Apart from his many other accomplishments (including a poem on page 43), Clive James is widely regarded as one of the finest essayists writing in English. Next month, we are delighted to announce, he will be our La Trobe University Essayist: his first appearance in this long series. Mr James's theme will be 'On Books, Libraries and Writing'. Sydney and Melbourne readers will have a chance to hear him deliver the essay as the Inaugural David Scott Mitchell Memorial Lecture. This new lecture series celebrates the bicentenary, in November 2002, of the first book published in Australia: the New South Wales General Standing Orders, less euphonious than Mr James's prose perhaps, but equally resilient. It also honours the great bibliophile David Scott Mitchell whose collection formed the foundation of the Mitchell Library. The first lecture will take place at the Sydney Town Hall on 18 November, at 7.30 p.m.; the second at the State Library of Victoria on 19 November, also at 7.30 p.m. Both are free to the public, courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales.

Morag Fraser, our La Trobe University Essayist in September, and a regular contributor to ABR (she reviews the new edition of Geoffrey Robertson's Crimes Against Humanity on page 29), has announced her impending departure from Eureka Street, which she has edited with distinction for more than ten years. Ms Fraser — a hard act to follow — will finish in April 2003.

As mentioned last month, Morag Fraser will join fellow 'dissenters' at the next ABR Forum, scheduled for Monday, 25 November. Other speakers taking part in 'Dissent and Its Malcontents: How liberal or tolerant is Australia in the face of dissent?' will be the playwright Hannie Rayson and Julian Burnside QC. Peter Rose, the Editor, will chair this ABR Forum. Full details appear on page 16.

Forums are all the rage at present, especially in the Blue Mountains, where audiences of up to 250 people have attended the Blackheath Philosophy Forums, which began in May this year. These are held on alternate Saturdays, from 4 to 6.30 p.m., at the Blackheath Public School. The entry fee is only $5. The next Forum will be held on 9 November, when Michael Devitt, an Australian philosopher who is Distinguished Professor at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, will discuss, appropriately, 'Thought and Language'. This is the last Forum for 2002; the series will resume in February 2003.

Congenially, Readings Hawthorn presents a monthly series of readings by two poets, beginning at 6.30 p.m., free to the public. This month's poets, Dorothy Porter and Chris Wallace-Crabbe, will be reading on Tuesday, 26 November.

Here's an auspicious offer too good to refuse. The Menzies Centre for Australian Studies in London is interested in hearing from Australian fiction writers and poets who are planning to visit the UK, so that it can arrange readings and book launches at the Centre or at Australia House. Interested authors should contact Dr Anne Pender at the Menzies Centre: Anne.Pender@kcl.ac.uk

R.A. Simpson, who died on 2 October, was a poet of great dedication and refinement. Perhaps his uncannily long tenure as poetry editor of The Age (1969_98) had something to do with his sparing rate of publication, but his collections were always treasurable. We publish one of his last poems on page 16, and look forward to the posthumous collection of Ron Simpson's poems and drawings, The Sky's Beach, in 2003.

On 12 November, at Newman College, Parkville, Philip Harvey, a regular contributor to ABR, will give a paper on Irish poetry of the past three decades, based on the writings of Medbh McGuckian. Admission is free.

Last month's La Trobe University Essayist, Peter Porter, has carried off one of Britain's most prestigious and lucrative poetry awards, the Waterstone's Prize for best collection (Max Is Missing), worth £10,000. Locally, the Association for the Study of Australian Literature has awarded the 2002 Mary Gilmore Poetry Prize for the best first collection to Geraldine McKenzie, author of Duty. By the time this issue is published, we will all know whether Tim Winton has won the Booker Prize for Dirt Music.

Finally, as always, we look forward to presenting ABR critics' nominations for the outstanding books of 2002 in our December/January issue.