescent summer holidays made bearable by the writer's tales from the racetrack.
Ethically Speaking: Media and Journalism
This evening we kick of a series of events examining professional ethics with a look at the world of media. This first session is held in partnership with the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advanced Journalism.
A panel of top journalists and ethical thinkers, including Paul Chadwick, Mark Danner, Gay Alcorn and Tony Coady, under the guidance of former Age editor and CAJ director Michael Gawenda, will tease out the old and new ethical dilemmas facing our journalists against the backdrop of a rapidly changing media landscape.
The Wheeler Centre's Inaugural event raises $20,000
Saturday's Town Hall event, A Gala Night of Storytelling, raised $20,000 for the Indigenous Literacy Project.
A Gala Night of Storytelling
In Conversation with Jennifer Byrne: Helen Garner
Jennifer Byrne’s first Wheeler Centre event is tonight with Helen Garner, one of Australia’s finest writers.
Her 1977 debut Monkey Grip is a modern classic. In 2008, after 15 years of acclaimed non-fiction including The First Stone and Joe Cinque’s Consolation, she returned to fiction with the award-winning The Spare Room.
Saturday night at the Town Hall
Queue outside the Town Hall
Queue winding up Collins Street
Main stairs at the Town Hall
Twelve writers at the Town Hall
Sold out Town Hall crowd
David Malouf
Chloe Hooper backstage
Paul Kelly
Twleve writers: a final bow
Twelve writers on stage
After show drinks in the Town Hall Condell Room
Sue Beecher, Judith Lucy, Jennifer Byrne
Jason Steger, Alex Miller, Donata Carrazza
John Safran, Chloe Hooper
Gabrielle Coyne, Paul Kelly
Christos Tsiolkas, Sam Pang and friend
Felix Reibl, Tara June Winch and friend
Tony Wheeler, Chrissy Sharp and Maureen Wheeler
Friday night: the Wheeler Centre is opened
Wheeler Centre banners in Melbourne
The band
Michael Williams and Catherine Deveney
Jason Steger and Ben Ball
Jennifer Byrne
Welcome to country: Aunty Doreen Garvy-Wandin
John Brumby
Tony and Maureen Wheeler
Debut Mondays
Andrew McDonald is one of four first-time writers who will appear at our Debut Mondays event this evening, with his book The Greatest Blogger in the World, the first Wheeler Centre event in our own space.
Also under the spotlight are Bob Franklin’s collection of literary horror stories, Under Stones, Sofie Laguna’s Miles Franklin-longlisted One Foot Wrong, and Our Girls and Madeleine Hamilton’s exploration of 40s and 50s Australian pinup girls.
The Wheeler Centre is open
Tonight the Wheeler Centre offically launches its programme with our first ever event at Melbourne's Town Hall, A Gala Night of Storytelling.
While this event has sold out, you will be able to watch it all online here next week, so there is no need to miss out.
Then from Monday the Wheeler Centre's 200-seat performance space will open its doors, where we look forward to welcoming you to some of the many other events on at the Centre over the next months.
Our first ever event in the Wheeler Centre building will take place on Monday with the inaugural Debut Mondays event, focusing on new writers.
Happening every fortnight, come and have a glass of wine and discover the best new writers in town.
Under the spotlight for our kick-off event are Bob Franklin’s collection of literary horror stories, Under Stones, Andrew McDonald’s young adult romp The Greatest Blogger in the World, Sofie Laguna’s Miles Franklin-longlisted One Foot Wrong and Our Girls, Madeleine Hamilton’s exploration of 40s and 50s Australian pinup girls.
February also sees the launch our other regular events, including The Writer’s Mix Tape on February 23rd with Lally Katz talking to 3RRRs Richard Watts.
And there’s the first Reading on Vocation, focusing on architects, with Ramona Koval on February 24th and and our first Lunchbox/Soapbox with Peter Singer on the 25th.
Check our calendar for a full list of all our events.
A Gala Night of Storytelling
On the anniversary of the Federal Government’s apology to the Stolen Generations, this Saturday the Wheeler Centre presents a night of celebration and reflection, sharing the common and different experiences that define our past and our present.
Twelve of Australia’s best writers come together for an intimate night of storytelling, each reflecting on those tales that have been handed down to them through the generations, each giving voice to an inheritance of wisdom, of understanding, of identity.
With contributions from Chloe Hooper, Paul Kelly, Cate Kennedy, Judith Lucy, Shane Maloney, David Malouf, John Marsden, Alex Miller, John Safran, Christos Tsiolkas, Tara June Winch and Alexis Wright this will be a literary event like no other.
Join us as we reflect on the stories that make us who we are and mark the arrival of The Wheeler Centre.
All proceeds from the event will go to the Indigenous Literacy Project.
Artistic intervention at the Guggenheim
To mark the New York Guggenheim’s 50th anniversary, the museum invited almost 200 artists, architects, and designers to reimagine the building's central rotunda for the exhibition Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum.
Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum building
A nation celebrates 20 years on
South Africa prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from Robben Island, as reported in the South African Times.
Rive Gauche ruse
The Australian Literary Review reports on the hoax that has France's best loved public philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy, blushing.
When Levy attacked Immanuel Kant in his latest book, On War in Philosophy, he referred to a little-known 20th century philosopher, Jean-Baptiste Botul, to support his argument.
The only trouble is, Botul doesn't exist.
De la guerre en philosophie, Bernard-Henri Levy: Grasset
Social networking examined
The New York Review of Books on Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal and Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America by Julia Angwin, two books that look at how social networking websites have evolved.
The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich: Random House
Weekend press: February 6-7
The Age focused on the Wheeler Centre's impending launch next Saturday, when 12 authors will tell the stories that were handed down to them in our Gala Night of Storytelling, with a piece on what they weren't told, but wish they had been.
Then on Sunday the Centre's Director, Chrissy Sharp, and the heads of the resident organisations, discussed the books that have already made an impression in 2010.
Focus on the Super Bowl
The Washington Post reports on an anti-abortion advertisement by Focus on the Family, due to air on Sunday during the television broadcast of the Super Bowl in the US.
The New York Times argues that not to air the 30-second spot, featuring star quarterback, and devout Christian, Tim Tebow, would amount to censorship.
'This is the second fan letter of my long career'
Artist Norman Rockwell wrote to illustrator Al Parker after the latter's work had appeared in Ladies' Home Journal.
ABR votes Tim Winton's Cloudstreet favourite novel
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton has been voted the winner of the Australian Book Review's Favourite Australian Novels poll.
Cloudstreet: Tim Winton (Penguin)
Faber & Faber editor writes open letter to Morrissey
Lee Brackstone uses the Faber & Faber blog, The Thought Fox, to call on Morrissey to bring his rumoured memoir to 'The House of Eliot'.
Photo archive open to the public
The entire collection of pictures amassed by the Magnum photo cooperative is to be made accessible to the public, the New York Times reports.
Writers who struggle to stay sober
The Australian Literary Review on the battle of many well-known writers to keep from slipping off the wagon.
Doing it for the kids
The Observer publishes an extract from Patti Smith's new memoir, Just Kids.
Patti Smith's Just Kids: Harper Collins
Catcher in the Rye author has died
The Age reports that famously reclusive author, J D Salinger, has died at his home in New Hampshire.
J D Salinger's Catcher in the Rye: Penguin
The New York Times obituary traces the life of a man who at first yearned for attention, and later shunned it.
Holocaust survivors' stories
The Guardian marks the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by talking to survivors about their stories; both of the camp and of the lives they have made since.
In Poland, some 150 Auschwitz survivors, along with European leaders, joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in commemorating those who dies at the camp, the New York Times reports.
Haiti in context
Mark Danner, who will speak at the Wheeler Centre next month, puts the disaster in Haiti into context for the New York Times.
The letters of Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch's love letters from an ill-fated love affair with David Hicks are to be published for the first time, The Times reports.
Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence War
The New York Review of Books on Mark Danner's account of his time as a war reporter, from Haiti to the middle east.
Danner will talk at the Wheeler Centre on February 19.
Misha Adair on Books
Melbourne literary blogger, Misha Adair, sings the praises of the new Wheeler Centre programme.
How to claim from Google Books
Wheeler Centre resident, SPUNC's Zoe Dattner tries to explain how to claim for books which Google might have scanned.
From Meanjin to Modern Warfare 2
In her Saturday column in The Age, Susan Johnson broaches the perennial question of cultural cringe, name-checking our own Chrissy Sharp, who has found Melbourne to be "a very intellectual city."
Earthquake in Haiti
Australian-West Indian poet Maxine Beneba Clark responds to the disaster in Haiti.
Stephenie Meyer to launch graphic novel
Yen Press, part of Hachette Book Group, has announced plans to release a graphic novel version of Stephanie Meyer's hugely popular Twilight series.
The Wheeler Centre will have a spotlight on graphic novels over the weekend of April 23 - 25.
The Age on the Wheeler Centre
The Age reports today on the Wheeler Centre's new three month programme.
Carey to appear on Australian stamps
Peter Carey is to appear on a series of stamps, The Age reports.
February to May 2010 at The Wheeler Centre
Today we announce our inaugural programme of events, covering February - May 2010.
Craig Sherborne
Craig Sherborne's pigeon poetry.
Howl
The Guardian reports on the new film of Allen Ginsberg's seminal poem Howl, shown at the Sundance Festival.
The Road
The Age reviews the new film version of Cormac McCarthy's acclaimed novel, The Road.
Jasper & Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle
Just in time for Australia Day, Kevin Rudd has published a children's book, The Australian reports.
Jasper & Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle: Kevin Rudd
Guardian Interactive: 2000-2009 in books
Guardian interactive rounding up the most important literary stories of the last 10 years.
A Cultural Depression
The Times Literary Supplement examines Morris Dickstein's new book Dancing in the Dark, which looks at the cultural impact of the Great Depression during the 1930s.
Dancing in the Dark: Morris Dickenstein
Edinburgh's City of Literature reading campaign
Edinburgh’s annual City of Literature reading campaign includes a month of poetry events, giving away thousands of free books and poetry pocketcards.
Review: Eating Animals
Peter Singer, our first Lunchbox/Soapbox presenter, reviews Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals in The Monthly.
Literary ink
Marieke Hardy examines the nature of literary tattoos.
Hardy will take part in our Meanland: Reading in a time of change event on February 25.
Hull to honour its favourite librarian
The City of Hull will honour Philip Larkin 25 years after his death with a five month-long festival.
Eric Rohmer dies at 89
The French New Wave directer Eric Rohmer has died at the age of 89, the Guardian reports.
Newsletter: Happy New Year
Gala Night of Storytelling
Tickets for our Gala Night of Storytelling are selling fast, with only 250 left we’re expecting to sell out soon. So if you’re planning on coming you should book now.
With contributions from Chloe Hooper, Paul Kelly, Cate Kennedy, Judith Lucy, Shane Maloney, David Malouf, John Marsden, Alex Miller, John Safran, Christos Tsiolkas, Tara June Winch and Alexis Wright this will be a literary event like no other.
Upcoming Events
Only a few weeks to go now until our first full programme launch on January 20 and our inaugural event at the Melbourne Town Hall on February 13.
In the meantime, we have a few more details about our February events to share with you.
Peter Singer’s eagerly anticipated Lunchbox/Soapbox subject has just been confirmed. Singer will be arguing that Australia should have a beef tax at our first lunchtime event.
So pop down to our centre on February 25 at 12.45pm, no need to book, or visit our relaunched website soon after, where you will be able to watch the video and join what we expect will be a lively online discussion.
Pauline O'Brien
Head of Marketing and Communications - Pauline O'Brien
Pauline has worked in marketing roles across the arts, in ballet and theatre, as well as for the tourism and charitable sectors.
Kenneth Cook's Wake in Fright made a huge impression on her as a teenager and began something of an obsession with the outback. This led Pauline to a job working part-time as a cook on coach camping tours around Australia for a couple of years, taking trips to places like the Tanimi and Oodnadatta tracks.
Brought up in Melbourne, she currently lives in the Yarra Valley winegrowing region northeast of Melbourne.
Pauline has a degree in English and a Masters of Business (Marketing).
Stay in Touch
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wheelercentre
Become a fan on Facebook: The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas
Keep an eye out for our full three month programme, release on January 20, and we look forward to seeing you at one of our events very soon.
The Sydney Festival 2010
The Sydney Festival opened on Saturday night with a free concert, headlined by soul singer Al Green.
Yoko Ono to publish autobiography
In the wake of another John Lennon biopic, Nowhere Boy, Yoko Ono is set to add her voice to the record.
Animal Matters
The Times Literary Supplement reviews Andrew Linzey's new book Why Animal Suffering Matters, which looks at the ethics of how humans use and treat animals.
The Director of the Centre for Animal Ethics echoes some of what our first Lunchbox/Soapbox advocate, Peter Singer, has argued
2010: year of the e-book?
The Australian Literary Review is reporting that 2010 is set to be the year of the e-book.
On 25 February we will be talking about this very phenomenon at the Wheeler Centre in our Meanland: Reading in a time of change event.
Fringe dwellers
Paul Barker's new book,The Freedoms of Suburbia, sings the praises of that most unfashionable of locales.
And the Architects' Journal agrees.
Freedoms of Suburbia by Paul Barker
Tóibín wins the Costa
Colm Tóibín wins the Costa prize (formerly the Whitbread) for his novel Brooklyn.
December newletter
Well, the builders have gone and we’re starting to feel at home... Relaxed enough, in fact, to reflect on the book we each enjoyed most this year, just in time for a spot of summer reading:
Best Read of the Year
Chrissy Sharp, Director – Truth, Peter Temple. He is a wonderful writer and this is his most complex and compelling plot yet and, in Villani, his most complex character.
Michael Williams, Head of Programming – Too many to choose from, but special mention for Eva Hornung's Dogboy and Kaz Cook's Up the Duff (for different reasons).
Claire Smiddy, Programming Coordinator –The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas
Pauline O’Brien, Head of Marketing – Disgrace, J M Coetze
Gabrielle Procter , Online Manager – Peeling the Onion, Gunter Grass
Fiona Menzies, Development Manager – The Tall Man, Chloe Hooper
Sarah Masters, Operations Manager – Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
Katherine Lynch, Executive Assistant - The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
Upcoming Events
With only a week to go until Christmas, we thought this might be the perfect time to offer you a little help with last minute gift ideas.
Tickets to our in augural Gala Night of Story Telling event are selling fast, so whether you’d like to give them as a gift, or to keep them for yourself, get booking.
On February 13th, 12 of Australia’s best writers will come together for an intimate night of storytelling at Melbourne Town Hall.
With contributions from Chloe Hooper, Paul Kelly, Cate Kennedy, Judith Lucy, Shane Maloney, David Malouf, John Marsden, Alex Miller, John Safran, Christos Tsiolkas, Tara June Winch and Alexis Wright this will be a literary event like no other.
On the anniversary of the Federal Government’s apology to the Stolen Generations, join us as we reflect on the stories that make us who we are and mark the arrival of The Wheeler Centre.
Book here
Following our Gala Night at the Town Hall, the February programme is full to the brim with exciting events, including our first Lunchbox/Soapbox with Peter Singer on February 25th.
It’s a simple idea: an old-fashioned Speakers’ Corner in the middle of the city, in the middle of the day.
Kicking off at 12.45pm, there’s no need to book, just pop into our lovely new Wheeler Centre building and let Peter Singer, one of Australia’s most eminent philosophers and ethicists, make you think.
Stay in Touch
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wheelercentre
Become a fan on Facebook: The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas
From all of us at the Wheeler Centre, we wish you a Wonderful Christmas.
New York Times' Year in Ideas
The New York Times Magazine wraps up a year of weird ideas and innovations, from A to Z, starting with advertisements that watch you.
Summer reading
The State Library of Victoria gives us its favourite 10 Victorian books, either by Victorians or set in Victoria, or both, for summer 2009-10.
State Library Summer Reads
A decade of books
December normally invites all kinds of 'year in review' type lists, and this year we have the added excitement of the end of a decade to contend with.
This being the case, we have decide to start listing the lists:
The Washington Post kicks off with a very comprehensive list of books for 2009, dividing and sub-dividing them into every possible genre, until one wonders if they simply haven't included every books published in the last 12 months. Plus there's an interesting discussion from their editors about the last 10 years in books.
Wolf Hall: Hilary Mantel
The Guardian gives the Washington Post a run for its money in the thoroughness stakes. They've worked their way through each year since 2000, and there's a nice piece on the books that defined the decade.
Colm Tóibín
A little closer to home, Readings staff, plus a group of Australian authors, publishers and editors have compiled a list of their favorite books for 2009. And they should know.
The London Times has come up with a list of the 100 best books of the decade, but have balanced it with their five worst books of the decade.
Best Films of the Decade
Paste Magazine lists the 50 best films of the decade.
The London Times newspaper list its 100 best film of the decade, with the number one spot going to Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love.
The Washington Post also lists its top movies moments of the noughties.
And the Guardian's best film of the noughties? Fahrenheit 9/11.
Policeman on the edge
The Washington City Paper reports on a light-hearted snowball fight that turned sour.
An off-duty policeman pulled his gun when he was accidentally hit during a snowball fight in Washington DC. His grumpy behaviour was meet with the seemingly sensible advice that you "don't bring a gun to a snowball fight."
US health legislation passes historic hurdle
The New York Times reports that the US health bill has passed a key test in the Senate, saying "both parties hailed the vote as seismic".
The Washington Post, however, calls Barack Obama's quest for healthcare legislation "a parody of leadership", and suggests the bill is rapidly becoming a nightmare for the US president.
Romanian Revolution
Twenty years to the day since Nicolae Ceauşescu's communist regime was overthrown in Romania, a revolutionary figure of another type is celebrating an anniversary.
It is 100 years since the birth of playwright Eugene Ionesco, one of Romania's most important cultural figures. But, as the Australian reports, there has been little evidence in his homeland that anyone has noticed.
Jane Austen celebrates her birthday with Zombies
Jane Austen would have celebrated her 234th birthday today and while her novels might have thrived over the last 200 years, she died relatively young, in 1817.
But, it seems, Austen lives on, or at least the undead version.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
With little regard for the acclaimed author's birthday celebrations, the Halloweenification of Austen continues.
According to The New York Times, Seth Grahame-Smith’s best-selling novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, from Quirk Books, is to be made into a film starring Natalie Portman.
So while Austen is undoubtedly turning in her grave, let's just hope she stays in it, unlike some characters in the forthcoming film.
The Sartorialist Down Under
The Sartorialist has been snapping locals in Sydney and Melbourne over the past week... we like Melbourne Man, even if he does seem to have forgotten his socks.
Scott Schuman: The Sartorialist
Scott Schuman's (aka The Sartorialist) book of collected sartorial highlights from around the world is published by Particular Books.
The digital future of books
The New York Review of Books on Google's plan to digitalise millions of books, presages the Wheeler Centre's debate on the same subject.
Reading in a Time of Change
At Meanland: Reading in a Time of Change, Meanjin's Sophie Cunningham will chair a discussion focussing on how technology might alter the way we read and write in the future.
Poppy palaces of Afghanistan
True/Slant's Afghan desk provides a glimpse at the country's burgeoning 'narcotecture' boom.
Met Moderniser dies
Thomas Hoving, one of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's most significant directors of recent years, has died the New York Times reports.
Scribe Fiction Prize longlist
Scribe Publications has announced the longlist for its 2010 CAL Scribe Fiction Prize award.
The Passion of Safran
Last night John Safran, one of the twelve storytellers who will be a part of our Gala Night inaugural event, was crucified on television.
John Safran's Race Relations on the ABC
Auctioning Audrey
Audrey Hepburn's personal effects, including letters, books and a wedding dress she never wore have been auctioned in London.
According to reports, the sale fetched around £268,320 ($A480,360), with half of the proceeds going to charity.
The collection came from over 50 years of outfits and letters, sent regularly to her friend Tanja Star-Busmann.
BBC Worldwide faces privatisation
It has been widely reported in the British press that the UK government is considering the sell-off of BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm and majority shareholder in Lonely Planet Publications.
The BBC has denied such a sale could take place, telling the Guardian that "Worldwide is not up for sale".
However, the Daily Mail reports that a sale could net the government up to £2 billion and that BBC Worldwide is part of a group of government owned assets facing privatisation.
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