The Broad Bean Sermon, while not his best-known poem, shows why Les Murray is considered by some to be Australia’s preeminent poet.
- Professor of Writing and Literature, Deakin University
Like Jorge Luis Borges before her, Solvej Balle employs fantasy to philosophise on the nature of reality.
Summer reading can mean anything you want it to – from a crime or romance novel to a fat classic you didn’t have time for during the year. What will you read?
Chris Wallace-Crabbe was one of Australia’s best-known poets. Generations of students and colleagues benefited from his wisdom and generosity.
We were dismayed to see no Australians on the New York Times Best Books of the 21st Century – so, with the help of 50 experts, we created our own, all-Australian list. You can have your say, too!
Anne Carson’s playful new book, Wrong Norma, meaningfully makes apparently random connections – and the result is compelling.
Award-winning, much-loved Australian writer Peter Goldsworthy is better equipped than most to write an illness memoir: he’s also a GP.
Critic Greil Marcus sees Bob Dylan as constantly rewriting the national songbook. And in his weird, funny new book, Dylan does just that.
An extraordinary technological feat, Get Back looks and sounds astonishingly good.
Through 154 songs, Paul McCartney gives us an insight into his life. There is an elegaic feel to this book, which showcases the many sides to McCartney’s songwriting.
The Munich-based record label ECM specialises in jazz and Western classical music. The artistry found in its catalogue allows a degree of abstraction that can be energising while enduring a pandemic.
Whether you’re home sick or sick of being at home, our 13 experts have picked excellent things you can read, watch, look at or listen to.
If you were in charge of the new parliamentary book club, what Australian book would you want your representative to read? Our experts weigh in.
Les Murray’s signature style was a potent mix of ordinary language, specialist vocabulary, and eccentric syntax. His poetry made us see things anew.
Remixing a Beatles album might be seen as both artistically redundant and cynically commercial. But this remixed classic allows us to experience the album in a new way.
In Hounds of Love, Kate Bush’s extraordinary vocal performances are the musical equivalent of speaking in tongues. There are few more thrilling, literate, and ambitious works of popular music.
This extraordinarily odd speech might well be the singer’s most Dylanesque performance.
Perhaps more clearly than Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen showed that songwriting can be a literary art. Within his apparently simple words lies a profound sense of playfulness and enigma.
Ancient poems were accompanied by a musical instrument called the lyre – from which we get the word ‘lyric’. ‘Literature’ and ‘poetry’ are categories of our own making - so moving beyond them in a major award seems long overdue.
Contact David for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Research supervision
- Location: Geelong, Australia
- Website
- X (formerly Twitter): @MccooeyDavid
- Article Feed
- ORCID
- Joined
