By Angharad Lodwick In 1967 a book was published that has haunted Australia for 50 years. To celebrate this milestone, the National Library of Australia held a very special event. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay is a novel set in the Mount Macedon area of Victoria in 1900. Centred around a fictional female … Continue reading
Like a Love Affair: Ivan Southall—Fellowship Presentation at the National Library of Australia by Dr Gabrielle Carey By Angharad Lodwick I remember reading a book in the late 1990s when I was in about grade six. All I could remember was that it was about a group of children who get stranded in a cave … Continue reading
By Angharad Lodwick As any aspiring writer knows, or is shortly about to find out, writing and rejection go hand in hand. J K Rowling was famously rejected as many as 12 times before she managed to find a publisher for her best-selling Harry Potter series. While I’m not quite at the stage of submitting … Continue reading
By Emma Gibson I’ve already shared some of my highlights from the recent Canberra Writers Festival. Over the course of that weekend I attended several young adult fiction events, which merited a post of its own. On the Sunday of the festival, I went to a session titled ‘The importance of Australian YA’. Immediately before … Continue reading
By Angharad Lodwick Where do I even begin? Is it two and a half years ago when I got a copy of Bitter Greens as a Christmas present from my aunt? Is it several weeks ago when I read Dragonclaw as the book for the feminist fantasy book club I’m part of? Or was it … Continue reading
By Angharad Lodwick I love anime. I remember watching Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura as a kid, then falling for Studio Ghibli classics like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke when I was older. There is something compelling about characters who are at once paragons of independence and yet still ultra-feminine. As I delved deeper into … Continue reading
By Emma Gibson There’s something remarkable in the capacity of audio to transport us to different places and to the past. Just like smell can conjure up memories, a piece of music can keep taking us back to a particular moment in life, and I think any audio recording can do the same. I have … Continue reading
By Emma Gibson One of my primary motivations in applying to be an ACT Lit-Blogger of the Future was the opportunity to engage not only with Australia’s contemporary literary scene, but also narratives of the past. I don’t think we can look to the future without understanding the past. The talk Indigenous Lives was about … Continue reading
By Angharad Lodwick Everyone has their happy place, and mine is without a doubt an author talk. Like-minded people, interesting conversation, wine, snacks and the opportunity to get your book signed by the person who wrote it? Sheer bliss. I’ve been going to author talks in Canberra for a while now, so it made sense … Continue reading
