This is from a great new essay by @emmettstinson.bsky.social www.erudit.org/en/journals/...

I co-edited this bilingual issue of Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture w/ @julienlf.bsky.social (an excellent collaborator). It's all open access.

I wasn't sure about this at first but I'm now 2/3rds through and enjoying it very much. I wish the writing was more stylish but could a novel even win the Miles Franklin if it weren't a little clunky in places?

Carey is one of Australia’s greatest short story writers just from his two early collections. He could have been one of our best writers. Instead, he became an internationally successful novelist. Hard to fault him for it, but still a loss for literature. www.theage.com.au/culture/book...

Helen Garner at the launch of HEAT in Perth

Brilliant dataset on literary prizes - and a way to track trends and changes over time - from Katherine Binhammer and colleagues : data.post45.org/posts/britis... Digital humanities are go.

“…while Solzhenitsyn suffered in the gulag, Amerena’s characters suffer in an environment even more soul-destroying: Melbourne literary dinner parties.” Golden.

I reviewed Dominic Amerena's I Want Everything for Kill Your Darlings. www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/aust...

Just finished doing some public policy analysis for a UK group. The UK has a lot of lessons to teach Australia - stay the absolute fuck away from every policy prescription the UK undertook on every area of public policy over the last two generations. And completely ignore their campaign brainworms.

can't argue with this!

gorgeous stuff out of Tasmania troth.bandcamp.com/album/an-unf...

RIP David Thomas from Pere Ubu. One of the outfits who made punk so great for me. youtu.be/KjzZSHPuZBA?...

RIP David Thomas youtu.be/cQR4yZC2cJw?...

it's the halcyon days for me and my seven uncles who are manufacturing our own line of TVs in our backyard shed that can explode and kill you

@causticcovercritic.bsky.social @timcoronel.bsky.social @thebooksdesk.bsky.social @emmettstinson.bsky.social

One of my favourite writers—a huge loss for literature. Buy one of his books today if you’ve never read him!

I’m deeply affected by this review of Murnane’s Border Districts on Goodreads

who are THE Australian book reviewers who SHOULD review my upcoming debut novel, NOCK LOOSE???

Bought this lovely hardback copy of Camille’s Bread last week in an op shop for a fiver. Is the Amanda who signed it…um…you know…?

Starting off the work-at-home morning with some uh happy music

top-notch op shop cop

No country for old media.

If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?

People just keep releasing novels with the title The + [weird, non-idiomatic gerund] -- each one a little weirder and less idiomatic than the last.

A lament that Jen Craig has no wikipedia page. Oh well, maybe this from @emmettstinson.bsky.social is a good starter... theconversation.com/bad-art-frie...

Looks like I'm never leaving this corner of the house again ever

I don’t know how else to put it, but: I think a serious problem faced by OzLit is that there is absolutely nothing cool about it. We have not produced a cool author, a cool book, in decades, arguably ever tbh.

This is an absolutely beautiful print object but not an easy read...

Alice Grundy on the implications of the Text / PRH merger theconversation.com/the-acquisit...

Seems as bad a time as any for this...

This was an incredible reading experience—and surprisingly propulsive despite the novel’s difficulty. The first 100 pages are so unbelievably great that the novel can’t quite maintain that level, but this is true of a lot of great books (eg White Noise).

Managed to find two interesting books in a not very good bookshop. The guy at the counter said, ‘Hmmm, these are a bit off the beaten path…but I’m sure you’ll enjoy them!’

Came to Roden too late but this is fantastic steveroden.bandcamp.com/album/oionos

Enjoyed this funny, metafictional novella about a French author self-consciously trying to write an 'American' novel.

Finished Annihilation, which answers the question 'What if Michel Houellebecq wrote a Jonathan Franzen novel?'

1: Mark an X in remote woodland on a map 2: Add note saying “If anything happens to me, the money’s buried here.” 3: Put map in suit pocket 4: Give suit to charity shop

Maybe the books don't want you to read them, ever think of that?

Several years ago, I tried to read Oguz Atay's The Disconnected and gave up because of the poor quality of the translation. What a joy finally to read his work in elegant, idiomatic English!

before i got banned from this online poker site i used to tell people i was driving the whole time i was playing and they always lost their shit

Pretty much indicative of how everything works here.

Got my filthy paws on the new complete(?) collected Bolaño stories. I've included the contents list of the "new" stories here for people like me who already have LAST EVENINGS ON EARTH/THE RETURN/THE INSUFFERABLE GAUCHO--there's about 140p of new stuff.

Finished the new De La Pava, which is much more like his Personae than the big novels.

First book of 2025 is this weird, funny novella from @coronasamizdat.bsky.social about a talking, plush-toy donkey who has witnessed a murder...