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Welcome to The ABR Podcast, produced by Australian Book Review. Released every Thursday, The ABR Podcast features a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts. For more information about ABR, visit our website, www.australianbookreview.com.au
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'History without vexed issues: Liquidating our memories of East Timor', by Clinton Fernandes
21:56
21:56
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This week on The ABR Podcast we reflect on the occupation and liberation of East Timor twenty-five years on from that extraordinary rupture. Clinton Fernandes draws on secret records released last month showing attempts by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to change the Australian War Memorial’s history of East Timor. Clinton Ferna…
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'A chorus of souls: Fiona McFarlane’s discursive theodicy' by Geordie Williamson
12:02
12:02
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This week on The ABR Podcast Geordie Williamson reviews Highway 13, a collection of short stories by Fiona McFarlane. Each story is concerned with murder, that ‘ultimate de-creative act’, and might be thought of as true crime, given the real-world familiarity of characters, places, plots. Geordie Williamson is a literary critic, editor and the auth…
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‘Raid and truce: Private violence and imperial conquest’ by Jeremy Martens
12:59
12:59
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12:59
This week on The ABR Podcast, Jeremy Martens reviews They Called It Peace: Worlds of imperial violence by Lauren Benton. The book examines what Benton terms imperial ‘small wars’, those conflicts which have historically not figured in war museums or national histories, but were nonetheless lethal and, explains Martens, ‘characterised settler empire…
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‘On our moral watch: The disgrace of homelessness in Australia’ by Kevin Bell
15:41
15:41
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This week on The ABR Podcast, Kevin Bell addresses the crisis in housing in Australia – a crisis which he says is at risk of ‘turning into a social and economic catastrophe’. Kevin Bell is a self-described baby boomer who, in his role as a Supreme Court judge, wrote a number of influential judgments on human rights and housing. He is a former direc…
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‘The Manichaean Candidate: Peter Dutton’s black and white politics’ by Joel Deane
19:25
19:25
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This week on the ABR Podcast, Joel Deane considers the black and white politics of opposition leader Peter Dutton. Deane explains that Dutton considers these politics a ‘police trait’ that he developed while in the force, and one that now serves him well in politics, especially when making necessary snap judgements. But will this style endear him t…
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'James Baldwin this time: The centenary of an indispensable prophet’ by Paul Kane
24:06
24:06
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This week on the ABR Podcast, Paul Kane marks the centenary of James Baldwin with an essay on this indispensable prophet. Kane tells us: ‘Baldwin insisted that the only way forward, the only way out [for America], was through a renovation of the self, and this could only be accomplished through deep communication and empathy’. Paul Kane is Professo…
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‘Pornwald’ by Jill Van Epps | The Jolley Prize
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This week on the ABR Podcast we conclude our three-episode special on the 2024 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize with the winning story, ‘Pornwald’ by Jill Van Epps. The judges described ‘Pornwald’ as ‘a puzzle that tests the limits of realism with an often riotously deadpan sense of humour’. Jill Van Epps is a writer and filmmaker based in Br…
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'M.' by Shelley Stenhouse | The Jolley Prize
33:25
33:25
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This week on the ABR Podcast, we continue to celebrate the 2024 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize with the second of three episodes featuring the shortlist. This week’s story is ‘M.’ by Shelley Stenhouse. The judges had this to say about ‘M.’: ‘Wittily told, this rollicking tale set in New York City is at once a character study of the garrulou…
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'First Snow' by Kerry Greer | The Jolley Prize
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Beginning this week on the ABR Podcast, we celebrate the 2024 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize shortlist over three episodes. In each episode, one of the three shortlisted authors will read their story – also published in the August issue of ABR. The overall winner of the Jolley Prize will be announced at an event at Gleebooks in Sydney on Au…
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'Beyond the mundane: Popular science writing in our literary landscape' by Robyn Arianrhod
15:02
15:02
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In this week’s ABR Podcast, Robyn Arianrhod considers the state of popular science writing in the Australian literary landscape. She argues that in-depth science writing with popular appeal and literary value is increasingly hard to find in Australia. And where exemplary works of this kind are published, they are rarely recognised with reviews or l…
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'Links in the Chain: Legacies of British slavery in Australia' by Georgina Arnott
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46:13
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In this week’s ABR Podcast, we feature an essay from the ABR archive: ‘Links in the Chain: Legacies of British slavery in Australia’ by Georgina Arnott. In this essay, Arnott considers how the field of Australian history will be reshaped by emerging links between British slavery in the Caribbean and early settlers to the Australian colonies. Georgi…
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'Death by suicide? Division as a default setting in America' by Timothy J. Lynch
11:43
11:43
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In this week’s ABR Podcast, Timothy J. Lynch considers whether the United States is on the path to a second civil war, as forecast by Nick Bryant in The Forever War: America’s unending conflict with itself. In his book, Bryant, a former BBC Washington correspondent, argues that hate and paranoia form a central core of the American experience. Timot…
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‘Mitty Lee-Brown: artist in exile: From a boarding house in Woollahra to Sri Lanka’ by Nick Hordern
13:54
13:54
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On this week’s ABR Podcast, Nick Hordern tells the story of Mitty Lee-Brown, the Australian artist who went into self-imposed exile in 1968 to Ceylon, which in 1972 became Sri Lanka. Nick Hordern is a former diplomat and journalist, and the author of several books, including World War Noir: Sydney’s Unpatriotic War. Listen to ‘Mitty Lee-Brown: arti…
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'Pascoe's vision: Musings on life and Country' by Seumas Spark
10:28
10:28
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In this week’s ABR Podcast, Seumas Spark reviews Black Duck: A year at Yumburra by Bruce Pascoe with Lyn Harwood. Spark writes: ‘Black Duck is two things: a record of a year in the life of the farm, and a collection of musings on life and Country’. Seumas Spark is an historian at Monash University. Listen to Spark’s ‘Pascoe's vision: Musings on lif…
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‘Bloodstone: The day they blew up Mount Tom Price’ by Nicole Hasham
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In this week’s ABR Podcast, we feature the third-place winner in this year’s Calibre Essay Prize, Nicole Hasham’s ‘Bloodstone: The day they blew up Mount Tom Price’. In preparation for the essay, Walkley Award-winning journalist Nicole Hasham travelled to the site of Wakathuni, the Pilbara mountain also known as Tom Price that was blown up in 1974 …
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Peter Rose reviews 'Hazzard and Harrower: The letters' edited by Brigitta Olubas and Susan Wyndham
25:23
25:23
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In this week’s ABR Podcast, Peter Rose reviews Hazzard and Harrower: The letters, edited by Brigitta Olubas and Susan Wyndham. The correspondence between writers Shirley Hazzard and Elizabeth Harrower ran from 1966 to 2008 and, in its unedited form, amounted to 400,000 words. Editors Susan Wyndham Brigitta Olubas have trimmed it down: ‘For the time…
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'Copyright and its discontents: Frank Moorhouse's battle to defend authors' by Matthew Lamb
11:25
11:25
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In this week’s ABR Podcast, Frank Moorhouse biographer Matthew Lamb tells of his subject’s battle to defend Australian authors and the founding of Copyright Agency in 1974. Listen to Matthew Lamb with ‘Copyright and its discontents: Frank Moorhouse’s battle to defend authors’, published in the June issue of ABR. See omnystudio.com/listener for priv…
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Last month ABR announced the winner, runner-up and third-place recipient of the 2024 Calibre Essay Prize. In this week’s podcast we are delighted to present the 2024 Calibre runner-up, ‘Hold Your Nerve’, by Melbourne writer Natasha Sholl. Natasha Sholl is a writer and lapsed lawyer. Her work has appeared in publications including The Guardian, The …
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Tony Hughes d’Aeth reviews On Kim Scott: Writers on writers by Tony Birch
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11:14
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In this week’s ABR Podcast, Tony Hughes d’Aeth reviews On Kim Scott: Writers on writers by Tony Birch. The book is the latest instalment in Black Inc.’s ‘Writers on Writers’ series. Tony Hughes-d’Aeth is Professor in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Australia and the author of several books including the recently published …
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Tracey Slaughter's ‘why your hair is long & your stories short’
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With the publication of the May issue, ABR was delighted to announce the winner of the 2024 Calibre Essay Prize. Tracey Slaughter – from Aotearoa New Zealand – has become the first overseas writer to claim the Calibre Prize with her essay ‘why your hair is long & your stories short’. We are thrilled Tracey Slaughter could join the ABR Podcast to re…
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Scott Stephens reviews Crimes of the Cross by Anne Manne
17:02
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In this week’s ABR Podcast, Scott Stephens reviews a book by Anne Manne: Crimes of the Crimes of the Cross: The Anglican paedophile network of Newcastle, its protectors and the man who fought for justice. Why is narcissism a central theme for a book about child sexual abuse? Stephens writes: ‘without the capacity or willingness to be attentive to t…
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Patrick Mullins reviews ‘Bad Cop: Peter Dutton’s strongman politics’ by Lech Blaine
11:28
11:28
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This week on the ABR Podcast we review a profile of opposition leader Peter Dutton. Bad Cop: Peter Dutton’s strongman politics by Lech Blaine is the ninety-third issue of the BlackInc Quarterly Essay. In his review of Bad Cop, political biographer Patrick Mullins begins by comparing Dutton to another cop-turned-politician in Bill Hayden. Listen to …
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Micheal Shmith reviews The Cancer Finishing School by Peter Goldsworthy
10:26
10:26
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In this week’s ABR Podcast, Michael Shmith reviews a memoir from poet, novelist, librettist, and Adelaide GP Peter Goldsworthy. The book’s title is The Cancer Finishing School. Shmith begins by observing that doctors aren’t supposed to become incurably ill, before immediately recognising this as the useless delusion of a patient. Michael Shmith is …
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In this week’s ABR podcast we feature one of the winners of the 2011 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. Gregory Day’s ‘The Neighbour’s Beans’ was joint winner of the prize that year with Carrie Tiffany’s ‘Before He Left the Family’. Gregory Day commented at the time that ‘the short story form encourages an intense display of the writer’s craft…
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Frank Bongiorno on how the Albanese government is travelling
16:44
16:44
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In this week’s ABR Podcast, Frank Bongiorno assesses the Albanese government, which has recently completed the first half of its first term in office. Frank Bongiorno is Professor of History at the Australian National University, President of the Australian Historical Association, and the author of books including Dreamers and Schemers: A political…
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