Search our site:
It’s cold outside, but inside the Wheeler Centre, we’re gathering for four consecutive Mondays of indigenous storytelling.Oral storytelling is almost a lost art in these days of blogs, high-speed…
Lally Katz didn’t know much about golems, the mystical Jewish creature, until she began researching them for this play, commissioned by Michael Kantor. She says that the golem mystery soon became…
The Wheeler Centre’s Shannon Hick confesses her unexpected passion for the daytime soap Days of Our Lives – and how she once shaped her uni schedule around it, so as not to miss the antics of Devil…
In The Long View’s final essay, Estelle Tang delves into fictional portrayals of the child abuser: from Foal’s Bread to Lolita and Lilian’s Story. Approaching this complex, profoundly uncomfortable s…
Fiona McGregor profiles the crime writing of Peter Doyle; a man whose access to a recovered cache of NSW Police photography finds voice via the influence of cinematic narration, rock'n'roll and the r…
A Murri woman and an active campaigner for Australian Indigenous rights, Bullimore is also involved in campaigns for Palestinian self-determination and human rights and other social justice issues…
Some memoirs are less about the subject than about meeting the writer on the page. New York composer Joshua Cody’s [sic], ostensibly about being a young cancer patient, is one of those memoirs. Cody …
Gun violence is at the top of the news bulletins this week, both in Australia and the US. On Saturday, police opened fire on a stolen car joyriding through Kings Cross; the driver, a 14-year-old…
Be horrified and delighted as your favourite comics describe, in gruesome detail, the worst gigs of their lives. Lawrence Mooney, Joel Creasey, Greg Fleet, Geraldine Hickey, Tony Martin and host…
The shortlist has been announced for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK-based literary prize for the best book for a woman writer, now in its 17th year.Contenders are:Half Blood Blues by Esi E…
What’s bigger news than the awarding of a major prize? The decision not to award a major prize. The literary world is agog with the news that the Pulitzer prize for fiction will not be awarded in…
Be horrified and delighted as your favourite comics describe, in gruesome detail, the worst gigs of their lives. Tom Gleeson, Cal Wilson, Denise Scott, Dave Thornton and host George McEncroe walk us …
Toni Jordan examines the humorous streak running through Australian fiction – from Carey to Coetzee, from crime to the comic novel – and celebrates the curious wonder of laugh-inducing writing.
Taking criticisms of Miles Franklin shortlists as his starting point, Geordie Williamson examines the relationship between urban and rural settings in modern Australian fiction. Defending stories…
We began our Monday morning at the Wheeler Centre with a bit of a giggle, after stumbling on a very funny website that brings literary characters to (startlingly) real life.The creator of The…
The year 2011 was the year a wave of popular unrest spilled out across the globe. It all began in Tunisia and spread to Egypt, toppling the sclerotic Mubarak regime, although doubts remain about how …
While Palestinian attempts to secure full membership of the United Nations are still pending, signs have abounded that they will ultimately prove futile. Representatives of the Palestinian…
The Palestinians' unswerving action at the United Nations may not grant them the statehood they crave, but in effect their strategy has not been for nought. The intransigence that divides them from t…
Prior to his appointment in 2008, he served with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), undertaking five postings in the Middle East, including as Australian Ambassador to Jordan…
Illiteracy and poverty go hand in hand. There are almost 800 million adults and children alive today who can’t read, and most of them live in the developing world. Closer to home, only 15% of…
One of the world’s finest thinkers and writers, the incomparable Amos Oz, delivers the 2011 Monash Israel Oration at Melbourne Town Hall, under the title ‘Israel: Peace, War and Storytelling’. The…
Naomi Chazan is a senior Israeli academic, an activist for peace and women’s rights, and a former member of the Knesset. In this wide-ranging conversation, she examines the issues facing the region.N…
Naomi Chazan is a senior Israeli academic, an activist for peace and women’s rights, and a former member of the Knesset. In this wide-ranging conversation with Rafael Epstein, she examines the…
The Shakespeare authorship question is perhaps literature’s most famous and enduring conspiracy theory. Since its birth in the early 19th century, some 70 different candidates have been proposed as b…
Central Madrid’s Puerta del Sol has been immobilised for over a week by tens of thousands of protesters demonstrating against cuts to social services prompted by Spain’s dire fiscal situation. In…
Image via Flickr Beginning today, and over the next two Mondays, we’re featuring essays written by our three Unpublished Manuscript Fellows – Peggy Frew, Andrew Nette and…
The death of David Foster Wallace in September 2008 was a loss for readers everywhere. Foster Wallace’s unique brand of literary pyrotechnics made the LA Times dub him ‘one of the most influential…
1871 illustration of a Russian grave-digger by Viktor Vasnetsov [1848-1926] from the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, via WikiCommons The publication of David Foster Wallace’s…
In the US, today is Taxation Day, when tax returns must be submitted to the Internal Revenue Service. It’s also the official release date of David Foster Wallace’s Pale King, although as we’ve noted…
Genius. The greatest writer of his time. The most committed thinker of his generation. Linguistic gymnast. Overly self-conscious know-it-all. As a man who was the object of adoration, envy and more t…
One of the year’s most anticipated publishing events has become just a fraction less anticipated. It was commonly believed that David Foster Wallace’s posthumous novel The Pale King was due to be…
During his short lifetime, US writer David Foster Wallace seems to be loved and loathed in equal measure. No more. The writer of Infinite Jest and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again took his …
Maher Mughrabi joined The Age in 2003 after working as a sub-editor in Britain (The Independent, The Scotsman and The Daily Mail) and the United Arab Emirates (Khaleej Times). While working as a…
(Click to watch video.) A novel manuscript entitled ‘The Hanging Garden’, unfinished at the time of its author Patrick White’s death, is set to be…
David Foster Wallace (image courtesy Steve Rhodes via Wikicommons) For fans of late great American novelist David Foster Wallace 2011 is all about the posthumous release…
Author and critic James Bradley We’re at a weird juncture. Just as the latest round of Wikileaks dumps has drawn a line under the old political and media paradigm, the…
My review of Tim Flannery's 'Here on Earth' follows the introduction.This is the first book on climate change that I have read that raises the question of space development. Flannery says yes, but…
Photo Lucian Chaffey Leanne Hall arrives at the State Library engulfed in a coat and scarf, a lavender beanie over her pixie haircut. Her attention to detail when it comes …
British writer George Orwell worked as a book reviewer but was always uncomfortable with the job. In this 1946 essay he argues that a book critic must “sell… honour for a glass of inferior sherry&rdquo…
The Wheeler Centre: gate detailDesigned by Joseph Reed, the Melbourne Public Library was established in 1853 and opened in February 1856.The south wing was completed in 1886 and the first floor…
Comment on 'David Foster Wallace's 'Pale King': A...' Comment · Fri, 15 Apr 2011
I posted briefly The Pale King yesterday. I like this from Kottke: Growing sentences with David Foster Wallace