Having been popular overseas for some time, street libraries are now dotting the landscape in many parts of Australia, including Canberra. Books covering many genres are offered free of charge, presented in a variety of containers, such as old fridges, filing or television cabinets or purpose-built cupboards. These mini libraries are a hub for borrowing or exchanging, with no charges, fines or need for a library card. … Read more.
Category: Writing Page 3 of 4
Content about writing & features
The 2018 Launceston Freelance Festival organised by its founder, Sue Bell, brought together people from Tasmania and mainland Australia, sharing their experiences and insights as freelancers. Held at the start-up space, Enterprize, in Launceston’s charming CBD, the Festival boasted a wide range of presenters and participants and was a great networking event and reminder of the talent and innovation of Australia’s many artists, journalists/writers and illustrators. … Read more.
Though now based in Melbourne, Anna Snoekstra grew up in Canberra. Her recent psychological thriller, Only Daughter, is set in Canberra. Based largely on “Bec”, the book takes readers on a journey of intrigue and twists and turns, with a puzzle which only fits together at the very end. Chapters alternate between 2003 (when Rebecca Winter went missing after finishing her late shift at McDonald’s in Manuka) and events of 2014 when the fake Bec takes on the persona of the decade-missing young woman. … Read more.
This year’s Canberra Writers Festival included former Canberran and Doug Anthony All Stars member, Richard Fidler (the ABC’s, Conversations), and Julia Baird, host of The Drum.
A keynote event (Ministry of Truth) hosted by ABC broadcaster, Dan Bourchier, provided lively discussion from Dutch journalist, Rutger Bregman and local journalists, George Megalogenis, Tony Jones and Katharine Murphy, covering many aspects of journalism and news, ranging from “fake news” to a brief outline of Tony Jones’s recent book (set in the 1970s Australia). … Read more.
Marking this year’s International Women’s Day, Charlotte Wood discussed her award-winning book, The Natural Way of Things, at a National Library event.
Speaking with The Guardian’s, Katherine Murphy, Wood described her experiences of writing the book, which focuses on 10 young women waking from a drugged sleep to find themselves in a run-down, Australian sheep station where they are isolated (no computers or telephones) and subjected to cruel treatment and hard labour from their male oppressors, including having their heads shaved and being tethered together. … Read more.
Reckoning by comedian and actor, Magda Szubanski (especially remembered as Sharon in the ABC’s, Kath and Kim), is a stark reminder of the horrors of WWII and Nazi occupation of many parts of Europe, including her father’s homeland, Poland. Magda provides insights into many aspects of life, ranging from her father’s experiences of being “an assassin” during the war as he helped Jewish people escape Nazis as well as her mother’s Scottish heritage and the family’s life in Scotland before coming to 1960s Australia where they settled into a new, outer Melbourne suburb (Croydon). … Read more.
In Grant and I, writer and musician, Robert Forster provides fascinating stories of life with the Go Betweens, the Brisbane band which he and Grant McLennan formed in the 1970s. Forster’s use of language is exquisite as he traces aspects of his childhood from late 1950s Brisbane: a secure family life and education at a local primary school and Brisbane Grammar School and then teaming up at Queensland University drama school with Grant. … Read more.
Various Australian universities including the University of Canberra, University of Sydney, Brisbane’s Griffith University and Swinburne in Melbourne, offer studies in journalism.
Numbers of students undertaking such degrees are increasing apparently despite that newspaper sales, numbers of media outlets, journalist jobs and cadetships are decreasing; journalists are being made redundant and free information and news are available on the Internet. … Read more.
Highlights of the recent Canberra Writers Festival included:
Steve Lewis and Chris Uhlmann launching their book, The Shadow Game, the third in their trilogy of The Marmalade Files and The Mandarin Code. Set in Canberra and centring largely on journalist, Harry Dunkley, The Shadow Game, has been described by the Sunday Canberra Times as ‘House of Cards, Canberra style’;
Sydney barrister, Mark Tedeschi QC, chatting with Canberra journalist, Robert Macklin, about how he fits researching/writing into his busy schedule. … Read more.
Sydney Writers Festival
The 2016 Sydney Writers Festival was a spectacular event with presenters including: Gloria Steinem; the ABC’s Insiders Live with Barrie Cassidy, Niki Savva, David Marr, Annabel Crabb and George Megalogenis; Richard Glover; Frank Bongiorno; Magda Szubanski; Tegan Bennett Daylight; Kerry O’Brien; Stan Grant; Sarah Ferguson; Bob Brown; Gail O’Brien and Juliette O’Brien; Kate Tempest; Julian Barnes; Jeanette Winterson; and Elizabeth Harrower. … Read more.