How do you maintain live music in a culture that does not value it? Jon Rose, acclaimed improvising violinist and instrument-maker, examines Australia’s history of improvised music and musicians and …
We bring you some of our favourite finds from around the internet this week.Why Steven Soderbergh quit making moviesSteven Soderbergh (Traffic, Magic Mike, the Oceans Eleven series) has recently…
By Anthony Morris Game of Thrones is the hit show of the moment – and holds the dubious honour of producing some of the most pirated television episodes ever. It’s rare to hear a bad word about it…
We bring you our favourite findings from around the internet this week.It’s … Groundhog Day! 20 years onGroundhog Dog is one of those quietly classic films – it’s not showily clever, it didn’t win…
James Ley is the editor of Australia’s newest literary publication, the Sydney Review of Books, our (online-only) answer to the London Review of Books and New York Review of Books.We spoke to him…
We share five of our favourite links, articles and issues from around the internet this week.George Monbiot on climate change and Australia’s heatwave‘Climate change denial is almost a national…
By Adrian MartinIn the lead-up to 12 Angry People, our dramatic live reading directed by Adam Zwar, film critic Adrian Martin takes a fond look at the Oscar-nominated 1957 film 12 Angry Men. He…
Geordie Williamson, one of our leading literary critics, approaches books and writing with the ardour of an enthusiast – though he’s also alarmed at the way classic Australian literature is falling o…
Geordie Williamson, one of our leading literary critics, approaches books and writing with the ardour of an enthusiast – though he’s also alarmed at the way classic Australian literature is falling o…
by Stephanie Honor ConveryIn the wake of the book-reviewers-for-hire furore, Stephanie Honor Convery examines the scandal’s context: a proliferation of ‘consumer review spaces’ and a shift from the…
The author strikes backPatrick Somerville’s account of his new book being panned in the New York Times seems, at first glance, like another authorial whinge about being misunderstood by entitled…
We take a look at five features from around the internet that caught our eye this week. Enjoy!John Bryson on Azaria ChamberlainThis week, a Northern Territory coroner has found that a dingo was…
One of Australia’s lesser known literary awards is the Pascall Prize for Australian Critic of the Year, our only national prize for critical writing. Awarded annually, with the sum of $15,000, it…
Delia Falconer is a Sydney-based novelist, essayist and writer of short stories; she’s also one of Australia’s finest critics. Her latest book, Sydney, was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s and…
We share five of our favourite links to news, reviews or articles that we’ve discovered on the web over the past week.Fifty shades of spanking and Katie RoipheIt’s a bit weird to think that one of…
Rebecca Starford, managing editor of Kill Your Darlings, writes back to Geordie Williamson’s Long View essay on Australian rural writing and wonders: what does this trend of privileging the rural…
The Wheeler Centre’s senior writer Jo Case stumbled on a goldmine of reviewing advice after she put a question to Twitter. Here, she shares her booty. Don’t let anyone tell you Twitter can’t be a…
Geordie Williamson is one of Australia’s most respected (and most compulsively readable) reviewers. He is chief literary critic of the Australian and won last year’s prestigious Geraldine Pascall…
Today, we launch our new long-form review series, The Long View. Wheeler Centre director Michael Williams explains the thinking behind the series.One of the most frustrating things about working at t…
A new biography of Kurt Vonnegut has invoked a ill-tempered man consumed by bitterness and loneliness, a shadow of the avuncular persona well known to his adoring fans. The biography alleges that
Simon Leys' cultural and political commentary has spanned four decades, with no corner of the arts escaping his sharp eye and acerbic wit. Since moving to Australia in 1970 he has become one of the c…
Simon Leys‘ cultural and political commentary has spanned four decades, with no corner of the arts escaping his sharp eye and acerbic wit. Since moving to Australia in 1970 he has become one of the c…
“[I]n the early years of the 21st century, liberal America got its news from a satirical television program and its moral compass from a fortnightly journal of book reviews.” So writes Geordie…
She Must Be Seeing Things examines what happens when women use cameras to cast new eyes on the cultures around them.Organised by the Melbourne Centre of International PEN to mark 2011’s…
Judy Horacek’s take on book critics
Two related pieces appeared in The Observer on the weekend, signalling more debate over the role of the critic. Neal Gabler, author of…
Critiquing music can be fraught: whether it was Miles Davis or Elvis Costello who said it first, ‘writing aboutmusic is like dancing about architecture’. Our first event on the art of music…
Critiquing music can be fraught: whether it was Miles Davis or Elvis Costello who said it first, ‘writing about music is like dancing about architecture’. Our first event on the art of music…
Image courtesy of Pat Allan
On Sunday the Wheeler Centre extended its Critical Failure week with an unconference looking at bloggers and online writers.Unconferencers set t…
Andrew Weldon considers a different kind of critical failure.
If there was one intention for the week of Critical Failure it was that it would create debate – either in the event itself or spilling out onto the web or newspaper pages in the following weeks. …
John McDonald reckons a lot of arts criticism is “no more than a publicity release that has been in the microwave for a few seconds then printed in the newspaper”, while Naomi Cass thinks the whole p…
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but criticism lies in the pens and hard drives of our finest minds. This panel discussion draws on some of our leading arts writers as they ask what’s wrong …
Blogger, designer and visual artist, Culture Mulcher has been keeping a scrapbook of his visits to the Wheeler Centre and this week of Critical Failure he’s been particularly busy with sketches…
Is theatre criticism in Australia failing practitioners and audiences? In this energetic discussion, Alison Croggon, Julian Meyrick, Cameron Woodhead and Stephen Sewell assess the role of the…
Between the covers of our literary journals and weekend newspapers, reviewers shape what we read and buy. But as Gideon Haigh recently opined book reviewing is in trouble in Australia as reviewers…
As book pages in capital city broadsheets lose real estate to real estate pages, Hilary McPhee, Rebecca Starford, Gideon Haigh and Peter Craven ask what’s wrong with literary criticism in Australia. …
Have our film critics lost their way or merely their page space? And how should we be reviewing – and making – films in Australia?In a discussion led by Peter Mares, critics Adrian Martin, Mel…
Yesterday’s ALR in the Australian, ran an article on the state of Australian criticism by Geordie Williamson calling for a return to old-style reviewing and scholarship.Williamson has a hit list of w…
Author Gideon Haigh
Everybody wants to go to heaven, as they say, but nobody wants to die. So it is in the world of book reviewing. Everyone is in favour of frank and…
The Observer announced its top ten cook books on Sunday creating a stir in culinary circles.Many of the big names missed out. Our Stephanie Alexander came in at 31 with her cooking bible, The Cook’s…
Alison Croggon (Image courtesy Jacqueline Mitelman)
“As an artist, my relationships are experiential rather than theoretical. I certainly share with scientists and…
Festival director and composer Jonathan Mills has worked across the arts and sees their role in our society as essential. In his words: “In a sense this lecture is not really about the State of the A…
In conjunction with the ABC’s new Arts Gateway, Art Nation follows on from the ABC’s previous arts show, Sunday Arts, which Fenella began working on as a presenter and producer in 2006.Fenella…
Gideon Haigh has released another salvo in his campaign against Australia’s critical culture on Killings (the blog of journal Kill Your Darlings).In part Haigh’s response to Rosemary Neill’s piece i…
In this lively panel, hosted by Peter Mares, Dr David Hansen discusses his winning essay ‘Seeing Truganini’ with indigenous curators Brenda L Croft and Tony Brown. The debate approaches questions of …
The Australian’s Review magazine examined Australia’s arts criticism in an age when it is challenged by bloggers and the struggle to make the web profitable.Since 2006 more than 60 full-time…
