Conversations at the SLV
Literary evenings at the State Library of Victoria continue this year with Don Watson in conversation with Barry Jones on Tuesday, 18 March, and Robert Gray speaking to Lyn McCredden on Tuesday, 8 April. Both events are at the Village Roadshow Theatrette at 6.30 p.m. Bookings: (03) 8664 7016.

Love and biography
The State Library of New South Wales has another full events programme, including (on Thursday, 27 March) 'Stella Bowen: Art, Love and War', a symposium coinciding with an exhibition of the same name. Drusilla Modjeska, Ros Pesman and John McPhee will join Lola Wilkins, the curator. Peter Rose, Editor of ABR, will deliver the Inaugural National Biography Award Lecture on Thursday, 3 April. To book for these or other events call (02) 9273 1770.

Celebrate Magic Pudding
The NSW Children's Literature Festival is on again this year at the Norman Lindsay Gallery in Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains on 22 and 23 March, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be workshops and talks about children's books for both adults and younger readers, by authors and illustrators including Morris Gleitzman, Emily Rodda and Kim Gamble. For bookings or more information call (02) 4784 3832 or visit www.nationaltrust.org.au.

Narrative journeys
On 11-12 April the National Library of Australia will host a conference on Travellers' Tales, with presentations on 'Bringing Them Home' by Anna Haebich and Doreen Mellor, 'Crossing Cultures' by Barry Hill and 'Creative Journeys' by Ros Pesman. Bookings: (02) 6262 1122.

Eureka!
The successor to Morag Fraser as Editor of Eureka Street has been announced. Marcelle Mogg, currently the Editor of Australian Catholics, will take the reins at Eureka Street for the May issue.

Future of the book
There will be more discussions about the health of books and publishing on 22_24 April. RMIT University and Common Ground Publishing are hosting the International Conference on the Future of the Book at the Cairns Convention Centre, Cairns. Speakers will include Jason Epstein, founding Editor of New York Review of Books and author of Book Business, and Jan Fullerton, Director-General of the NLA. Bookings: (02) 9519 0303 or visit www.Book-Conference.com.

Norfolk bound
The adventurous will want to start saving for the inaugural Norfolk Island Writers' and Readers' Festival, which will be held on the island from July 19 to 26. Australians taking part will include John Marsden, Doris Brett and Jacqueline Kent. Antarctica must surely be next.

Space race
The theme of this year's Reading Matters is Place, Space and Race. International writers will include David Almon, Deborah Ellis and Benjamin Zephaniah. Australian participants will include Boori Monty Pryor and Meme McDonald. Reading Matters is presented by the Australian Centre for Youth Literature. To book or make enquiries call (03) 8664 7014 or visit the ACYL website www.statelibrary.vic.gov.au/acyl/.

Calling all authors
Everyone knows that not all books written by Australians are published locally or readily available in this country. What readers may not appreciate is that it can be next to impossible to find out about them from their publishers. Many international conglomerates notify ABR about such titles (and send us review copies when we seek them), but not all of them. Some even refuse our requests for review copies, having decided, in their wisdom, not to import stock. It's as if they don't want to sell copies in the colonies. Scholarly works (ostensibly deemed marginal or unsaleable) suffer in particular. This strikes ABR as anachronistic — not to mention a tad provincial. ABR readers want to know about the widest variety of Australian works, wherever they are published, and irrespective of multinationals' marketing plans. We encourage Australian authors publishing overseas to ask their publishers to send us information about their works, and review copies. If they won't, let the Editor know and he'll have a go on your behalf.