Books Editor. An admirer of songs and reader of books. Simon has a PhD in English and Comparative Literature. All errant apostrophes are his own.
It’s been announced today that Bob Dylan has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2016 – marking the first time the prize has gone to a recipient who is primarily a musician. The Swedish Academy in awarding the prized cited that Dylan had “created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”….
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The organisers of the Perth International Arts Festival have teased details of their 2017 program, revealing a glimpse at what they have in store for the opening weekend, including details of next year’s opening event. In recent years the festival opening event has been a grand spectacle, from gigantic puppets walking the streets of the…
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Ahead of the release of his new children’s book Mulga’s Magical Musical Creatures we sat down with Sydney-based street artist, illustrator and poet Mulga (Joel Moore) to find out a little bit more about the new book, how he created those illustrations, and just what makes the perfect children’s book. What was the initial inspiration behind…
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The 2016 Shortlist for the Man Booker Prize has been unveiled, and once again it makes for some interesting reading. Past winners, and literary heavyweights have found themselves dispensed with as the judges have agonisingly whittled down the long list to a mere six titles. The six authors and books that made the shortlist then…
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Moulin Rouge! will be returning to its theatrical roots (in a sense) with the announcement that the acclaimed film will be coming to the stage as a new musical. For now everything is still very much in the developmental stages, with a production timeline and venue still to be announced. So what do we know…
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The short story, is perhaps one of the most underappreciated of the literary forms. Certainly it’s a format with its readers and, naturally, writers, but it’s never quite had the audience or the celebrity it’s longer form cousins – the novel – have. But all that could be able to change, with the launch of…
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Earlier this year it was announced that Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard would be returning to Australia for a run of shows this October, in support of his latest record, the Grammy nominated Didn’t He Ramble. While Hansard has been on something of a solo run since the release of Rhythm and Repose in 2012, he…
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Earlier this week, the shortlist for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction was announced. The Readings Prize, created by the award winning independent book retailer, unsurprisingly (given it’s title) celebrates new works for Australian authors, with the judges considering the first or second books by an author, and shining a light on those…
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Who Am I? Where did I come from? What was my family like? We’re all hit by these questions at some point in our lives, hit with that desire to find out more about those bits of life that have faded into half formed memories. It is this desire to find out more about her…
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It turns out that the popular photo sharing app Snapchat is not all “cute” dog face filters, or even the latest avenue for product placement; rather it has been revealed the app has a decidedly more NSFW alternative use. Los Angeles based Australian artist Jesse Willesee has created Premium, a mini-documentary investigating the world of Snapchat…
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The National Theatre of Parramatta are on the look out for entrants to their inaugural playwriting program From Page to Stage. Presented in partnership with Playwriting Australia, From Page to Stage is a free program that aims to provide playwrights with an opportunity to hone their skills; whilst also more broadly attempting to facilitate the…
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The 2016 Program for the Melbourne Fringe Festival has now been officially launched this week, and tickets have gone on sale for what is going to the biggest ever edition of the festival. With 463 events, involving over 6,000 artists it’s pretty safe to say there is plenty for festival goers to choose from; and the…
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is on track to be the fastest selling book this decade, with the script book shifting approximately 170,000 copies in Australia alone since it’s release on Sunday. Though official figures will not be released until next week, that is a staggering figure, but will come as no surprise to those…
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The longlist for the 2016 Man Booker Prize was announced overnight in the UK. The thirteen books on the list were whittled down from over 150 submissions by a panel of five judges. Those five judges now have until 13th September to decide on a six book shortlist, before the eventual winner is announced on the…
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Sydney Theatre Company’s Resident Director Kip Williams will be diving back into the world of Shakespeare later this year, bringing what is promised to be a bold new staging of the perennial favourite, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to the Sydney Opera House stage. This new production will feature ABC’s Cleverman star Rob Collins as Lysander;…
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September will see Robert Forster, of iconic Australian band The Go-Betweens, in conversation with Triple J’s Zan Rowe as part of a special in-conversation event for The School of Life Sydney; the topic of discussion? Friendship. On September 7th, Forster and Rowe will be attempting to get to the bottom of what makes a good…
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Melbourne artist Louise Hearman has won the 2016 Archibald Prize with her work, Barry, a hyper-realistic portrait of iconic Australian entertainer Barry Humphries. The Archibald Prize is the preeminent portraiture prize in Australia, and is awarded to annually to the best portrait ‘of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted…
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The Sydney Fringe Comedy program is returning next month for it’s sixth year. The program presented by the producers of the Sydney Comedy Festival will run for a month, from the 30th August to the 30th September, and promises to showcase up-and-coming talent alongside some of the more established acts. With other 100 shows from…
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Philosopher and best selling author AC Grayling is returning to Australia next month; and will be including a stop in Perth for an out of season Perth International Arts Festival event. One of Britain’s foremost public intellectuals, Grayling will be talking on the subject of his new book The Age of Genius. The address entitled…
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Following a successful pop-up season earlier in the year, the Sydney branch of The School of Life will open permanently from the end of the month. Philosopher Alain De Botton first founded the School of Life in 2008 in London, but since then it’s branched out overseas, with Melbourne becoming the first permanent branch outside…
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From Friday 15th July, Melbourne’s Gertrude Street, will be bathed in light for ten days, courtesy of the collective of artists behind the Gertrude Street Projection Festival. Now in its 9th year, the festival transforms one of Melbourne’s best-loved streets into a large-scale outdoor art gallery. Thirty-eight sites along or around Gertrude Street will be…
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The nominees for the 16th Annual Helpmann Awards were announced this week and one production has already surged ahead – Matilda. The musical has garnered a staggering 13 nominations, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The Roald Dahl adaptation earned nods in each of the Musical specific categories as well as getting recognition in…
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On April 21st, musical innovator and icon Prince passed away at the age of 57. Since then the tributes have flown in, there have been covers of his songs posted, tribute concerts planned and memorials attended. Now the Blender Gallery in Paddington, NSW are staging their own tribute, showcasing their collection of photographs of the late…
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Buried Country: Live in Concert is a new stage show born from the ground breaking book, film and compilation album from Clinton Walker – Buried Country: The Story of Aboriginal Country Music – which was initially published in 2000 before being updated and re-released in 2015 to acclaim. Buried Country, which premieres at The Playhouse…
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Just for Laughs Sydney will be back for their sixth year when the festival kicks off in in early September. The festival, which brings together, some of the biggest names in comedy from Australia and internationally, will be returning to the Sydney Opera House. Taking place from the 6-11th September, the festival has announced the…
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In February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd publicly apologised to the Stolen Generations of Indigenous Australian’s. Eight years later on National Sorry Day, May 27th, Hart, a new play from She Said Theatre, celebrated it’s second night of a new season at Perth’s Blue Room Theatre. Hart, written by Ian Michael and Seanna van Helten,…
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Ships in the Night is Perth’s bi-monthly celebration of words and music, bringing together and showcasing new writers and bands. Last week’s event was the first since a successful outing at the Perth Fringe World. Instalment #13 was a certainly a mixed affair. Ultimately I found it to be disappointing and a little disorganised – though…
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To shamelessly borrow from a popular nineties sitcom It’s like you’re always stuck in second gear, When it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month, or even your year, (handclaps) So to it is with some of the characters in Maiden Voyage Theatre Company’s Belated. There are breakups, bust ups, bickering, and a tiny…
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Comedy Bang! Bang! the hit comedy podcast and US television show is making it’s way to Australia in August for the very first time. So far there confirmed dates in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth between the 25th and 19th August. Formed in 2009 Comedy Bang! Bang! started off life as weekly podcast of conversation…
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Ships in the Night, Perth’s bi-monthly celebration of words and music, returns this week. After two successful showings at Perth’s Fringe World, where the evening inhabited a ger or yurt, the team are back in a more conventional venue this month – Paper Mountain. We caught up with the two headliners Laurie Steed and Tristan…
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