Sally Breen wanted to know more about real police work after she met a Queensland top cop who seemed good. The stories she found sit under her skin like lava.
Books + Ideas – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 251 - 275 of 1658 articles
Australia’s literary festivals are under threat from culture wars, climate risks, new hate speech laws and ongoing funding scarcity.
Over centuries, artists and censors have employed the humble fig leaf to cover the penis – including on Michelangelo’s ‘unmistakably male’ David.
China’s economic growth didn’t benefit Hu Anyan – but his exceptional literary talent did. His book about struggling to survive as a gig worker is a worldwide hit.
I read the books that helped shape The Family, the cult founded by an Australian yoga teacher in the 1960s – when Western societies were newly fascinated by the East.
Vigil shies away from elaborating on the perils of its subjects: late capitalism and the climate apocalypse.
An anthology of essays from Melbourne’s The Paris End showcases personal yet serious reportage and a delight in the weird.
Across nearly 2,000 years, popes have been involved in peace efforts – almost always on the sidelines. Can the papacy keep its independence in a polarised world?
Labor’s big 2025 victory sparked high hopes for significant reform. But real change is not so easy – especially in our time of high grievance and permanent campaigning.
Departure(s) sketches out the limits of Julian Barnes’ aspirations for his art.
Swimming at the beach was largely banned in Australia until the early 19th century – but now, it’s intrinsic to our national identity.
Miss Kate Cocks, the real-life first policewoman in South Australia, is the star of Lainie Anderson’s historical crime novels – with a Phryne-Fisher-like offsider.
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it’s timely to reflect on how the liberation of the camps was reported at the time – and how it changed journalism.
These ten change-makers, including Jessie Street and Charles Perkins, are just some of the key Australians who prodded the country to question its thinking on race.
Authors Hannah Kent and Toni Jordan got their start through writers centre initiatives. If Victoria loses its centre, it will be the only mainland state without one.
Infinite Jest is a kind of geological cross-section of a writer and a literary culture at a moment of major upheaval.
In the one-sided Mexican-American War, the US seized over 55% of Mexico’s land – including what today is California, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and parts of other states.
The biggest difference between China and the US today is not ideological, but lies in their respective abilities to get things done.
A publishing giant believes AI can help break writers’ block. We asked 5 creative writing experts if they’d use it that way – and the range of results surprised us.
Each of these poetry collections brings imagination to bear on material objects and places, on works of art, documents and archives.
Re-reading Jane Eyre after my diagnoses of autism and ADHD, her journey resembles the struggles of autistic women who learn to mask. I’m not the first one to see it.
Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is cook dinner and gather with the people you love.
The dire social and political landscape of Sadeq Hedayat’s time contributed to the existential despair and pessimism of his writing.
A former rock journalist reviews memoirs by Lemonhead Evan Dando, teen Rolling Stone writer Cameron Crowe and feminist punk legend Kathleen Hanna.
Just-resigned Adelaide Writers Week director Louise Adler calls the cancellation of the event ‘no surprise’. What went wrong?