The Readings blog

Pre-Covid, publishers would occasionally take booksellers out for drinks or dinner with one of their authors. Several years ago, Text Publishing had a function for Helen Garner. Sean O’Beirne, who also works as a bookseller, attended and was placed next…

The Future Is Fungi explores the mighty mycelial reach of fungi across four key areas: food, medicine, psychedelics and the environment. With mushroom profiles, informative texts on foraging and glorious 3D art, it’s a fascinating introduction to this hidden kingdom.…

After Australia is a vital anthology that presents 12 visions of Australia’s future from 12 exciting First Nations writers and writers of colour. We asked some of the book’s contributors to share their picks for Australian spec fic readers, and…

This is an edited extract from Ali Cobby Eckermann’s essay of the same title in Grandmothers: Essays by 21st-Century Grandmothers edited by Helen Elliott. In the night someone strung a line of crow carcasses across the fence outside her…

This year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) program is jam-packed. Stuck on what to see? Our staff share their most-anticipated films below. Pro tip: It looks like lots of people are keen to see Jim Jarmusch’s new flick, so book…

Clare Strahan is one of six authors shortlisted for the 2019 Readings Young Adult Book Prize for her coming-of-age novel, The Learning Curves of Vanessa Partridge. In this interview, she shares details of her writing process and the origins…

One of the perennial delights of working with new books is that there are always more new books (though it’s also a constant anxiety, since there are far too many to read, even in a thousand lifetimes), and we’re always…

Supported by The Readings Foundation, the Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowships offer emerging writers the opportunity to pursue their writing at a dedicated desk at the Wheeler Centre for ten weeks, supported by a $1,000 stipend for each writer. Following…

We sat down with the Carly Nugent – author of the 2019 Readings Children’s Book Prize winner The Peacock Detectives – to talk about what makes a good mystery, what inspired her book and what she’s been reading. Congratulations on…

Award-winning teacher librarian Megan Daley’s Raising Readers: How to Nurture a Child’s Love of Books is an essential guide for any parent or educator who wants to help the children in their lives fall in love with books. You can…

Compiled by award-winning author Maxine Beneba Clarke, with curatorial assistance from writers Ahmed Yussuf and Magan Magan, Growing Up African in Australia is a compelling and evocative new anthology that brings together the diverse personal stories of more than 30…

American author Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend is a moving meditation on friendship, loss, literature and memory, which revolves around the magical bond that develops between a grieving writer and her Great Dane. The book won the 2018 National Book Award…