We asked 5 literary experts what they were reading in the 90s – and why their pick stayed with them.
- Associate Professor, Creative Writing and Literary Studies, Victoria University
The emotional outbursts of MAGA men can seem spontaneous and even silly – but we should take them seriously, especially when they apply to war.
Australian First Nations and culturally diverse authors talk about the balancing acts expected of them – and the pressure not to be ‘scarily diverse’.
We found out the favourite 2025 books of 35 expert readers – and the Books & Ideas team shares our own picks, too.
Literature is full of dysfunctional families. We asked critics to nominate their least favourite mothers.
Literature is full of dysfunctional families. We asked critics to nominate the most troublesome fathers.
We’ve invited writers, from fields as diverse as wildlife ecology, politics and literature, to nominate their best books of 2024. And this year, the Books & Ideas team share their own picks, too.
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!
The Furies is a devastating book, but one that hints at the possibility of redemption and reckoning.
Comparing students’ comments on their teachers in in-person classes in 2019 and online classes in 2020, the one difference that stands out is the increase in bias against female lecturers.
My family is Mauritian, but when I take a DNA test, Mauritian didn’t even rank as an ethnicity. It can’t. Everyone from Mauritius is from somewhere else, or from many places at the same time.
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.
A recent attempt to broaden the Stella Count by measuring the diversity of writers reviewed proved to be a hard ask. Is the bigger problem here the whiteness of our publishing industry?
We know that male writers win more prestigious literary awards than female writers, but sadly, when women do win, it’s typically because they write about male characters, or “masculine’ topics.
When we waved goodbye to 2014, we also farewelled one of my favourite initiatives – The Year of Reading Women. After reading Joanna Russ’ 1983 book How to Suppress Women’s Writing in December 2012, author…
I recently watched Salinger (2013), the documentary about the late American writer J.D. Salinger, famous recluse and author of The Catcher in the Rye. In it, the word “genius” was bandied about often and…
So, the Stella Count is in for 2013. These are annual statistics collected by the Stella Prize that measure the number of books by women that get reviewed in major publications and the number of books…
Art as Therapy at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) promises to “challenge visitors to examine assumptions about themselves, society, and how art is viewed in galleries”. And it would be right…
Situated in Melbourne’s busy Arts Precinct, by the Yarra and the Botanical Gardens, is Victoria’s newest museum and the first museum in the country dedicated to Australian women’s history. The Museum of…
I had recently realised that the radio silence I’d been getting from my best and oldest friend wasn’t just about hectic schedules or different time-zones. Rather, in the most brutal and honest terms, I…
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