Baking in Adelaide

‘Advances’ spent a couple of days in Adelaide during Writers’ Week, fortunately not when the temperature nudged forty degrees. The sessions were varied and entertaining, the audiences large and enthusiastic, but the atmosphere was already oppressive. Surely it’s time Writers’ Week found a way to accommodate the vast audiences and to alleviate the discomfort. Is the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens really the most suitable venue? What about a third tent to alleviate the stampede? What about bigger tents, more shade, and cooling within the tents? Nothing seems to change at Writers’ Week – just the price of the water. It’s one of its charms, and one of its limitations. Just up the road are the immense, cloistered grounds of Government House. New South Wales has done something about these ludicrous vice-regal arrangements: when will South Australia and the other states follow? Perhaps Writers’ Week could invade Government House for a week – not so much a Velvet Revolution as a Linen Revolution.

John Iremonger Award

At the start of Writers’ Week, Allen & Unwin announced that it is instituting the annual John Iremonger Award for Writing on Public Issues, both to perpetuate his memory and to foster the sort of ideas that he was so good at cultivating. John Iremonger, who died in August 2002, wrote books himself, established Hale & Iremonger, was director of Melbourne University Press, and worked as a publisher at Allen & Unwin for many years. He is fondly remembered and greatly missed by his many authors and friends in the industry. The recipient of the new award will receive $10,000 and a guarantee of publication. Entries close on July 30; Anne Manne and David Marr are the judges. The entry form is available from Allen & Unwin at PO Box 8500, St Leonards NSW 1590; it can also be downloaded from www.allenandunwin.com.

Miles Franklin Award

Kerryn Goldsworthy, a former editor of and frequent contributor to ABR (she reviews Sophie Cunningham’s first novel, Geography, in this issue) has joined the judging panel of the Miles Franklin Award. Her timing is impeccable, for 2003 was a notable year for fiction, with new novels from Peter Carey, J.M. Coetzee, Peter Goldsworthy, and Shirley Hazzard, to name just a few likely contenders. The short list for the 2004 Miles Franklin Award (worth $28,000) will be announced in late April; the winner on June 17. Kerryn Goldsworthy’s fellow judges are David Marr, Mark Rubbo, Dagmar Schmidmaier, and Elizabeth Webby.

Mildura news

Our friends at the Mildura Writers’ Festival inform us that this year’s dates are July 15 to 18. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of this famously congenial festival, Donata Carrazza and Paul Kane are preparing ‘a Festschrift for the Festival’. All the writers who have participated in the festival have been invited to contribute a piece of writing, so look out for new works by Helen Garner, David Malouf, Les Murray, Peter Porter, to name just a few. Hardie Grant Books will publish the anthology in time for the festival. Guests will include Jordie Albiston, Luke Davies and Robert Gray. ABR will again take part in this absorbing festival. Helen Healy is the new organiser: (03) 5021 5100 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Journals galore

As ever, it’s hard to keep up with the new literary journals and magazines. Two new ones have crossed our desk recently: Space: New Writing and the arrestingly titled Splatter (subtitled ‘a literary magazine, sort of’). Harold Mally and Edwyn Garland, co-editors of the latter, state in their editorial (you guessed it, ‘Splatter Chatter’): ‘We believe that Splatter will soon transform itself from having a cult following (that’s industry talk for “no readership”) to a position of complete world domination.’ We wish them luck. Contributors to the first issue include Thomas Keneally and Richard Neville. For details, write to PO Box W275, Warringah Mall, Brookvale, NSW 2100, or go to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Anthony Lynch is the Editor of Space; David McCooey his Associate Editor. The first issue is impressive, with contributions from writers such as Kevin Brophy, Lucy Dougan, Brendan Ryan and Chris Wallace-Crabbe. Space is available from bookshops or direct from Whitmore Press, PO Box 833, Geelong, Vic. 3220. Meanwhile, Salt-lick Quarterly, that excellent poetry journal, has just appeared for the fourth time. Poets include M.T.C. Cronin, Cameron Lowe and John Mateer. To subscribe, write to 104 Rennie Street, Coburg East, Vic. 3058.

Overland turns fifty

With its new issue, Overland celebrates its fiftieth year, a milestone for any publication. Overland, founded by Stephen Murray-Smith and owner of the best motto in town (‘temper democratic, bias Australian’), has published just about everyone of note and hundreds of new writers since 1954, and seems to be in fine shape with Nathan Hollier and Katherine Wilson as co-editors. Overland is available from bookshops or contact PO Box 14428, Melbourne, Vic. 8001.

Michael Brennan

Michael Brennan’s efforts on behalf of other poets and critics are as well known and admired as his own poetry, so ‘Advances’ was pleased to learn that he has won this year’s poetry category for the 2004 Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarships, each of which is worth $18,000. David McCooey reviewed his first book, The Imageless World, in the February issue of ABR, and described it as ‘one of the most important débuts of this generation of poets’. We publish his poem ‘After the Circus’ in this issue.