ADVANCES
The
latest literary news and musings from the Editor's desk ...
Hazel
Rowley: ABR/La Trobe University Annual Lecturer
Hazel
Rowley is the 2007 Australian Book Review/La Trobe University
Annual Lecturer. That title is quite a mouth-ful (the acronym
doesn’t bear thinking about), but one that Dr Rowley will
handle in her stride, as those who recall her appearances on Australian
literary stages will attest.
Dr Rowley – born in England and educated in Australia –
taught for many years at Deakin University before moving to the
United States. In 1993 she published Christina Stead: A Biography.
In her review in The Independent, Doris Lessing said, ‘Christina
Stead has long needed a good biographer, and here she is.’
Miegunyah has just issued a revised edition of the biography,
in time for Dr Rowley’s Annual Lecture – and her appearance
at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
Not averse to a challenge, Hazel Rowley went on to write a biography
of the black American writer Richard Wright, and a study of the
‘lives and loves’ of those almost mythical figures,
Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Sartre. Reviewing Tête-à-Tête
in the February 2006 issue of ABR, Colin Nettelbeck said,
‘Rowley unfolds her narrative with masterful skill’.
Dr Rowley, the fifth person to deliver the ABR/La Trobe
Annual Lecture, will discuss her career as a biographer: the challenges,
the insights, the vicissitudes. She will deliver the lecture in
Melbourne on May 24, and in Adelaide on June 7. These are free
events and open to the public, but reservations are essential,
as both lectures are expected to fill up rapidly. Full
details
The
Miles Quartet
Four titles have been shortlisted for this year’s Miles Franklin
Literary Award, the most exclusive shortlist in many years. The
featured novels are, in alphabetical order, Peter Carey’s
Theft: A Love Story
(Knopf), Gail Jones’s Dreams of Speaking (Random House),
Deborah Robertson’s Careless (Picador) and Alexis
Wright’s Carpentaria (Giramondo). Only Peter Carey
has won it before, and he has done so three times. The Award,
worth $42,000, will be announced on June 21.
Springing
eternal
Another month, another prize, and fresh claims to be the richest
literary prize – well, one of them. The Australian Society
of Authors has announced the creation of the Barbara Jefferis
Award, worth ‘at least $35,000’ (let’s hope that
bull market continues). It is the result of a $1,000,000 bequest
to the ASA from Jefferis’s husband, John Hinde, the late
great ABC film critic.
The new prize commemorates one of the ASA’s founding members,
the novelist Barbara Jefferis (1917–2004). A journalist and
novelist, Jefferis published her first novel, Contango Day, in
1954 and was still publishing three decades later. She was much
involved in the creation of the Public Lending Right scheme.
We may need a Barbara Jefferis Beat-up Award before too long,
because the criteria may prove contentious. The prize will go
to ‘the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts
women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status
of women and girls in society. The novel may be in any genre and
it is not necessary for it to be set in Australia.’ It will
be interesting to see how ‘positiveness’ and ‘empowerment’
are measured by the judging panel. Advances can think of many
novels, with supreme female protagonists, that might not, at first
blush, be eligible: among them The Aunt’s Story, and, discounting
nationality for a moment, The Portrait of a Lady and Anna
Karenina.
ASA Chair Georgia Blain has commented: ‘This is an extraordinary
act of generosity. And it is a wonderful reminder of Barbara’s
legacy. She worked tirelessly for the rights of authors.’
Anthological
chairs
The four major literary anthologies will appear again this year,
with a cou-ple of editorial changes. Peter Rose is the new editor
of Black Inc.’s The Best Australian Poems. At UQP,
John Tranter will choose The Best Australian Poetry. Robert
Drewe will edit his second Best Australian Stories, and
Drusilla Modjeska her second Best Australian Essays.
The
CBCA Book of the Year shortlist
The folk at Allen & Unwin should be feeling pretty pleased
with themselves now that the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s
Book of the Year 2007 shortlist has been announced. Six books
have been nominated for The Book of the Year (older readers):
Michael Gerald Bauer’s Don’t Call Me Ishmael!
(Omnibus, Scholastic); Judith Clark’s One Whole and Perfect
Day (Allen & Unwin); D.M. Cornish’s Monster Blood
Tattoo: Book One Foundling (Omnibus, Scholastic); Ursula Dubosarsky’s
The Red Shoe, (Allen & Unwin); Margo Lanagan’s
Red Spikes (Allen & Unwin); and Lisa Shanahan’s
My Big Birkett, (Allen & Unwin). The remaining shortlists
can be found at www.cbc.org.au.
Coming
issues
Each year we publish two double issues. In recent times the first
of these was in June–July. This year we have moved it to
July–August, so there will be a separate issue in June. The
December 2007–January 2008 double issue is not affected.
Nor is any current annual subscription (ten issues in all).
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