Nonfiction
No Document by Anwen Crawford
I place my review copy of Anwen Crawford’s No Document on the ledge under the mirror at my hairdresser appointment. The book is full of coloured tags and my hairdresser, who has just told me she was born in the…
The Hard Crowd by Rachel Kushner
Rachel Kushner is a masterful storyteller. Her fiction is sharply insightful, completely original and always entertaining. This collection of short pieces proves her nonfiction to be just as engaging and provocative.
Appearing in print over the last 20 years in…
Car Crash: A Memoir by Lech Blaine
Blaine is sitting in the passenger seat of a 1989 Ford Fairlane, surrounded by six of his mates (two piled in the boot). It’s 2009, and the group of teenagers are driving home from a house party in Toowoomba, Queensland…
Emotional Female by Yumiko Kadota
You may recall an article in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2018 about a junior doctor resigning from the Australian public health system due to burnout. Rostered up to 20 consecutive days in a row, clocking well over 100 hours…
The Care Factor by Ailsa Wild
2020 was an unprecedented year in many ways, exposing much of what is deeply flawed about our current societal structures. COVID-19 has taught us much about where the gaps are in our social fabric, who are our society’s most vulnerable…
Return to Uluru by Mark McKenna
By most measures Uluru is just a few hundred kilometres from the geographic centre of Australia. The location of the centre fascinated explorers such as Charles Sturt and Cecil Madigan. It’s held an equal fascination for historian Mark McKenna. While…
The Believer by Sarah Krasnostein
How do you get up each morning and face the day when you’re serving a 35-year life sentence for murder? How does your belief system stand up to this kind of scrutiny? Sarah Krasnostein asks this question of one of…
Eating With My Mouth Open by Sam van Zweden
Sam van Zweden’s debut book, Eating with My Mouth Open, is a collection of essays that dismantle the ideas and expectations around weight and well-being through the lens of food writing. Her story will be familiar to many, especially if…
Literary Lion Tamers by Craig Munro
Everyone who knows me knows I’m obsessed with publishing, and I frequently read books about books, so I was thrilled to see Literary Lion Tamers published. Craig Munro has had an impressive career – over 30 years in the publishing…
Coming of Age in the War on Terror by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Since 9/11, Muslim communities have become one of the most frequently targeted minorities in Australia. From tabloid media and political rhetoric to the national curriculum, the Australian imaginary still reduces, marginalises and demonises Muslims. While the irony of the colonial…
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