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There is lots of movement in Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide, with the appointment of Brian Castro as Professor of Creative Writing. Castro, whose novels include Birds of Passage (1983) and Shanghai Dancing (2003), becomes the third person to hold this rare chair in Creative Writing. Tom Shapcott held it for many years, and was followed by Nicholas Jose, who has just been appointed to the chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, which he will take up in 2009. Creative Writing is clearly in vogue at Adelaide: Sydney poet Jill Jones, formerly of the Literature Board of the Australia Council, and a frequent contributor to ABR, has been lured there. Brian Castro, interviewed in the Australian on 30 April, recalled that when he studied English literature at the University of Sydney in the early 1970s, one writer came to talk to the students, only to remark, ‘You should be home writing’. Gone are the days.
New-look Meanjin
About to go to print, we received the new issue of Meanjin (Vol. 67, No. 2), the first to be edited by Sophie Cunningham. It is slimmer than recent issues, with a new cover design (‘a more illustrative look’). In her editorial, she is mindful of the journal’s long heritage (Clem Christesen founded it in 1940) and excited at the prospect of both protecting it and taking it ‘into the future’. Among the highlights are the Editor’s interview with Luke Davies. It’s a busy time for Sophie Cunningham. Next month Text publishes her second novel, Bird. Meanwhile, in this issue of ABR, Lyn McCredden reviews Ian Britain’s last issue of Meanjin (a double one), plus two other journals.
Vale Pamela Bone (1940–2008)
ABR has lost another much-admired contributor, the Age columnist Pamela Bone, who died in late April after a long battle with cancer. Ms Bone became ill in 2004 but enjoyed a long period of remission, during which time she wrote Bad Hair Days (2007), which Gregory Kratzmann reviewed in the November 2007 issues of ABR, praising it as ‘a remarkably brave book’. Courage was one of Bone’s trademarks as a journalist. Jo Chandler, writing in the Age on 28 April, spoke of her composure when in 1996 she visited a Rwandan jail full of men who had been macheting their countrymen to death. Bone once remarked: ‘To be brave is important to me. It’s what matters, I’ve always thought. Whatever else I haven’t got, I’ve got that.’ Pamela Bone often wrote for ABR; indeed, she was meant to be in this issue. But on 17 April she e-mailed us explaining that her cancer had returned aggressively and that, apologetically, she would be unable to complete the review – ironically, Richard Walsh’s anthology of Great Australian Eulogies. She deserved the warm ones that followed.
Books Alive
Australian crime writer Michael Robotham is the ambassador for Books Alive 2008. This campaign, which aims to introduce Australians to the pleasures of reading, will feature a list of recommended books, a complimentary feature title, promotions, advertising and author tours throughout August. Mr Robotham’s new short novel, Bombproof, will be offered gratis with the purchase of any of the fifty Books Alive recommendations. Books Alive is an Australian Government initiative, developed through the Australia Council for the Arts. For more information, visit www.australiacouncil.gov.au.
More than traces
Poetry and the Trace: An International Conference, hosted by Monash University, will be held at the State Library of Victoria from July 13 to 16. The conference will include academic papers on the reading and writing of poetry around the theme of ‘the trace’, as well as readings from a range of Australian and international poets. The keynote speakers will be Susan Stewart, Lionel Fogarty, Joan Retallack, John Kinsella, Rachel Blau DuPlessis. For further information regarding conference details and registration, visit http://www.monash.edu.au/cmo/poetry-and-trace/.
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