Literature is full of dysfunctional families. We asked critics to nominate their least favourite mothers.
- Visiting Fellow, Centre for Cultural and Creative Research, University of Canberra, University of Canberra
Literature is full of dysfunctional families. We asked critics to nominate the most troublesome fathers.
Don’t, whatever you do, parent like Erica Jong. Her daughter’s memoir of the ‘worst year’ of her life is fiercely loving – but she’s horrified at how she was raised.
Aphrodite’s Breath is the story of the island of Kythera, and of being a sometimes unsatisfactory daughter to a much loved, but aloof, mother.
Neanderthals living in Italy swam confidently and In early Egyptian, Greek and Roman images people are shown swimming overarm. But today, only one in four people in low income countries can swim.
When Chloe Hooper’s partner was diagnosed with leukaemia, she struggled to talk about the possibility of his death with their two young children. She found the words in books.
The sea-pool made my body my friend again. I felt then that it had always been thus, for a few moments, lithe and buoyant, and almost joyful.
Yesterday, the British Literary Review awarded the 2015 Bad Sex in Fiction award to Morrissey. So what is it about sex writing that’s so difficult – and what’s the secret of writers who know how to seduce?
More than a dozen political memoirs were published in Australia last year. Does that make us a nation of political junkies? If not, why so many books and what do they contribute to cultural debate?
Negative reaction by other authors to Salman Rushdie’s book ratings demonstrates how sensitive writers can be. But why shouldn’t an author give however many stars they like to a book?
The University of Queensland Press caused controversy when it turned down Campbell Newman’s memoir – but why shouldn’t a publisher be entitled to principled refusal?
We’re starting 2015 with an experiment in collaborative creative writing. What happens when you ask ten academics to write a story together? Taking our cue from the Exquisite Cadaver game played by Surrealist…
When something is wrong in the world of literature, who better to blame than the writers? Nobel Prize for Literature judge Horace Engdahl said this week, only days before the award was given to French…
Are we being saturated with “inconsequential memoir”? That question was posed in the latest edition of The Lifted Brow (TLB), a print/online journal of new Australian and international (think US) writing…
The Saturday Paper publishes anonymous book reviews and, occasionally, reviews by identified critics. That anonymity was a much-discussed feature when the paper launched in March, and the debate continues…
Having served in a more humble capacity at the University it is now an honour to call myself a professor at Kingston. – Hanif Kureishi. In October last year Hanif Kureishi, novelist and screenwriter, and…
Let’s imagine I’m writing this article with my tomato-red Pomodoro timer gently ticking over in productive 25-minute intervals while taking a break from the novel I’m writing at a rate of 1,500 words a…
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