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The Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards shortlists 2016

Congratulations to all the authors shortlisted for this year’s Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards. These Awards are open to Australian women writers who have published a book of fiction or nonfiction classifiable as ‘life writing’.

The shortlisted titles for the $30,000 Kibble Literary Award (recognising the work of an established Australian woman writer) are:

A Few Days in the Country: And Other Stories by Elizabeth Harrower

Second Half First by Drusilla Modjeska

Small Acts of Disappearance by Fiona Wright

The…

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What we're reading: Jane Harper, Ann Turner and Helen Oyeyemi

Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on or the music we’re loving.

Stella Charls is reading The Dry by Jane Harper

I’ve always thought of myself as a slow reader, until I picked up The Dry. It’s a cliché, but I mean it when I say I could not put this book down. For two days my copy seemed glued to my hands, and…

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Children's and YA authors on reading, writing and confidence

This year the Stella Prize is launching Girls Write Up – a one-day wordfest for teenagers in Melbourne and Sydney in June that ‘teaches empowerment through writing and sharing stories’.

We asked some children’s and young adult authors whether reading and writing had played a role in building their own confidence as young people. Here are their responses.

“When I was in primary school I somehow summoned the bravery to enter our local library’s writing competition. I was a regular…

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Mark's Say, June 2016

by Mark Rubbo

I’ve just been to a book nerd’s paradise, a bookshop called Fang Suo Commune in Chengdu in Sichuan Province, China. Founded by Mao Jihong, owner of high-end fashion label Exception de Mixmind (China’s first lady is dressed by Mr Mao), Fang Suo is a giant space of 3800 square metres in the basement of an up-market shopping centre. It is a spectacularly beautiful and dramatic space with over 70,000 volumes, mostly in Chinese. I’d been invited to address the Chengdu…

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Emily Maguire interviews Jane Harper

by Emily Maguire

Emily Maguire talks with Jane Harper about her highly anticipated debut novel, The Dry.

The Dry opens on a scene of horror in a drought-stricken Victorian town, Kiewarra. Blowflies, ‘spoiled for choice’ and moving from one set of ‘unblinking eyes and sticky wounds’ to another as desperate farmers shoot their starving livestock, feast upon three smaller, smoother bodies: those of local farmer Luke Hadler, his wife, Karen, and their young son, Billy. In the background, a baby cries.

It’s…

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Dear Reader, June 2016

by Alison Huber

June is another huge month for early career Australian authors. We have debuts from Jane Harper (with her much anticipated work, The Dry), Sean Rabin (with an intriguing tale of a famous author in small-town Tasmania, Wood Green), Julie Koh (with satirical short story collection, Portable Curiosities), Hebe de Souza (with a narrative of family and identity in India, Black British), Jane Abbott (with a novel that joins the growing genre of climate change fiction, Watershed

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We love Jane Harper's The Dry

Here’s a collection of testimonials from Readings staff who have read, and loved The Dry – a searing fiction debut from Australian author Jane Harper.

“I loved this book; it’s some of the best crime I’ve read in years. Rural Australia bristles with menace and desolation as terrible secrets of the past are uncovered layer by layer.”

Mark Rubbo, managing director

“Jane Harper’s The Dry won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2015, and before…

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May in review

May was another big month for literary prizes. Two authors were declared Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelists (notably, neither have published ‘novels’, but instead have crafted brilliant story collections), and the Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist was revealed just a few days ago. We were delighted for all five authors, but we’re especially delighted for our St Kilda bookseller Alec Patrić, whose novel Black Rock White City is listed here. Last year, our former Head Book Buyer Martin…

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