Let the awards for Nature’s Line begin.
The shortlist for the very highly respected Ernest Scott Prize was announced today, and Janis Sheldrick’s amazing George Goyder biography is top of the list! With some spot on judges’ comments, too.
We’re incredibly proud of this book, and the mammoth amount of work, love and dedication put into by Janis.
We’re definitely expecting more from where this came from. Congratulations Janis!
… Or at least our very talented author Sally Hunter (née Foster) is.
Skip forward to 1:45 to see a reference to Sally’s upcoming book, Born to Swim. Available here soon – watch this space!
Thanks to an awesome Oz Co grant, we now have an ebook expert in residence for the next three months. Or, as we like to say: Simon is in the house!
We like this one. As well as being a general ebook Grand Master, he’s also an avid reader and reviewer, and an on-the-side Brow Lifter (online editor).
He also finds the best articles on interesting book-related things.
Which brings me to today’s links!
We have an awesome, awesome article on the struggle to read from the New York Review of Books. It’s a great piece on the way that we read today, and how it affects the way we write. Cheers for this Simon!
Second up is associated: an article from the New Yorker, on the proposed trigger warnings for students of literature, and the kind of impact that could have on readers. Another fascinating piece on the act of reading – something we’re pretty keen on exploring over here.
Third up is not a link, but an apology from me. Two New York-centric articles in one blog post? Not good enough!
Fourth, to localise things a bit, we have the interactive timeline for Golden North Ice Cream’s history. Just to continue with the Laura theme from yesterday. Also because it’s damn cool. Also also because I think we need more ice cream in this office. Whatever the weather.
Also also ALSO — this one‘s back in stock guys!
Better be quick!
Rise and shine kiddies, let this new (and short!) week begin …
To be perfectly honest, we’re struggling to keep up with our authors over here —
There’s Dino Hodge, on Late Night Live with Phillip Adams last night discussing Don Dunstan. Wonderful interview.
Then there’s Kate Strohm, who’s again heading to Italy to present on sibling issues discussed in her book, Siblings: Brothers and Sisters of Children with Disability. She presented at workshops in Italy in 2006 and 2013, and this year she’s preparing to present in Assisi and Glasgow. Kate says the experiences have been especially memorable – though working with a translator all day can be exhausting! – and reinforce the idea that families are the same the world over.
Then Philip Butterss, who has been running all over town presenting for the brilliant C.J. Dennis biography, An Unsentimental Bloke, has a launch coming up at Laura on the 22 June. Laura‘s a pretty rad place – C.J. Dennis wrote the poem ‘Laura Days’ about his time there:
When the evening sun slants through the gums,
By my forest-rimmed abode
Once more the old clear picture comes,
And my mind drifts down the road;
Back to the town by Beetaloo,
Where the rocky river strays;
Back to the old kind friends I knew
In the dear dead Laura days.
Couldn’t have put it better myself, Clarry. Except I would have added a line about how it’s the homeplace of Golden North ice cream, obvs.
And that’s only three accounted for! To keep up with everyone else, keep an eye on our events calendar.
Check it out! We’re famous this week!
Do love that Aspire magazine. And if you want to check out the latest Holden book before it gets pinched, too, just click here!
As promised, you can see a few pictures from the launch of Don Dunstan, Intimacy and Liberty from last week here.
And below, author Dino Hodge looking just as pleased as he should:
Photo courtesy Jenny Scott.
What a night!
The simple act of going into a bookshop and buying an Australian novel is now radical. The slightly more demanding act of reading that novel is political. This is a good in itself. This makes the work good. It stimulates the economy, not to mention your intellect and capacity for empathy. It also provides writers, editors and publishers with the means to continue doing what they do. Most importantly, it stimulates a conversation, creates a context in which other Australian novels can live. That is, it creates a culture.
– Adam Ouston, Daily Review
This stuff is golden, if you don’t mind me saying.
There’s been a lot of discussion around the place recently of civic duty, in the wake of the Budget announcement a couple of weeks ago. How to actively engage and participate with this ol’ society of ours? How to be a part of the bigger conversation? The ‘F**k Tony Abbott’ t-shirts going around at the moment, as satisfying as they may be, do not an engaged discourse make. David Ouston from the Daily Review has a good solution, though, and one that we here at WP can heartily endorse: buy more Aussie books! Read the piece here. Buy the books here (of course).
Next, a short and topical video for your Monday kicks:
Now, if you’re looking for a good old fashioned bricks and mortar bookstore to find your Aussie books in, those lords of lists at Buzzfeed have put together 17 Spectacular Bookshops in Australia to See Before You Die (okay, a bit of a mouthful, and if you ask us there about five hundred more bookshops to be added to this list, but you get the point).
And, last but not least, an extract from Dino Hodge’s astounding Don Dunstan, Intimacy and Liberty, over on InDaily. Read the extract, check out the rad pics, then buy the book here.
Yes yes, the launch was last Thursday, and there will be photos of us all in our Don-inspired get up soon. Too soon.
Happy Monday, kids!
What impeccable manners (and it’s our pleasure, guys!) —
It started innocently enough. In preparation for our launch of Don Dunstan, Intimacy and Liberty, we’ve been throwing some costume ideas around the office. Seventies, defs. This is the man who made those hot pink shorts so famous (see the book cover for proof). There’s also that mini yukata from his resignation. The paisley blazer at his 70th. Or whatever it is that’s going on here.
How would we ever live up to his sartorial standards?
And then our very own Michael Deves dug out this little gem:
The white Levis! The leather bag! The sandals! The setting! What a man!
This was promptly followed by Liz’s adorable schoolgirl photo from around the same time:
If I had that blue dress, I would wear it every day – just by the by. Points for guessing which one’s Liz!
To top it all, Michael Bollen pulled out this doozy:
Ain’t nothing can compete with that hair.
And then, just to really get into the mood of the thing, Devesy called our attention to this cultural time capsule:
Someone better come check on us, because WP HQ is timewarping hard right now.
This is but a taste of some of the delights that will be on show at the launch of Don Dunstan, Intimacy and Liberty on the 22 May. Yes, we will be dressing up, and yes, it will be a riot – come join us for the fun!
Here’s a few good links for your Wednesday morning:
First of all, Wakefield author Derek Pedley has written a ripper of a piece on the impact of SA police not speaking to the media. This is fascinating from a true crime perspective (get on Dead by Friday if you haven’t already, by the by) but also important reading for every SA citizen.
Next, we have this article about hashtags and how they signify meaning (fascinating and highly recommended for all you wordnerds out there). Contains the brilliant NY Times quote:
When Slate‘s Julia Turner profiled the hashtag in 2012—months before it would be named the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year—she noticed that it allowed “the best writers to operate in multiple registers at once, in a compressed space.” She concluded, “It’s the Tuvan throat singing of the Internet.”
Next (and on theme), we have some Tuvan throat singing:
Last but not least, there’s the SA Writers Centre‘s editing boot camp program, which has just been released. I guess we all know about SAWC, about how they were the first of their type in Australia, how they continue to serve as a model for writers’ centres around the world, how they manage to do so much for literary culture in SA … (oh we’re bloody lucky over here).
Happy Wednesday guys!
