Hot on the heels of our inaugural ABR Forum in Canberra on March 28, when a capacity audience attended the session on life-writing at the National Library, ABR will host its first event in London on Tuesday, June 8. Peter Rose and Morag Fraser will present an evening of readings and ideas, with special appearances by Clive James and Peter Porter. We’re delighted to be able to present this special event in association with the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, Kings College London. The event will run from 6 to 8 p.m. Bookings are essential: please direct them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. ABR has many subscribers and supporters in the UK; we look forward to meeting them – and to reaching new ones.

More reasons to subscribe to ABR

ABR subscribers are entitled to a range of discounts and preferential bookings. These will be of considerable interest in coming months, as we plan a series of major events, commencing with Readings@Miettas at Federation Square on May 1 and 2, and also featuring an ‘Evening with ... ’ on August 4, which promises to be one of Melbourne’s literary highlights of the year (more details in the June/July issue). To qualify for all discounts and benefits, you must be able to quote your ABR subscriber number when reserving tickets. It appears on renewal notices and on the cover sheet that accompanies your magazine each month. If you don’t know your number, please phone the ABR office manager, Dianne Schallmeiner, or e-mail her: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Trifecta at Black Inc.

Black Inc.’s new trio of anthologists is almost in place. We already know that Frank Moorhouse will edit The Best Australian Stories 2004. Now comes the news that Robert Dessaix will take on The Best Australian Essays. Dessaix, the author of several books, has already edited anthologies, including Australian Gay and Lesbian Writing: An Oxford Anthology (1993). We await confirmation of a major coup with the editorship of the poetry anthology. It should be quite a 2004!

The Kiriyama Prize

Inga Clendinnen, who will deliver the Quarterly Essay Lecture at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 1 during Readings@Miettas, is having a good year, having just won the 2004 Kiriyama Prize for non-fiction for Dancing with Strangers. She becomes the first Australian to win the Kiriyama Prize, which is worth a total of US$30,000. (Shan Sa, author of The Girl Who Played Go, won in the fiction category.) Clendinnen has also been short-listed for the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction.

Call of the wild

The Taronga Foundation Poetry Prize is on again. The competition is open to young people aged nineteen and under, with prizes divided into three age categories. Poets are encouraged to write on any topic, with a special Wildlife Prize for the most outstanding poem dealing with issues of wildlife conservation and the environment. Random House Australia will publish the best poems in an anthology. Entries are open until 21 May. Entry forms are available from schools, universities and libraries, or at www.tarongafoundation.com.

Talk about tyrannical

The April issue of ABR took an appallingly long time to reach some subscribers in Queensland and Western Australia. Despite being sent to Australia Post on March 31, it didn’t arrive until mid-April, in some cases. Apologies for this delay, which we are investigating with Australia Post. Meanwhile, please continue to fax in those cover sheets notifying us when you receive your copies. It all helps.

You can say that again!

On April 3 The Age published this letter to the editor from Denis Cartledge of Kallaroo, WA: ‘I almost fell off my lounge chair laughing. The Government has warned Australians not to go to Gallipoli on Anzac Day as they could be in danger. They are eighty-nine years too late. I will bet thousands of diggers are convulsed with laughter, wherever they lie. It is too much.’