Issue #1, June 1978Australian Book Review is one of the country’s leading cultural magazines. Founded in 1961 in Adelaide and revived in Melbourne in 1978, it is an independent, not-for-profit magazine committed to publishing critical and creative writing of the highest standard. Through its print and digital publishing, website, prizes, fellowships, events, and partnerships, ABR makes a major contribution to Australia’s culture of ideas.
The magazine publishes in-depth literary and arts reviews as well as new poetry and fiction, essays, commentaries, and interviews. ABR also reviews films, television, music, theatre, opera, dance, festivals, and art exhibitions.
ABR is a strong advocate of proper support and remuneration for freelance reviewers. We pay for everything we publish – print and online – and we pay increasingly well.
ABR is a powerful generator of ideas and creative writing, and a key supporter of fresh talent. Few publications support writers and editors through such varied and lucrative programs.
Editors
First issue, 1961 (series one)First Series
1961 to 1974 - Geoffrey Dutton, Max Harris, and Rosemary Wighton
Second series:
1978 to 1986 - John McLaren 1986 to 1987 - Kerryn Goldsworthy 1988 - Louise Adler 1989 to 1995 - Rosemary Sorensen 1995 to 2000 - Helen Daniel 2001 to present day - Peter Rose
ABR publishes reviews, commentaries, interviews, essays, surveys, and creative writing. In general ABR publishes approximately 500 features in print each year by 300 contributors. Roughly 90 or 100 of these contributors will be new to the magazine. ABR is open to approaches from new contributors and you can find out more here. ABR publishes an annual index of our print content here (from 2017 we have also indexed our digital content). Prior to 2021, ABR published ten issues per year. In June 2021, we added an eleventh issue.
ABR Print Edition Statistics and Gender Breakdown
Below is a gender breakdown from the print edition between 2014 and 2022. (NB this table only includes information about items published in the print edition. It does not include our wider digital content. Statistics on non-binary contributors are only included when known.)
Back in 2009, when we sought readers’ nominations for the ABR Favourite Australian Novel (any era, any genre), we anticipated goodly interest, ABR readers being a passionate and well-read bunch. But we hadn’t expected to be inundated with quite so many faxes and emails. In the end we received thousands of votes for some 290 Australian novels. Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet, a perennial favourite since its publication in 1991, was the overwhelming favourite – by a margin of three to one to its nearest rival, Henry Handel Richardson’s The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, which was closely followed by Patrick White’s Voss and Winton’s most recent novel, Breath. Particularly heartening was the large number of nineteenth-century novels and those published before the remarkable expansion of fiction publishing in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The following feature, which appeared in the February 2010 issue, lists the top twenty Favourite Australian Novels.
Not all ABR’s publishing appears in the print magazine. We publish a wide range of online exclusives and previews including book and arts reviews, creative writing, essays and interviews, and podcasts. These appear online in ABR Arts, States of Poetry, Reading Australia, ABR Fiction, Book Talk, and ABR Online Exclusives. Some additional articles also appear as online exclusives in recent online issues of the magazine.
Prizes and Programs
ABR presents three prestigious international literary prizes (for poetry, essays and short stories), a vibrant Fellowship program, and a prestigious Laureate’s program. We also offer regular paid Editorial Internships.
Laureates
To recognise the work of distinguished Australian artists, ABR has to date named three ABR Laureates.
David Malouf (2014)
Robyn Archer (2016)
Sheila Fitzpatrick (2023)
Fellows
Since 2011 ABR has awarded twenty-one Fellowships to twelve women and nine men. The Fellows are listed below under the year of publication. Find out more about the Published and current Fellows and read their essays.
Published ABR Fellowships
2011
"What is Australia, anyway?" The glorious limitations of the Miles Franklin Literary Award’ by Patrick Allington ‘Sweeping up the Ashes’ by Rachel Buchanan
2012
'Man on the Margins' by Jennifer Lindsay
2013
‘Media Don’ by Ruth Starke ‘Everyone’s a Critic’ by Kerryn Goldsworthy ‘Olive Cotton at Spring Forest’ by Helen Ennis ‘Patrick White: A theatre of his own’ by Andrew Fuhrmann
2014
‘Seeing the Wood for the Trees’ by Danielle Clode
2015
‘Sound Bridges: A Profile of Gurrumul’ by Felicity Plunkett ‘The Golden Age of Television?’ by James McNamara ‘The Scientist of his own experience: A profile of Gerald Murnane’ by Shannon Burns 'The Forest at the Edge of Time' by Ashley Hay
2016
'Satan Repentant' by Michael Aiken 'How Do We Live With Ourselves? The Australian National Conscience' by Alan Atkinson
2017
‘Beyond Songlines’ by Philip Jones 'Ambassadors from Another Time' by Stephen Orr 'If This Is a Jew' by Elisabeth Holdsworth ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock fifty years on’by Marguerite Johnson
2018
‘Defying the Moment’, 'The art of pain: Writing in the age of trauma’, and ‘'We are all MFAs now!' by Beejay Silcox
2019
‘A mutinous and ferocious grace: Nick Cave and trauma’s aftermath' by Felicity Plunkett Felicity Plunkett reviews The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
2020
'Notes on a Pandemic: How society has responded to Covid-19' by Hessom Razavi Felicity Plunkett reviews Summer by Ali Smith 'Failures of imagination: A journey from Tehran’s prisons to Australia’s immigration detention centres' by Hessom Razavi
2021
'The split state: Australia’s binary myth about people seeking asylum' by Hessom Razavi
ABR Editorial Internships
Since 2009 ABR has awarded eight paid Editorial Internships as part of our highly successful program. The most recent ABR Editorial Intern was Jack Callil.
In 2021, with support from the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, ABR offered a paid Editorial Cadetship. The first of these ABR Editorial Cadets was James Jiang.
Since 2010 ABR has awarded the Jolley Prize to fifteen writers (the prize was shared in 2011). Forty-seven writers have been shortlisted for the prize. As with all our prizes the Jolley Prize is judged blind. Since 2010 ABR has shortlisted thirty-five women, eleven men, and one non-binary author. Since the prize was internationalised in 2014 we have shortlisted ten writers from overseas. The winners and shortlisted authors are listed below. Find out more about the past winners of the Jolley Prize and read their stories via our Past Winners page.
Jolley Prize shortlists
2010
‘A Roānkin Philosophy of Poetry’ by Maria Takolander (winner) 'Sleepers' by Cate Kennedy (second place) ‘Suitable for a Lampshade’ by Josephine Rowe (Reader’s Choice) 'The Virus - Travel Notes' by David Cohen 'Angus's Playground' by S.J. Finn, 'Honey' by Erin Gough 'The Body' by Joan Phillip
2011
‘Milk Tray’ by Claire Aman ‘What’s Richard Ford Got to Do With It? by Gaylene Carbis ‘Before He Left the Family’ by Carrie Tiffany (joint winner) ‘The Neighbour's Beans’ by Gregory Day (joint winner)
2012
‘Patterns in Nature’ by Sue Hurley (winner) ‘Gorgeous Perambulator’ by Jack Cox (second) ‘Tended by Foxes’ by Ngiare Elliot (third)
2013
‘Leaving Elvis’ by Michelle Michau-Crawford (winner) ‘The Five Truths of Manhood’ by Rebekah Clarkson (joint second, Reader’s Choice) ‘The Accident’ by Kim Mahood (joint second)
2014
‘Aokigahara’ by Jennifer Down (winner) 'The Art of Life' by Faith Oxenbridge (second, New Zealand) ‘Doisneau’s Kiss’ by Cate Kennedy (third)
2015
‘The Elector of Nossnearly’ by Rob Magnuson-Smith (winner, UK/US) 'Borges and I' by Michelle Cahill (second) ‘Crest’ by Harriet McKnight (third)
2016
‘Glisk’ by Josephine Rowe (winner) ‘Ash’ by Anthony Lawrence (second) ‘The Water Calligrapher’s Women’ by Jonathan Tel (third, UK)
2017
‘Pheidippides’ by Eliza Robertson (winner, Canada) ‘The Leaching Layer’ by Dominic Amerena (second) ‘Butter’ by Lauren Aimee Curtis (third)
2018
‘Ruins’ by Madelaine Lucas (winner, US/AUS) ‘Between the Mountain and the Sea’ by Sharmini Aphrodite (second, Singapore) ‘Vasco’ by Claire Aman (third)
2019
'The Point-Blank Murder' by Sonja Dechian (winner) 'Miracle Windows' by Raaza Jamshed (second) 'Rubble Boy' by Morgan Nunan (third)
2020
'River Story' by Mykaela Saunders (winner) 'Egg Timer' by C.J. Garrow (second) 'Hieroglyph' by Simone Hollander (third, US)
2021
'The Enemy, Asyndeton' by Camilla Chaudhary (winner) 'There Are No Stars Here, Either' by Lauren Sarazen (second, France) 'A Fall From Grace' by John Richards (third)
2022
'Natural Wonder' by Tracy Ellis (winner) 'Dog Park' by Nina Cullen (second) 'Whale Fall' by C.J. Garrow (third)
2023
'The Mannequin' by Rowan Heath (winner) 'Our Own Fantastic' by Uzma Aslam Khan (second, US) 'Black Wax' by Winter Bel (third, France/UK)
Calibre Essay Prize
Since 2007 ABR has awarded the Calibre Essay Prize to twenty-one writers (the prize was shared in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011). Calibre was internationalised in 2015 and as with all our prizes it is judged blind. Since 2010 the Calibre Prize has been won by eleven men, nine women, and one non-binary author. The winning authors are listed below. In 2017 ABR introduced a second prize and this has been won by six women and one man. Find out more about the past winners of the Calibre Prize via our Past Winners page
Calibre Prize winners
2007
'An die Nachgeborenen: For Those Who Come After' by Elisabeth Holdsworth
2008
'Reaching One Thousand' by Rachel Robertson 'A Storm and a Teacup' by Mark Tredinnick
2009
‘“What’re yer looking at yer fuckin’ dog”: Violence and Fear in Žižek’s Post-political Neighbourhood’ by Kevin Brophy ‘Footprints’ by Jane Goodall
2010
'On being Odd' by Lorna Hallahan 'Seeing Truganini' by David Hansen
2011
‘The Death of the Writer' by Dean Biron 'Who Killed Matilda?'by Moira McKinnon
2012
'Body and Soul: Copyright and Law Enforcement in the Age of the Electronic Book' by Matt Rubinstein
2013
'"Because it's your country": Bringing Back the Bones to West Arnhem Land' by Martin Thomas
2014
'Unearthing the Past' by Christine Piper
2015
'Staying with the trouble' by Sophie Cunningham
2016
'The Great Red Whale' by Michael Winkler
2017
‘Salt Blood' by Michael Adams 'To Speak of Sorrow' by Darius Sepehri (runner-up)
2018
'We Three Hundred' by Lucas Grainger-Brown 'Once Again' by Kirsten Tranter (runner-up)
2019
'Nah Doongh's Song' by Grace Karskens 'Floundering' by Sarah Walker (runner-up)
2020
‘Reading the Mess Backwards’ by Yves Rees ‘The Dolorimeter’ by Kate Middleton (runner-up)
2021
‘Façades of Lebanon’ by Theodore Ell 'May Day' by Anita Punton (runner-up)
2022
'This Woman My Grandmother' by Simon Tedeschi 'Ghosts, Ghosts Everywhere' by Sarah Gory (runner-up)
2023
'Flow States' by Tracy Ellis 'Child Adjacent' by Bridget Vincent (runner-up)
Peter Porter Poetry Prize
Since 2005 ABR has awarded the Peter Porter Poetry Prize to twenty-two writers (the prize was shared in 2011, 2017, and 2019) and 101 poems have been shortlisted for the prize. As with all our prizes the Porter Prize is judged blind. Since 2010 ABR has shortlisted fifty-two poems by men and forty-nine poems by women. Since the prize was internationalised in 2014 we have shortlisted twelve writers from overseas. The winners and shortlisted authors are listed below. Find out more about the past winners of the Porter Prize and read their poems via our Past Winners page.
Porter Prize shortlists
2005
'Ventriloquist's Dummy' by Jennifer Harrison 'Man on the Moon' by Stephen Edgar (winner) 'Ubirr Rock' by Mark Tredinnick 'Storm' by Maria Takolander 'Headgear (a review)' by Sandra Hill 'Low at the Edge of the Sands' by Kevin Gillam
2006
'Mallee' by Lisa Gorton 'Braid' by J.S. Harry 'Boy' by Alex Skovron 'Still Life with Cockles and Shells' by Judith Bishop (winner) 'Back Roads, Local Roads' by Brendan Ryan 'Spiders' by Keith Harrison
2007
'Sanctum' by Alex Skovron (winner) 'Full-Bucket Moon' by Ross Clark 'The Fledglings' by Robert Adamson 'The Fencer and His Mate' by Kathryn Lomer 'The Red Sea' by Stephen Edgar 'Guidance and Knowledge' by Anthony Lawrence
2008
'(for the siblings)' by Kevin Gillam 'T/here' by Judith Bishop 'a full stop reaches the end of its sentence' by Nathan Shepherdson 'Danger: Lantana' by Ross Clark (winner) 'The Window' by Brenda Walker
2009
'Yellow Jacket: Vespula maculifrons' by Rose Lucas ‘Lost Property’ by Tracy Ryan (winner) 'The Dark Zone' by Kathryn Lomer 'The Storm Glass' by Lisa Gorton 'The Reed Pen' by Angela Mahone 'The Aquarium' by Judith Beveridge
2010
'Taken as Required' by Ynez Sanz 'The Hummingbird Suite' by Diane Fahey 'Here Come the Missionaries' by Philip Salom 'Estuary' by Jillian Pattinson 'Domestic Emergencies' by Anthony Lawrence (winner)
2011
'Self-Portrait at Sixty' by Tony Lintermans (joint winner) 'Dreams and Artefacts' by Lisa Gorton 'Moonlight Sculptures' by Stephen Edgar 'Openings' by Judith Bishop (joint winner)
2012
'Provenance' by Gareth Robinson 'Bayside Suburban' by Anne Elvey 'Beautiful Mother' by Michael Farrell (winner) 'After Devotion' by Annamaria Weldon 'Oscillations' by Toby Fitch
2013
'Prophecy' by Nathan Curnow 'Big Wig' by A. Frances Johnson 'Four Sonnets' by John A. Scott (winner) 'procedures in aesthetics' by Dan Disney 'Bushfire Approaching' by John Kinsella.
2014
'VFGA' by Paul Kane (US) 'Absence' by Elizabeth Allen 'Scenes from the Olivet Discourse' by Nathan Curnow 'Arrival Platform Humlet' by Jessica L. Wilkinson (winner).
2015
'As Wasps Fly Upward' by Judith Beveridge (winner) 'Vantage' by Eileen Chong 'Janus' by Toby Fitch 'Floribunda' by John Kinsella 'When/Was' by Kate Middleton 'Pitch and Yaw' by Alex Skovron.
2016
'Tailings' by Amanda Joy (winner), '... a passing shower?' by Dan Disney 'Prelude to a Voice' by Anne Elvey 'Rage to Order' by Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet (USA) 'Lament for "Cape" Kennedy' by Campbell Thomson.
2017
'Sentence to Lilacs' by Louis Klee (joint winner) 'pH' by Damen O'Brien (joint winner) 'Four Egrets' by Ronald Dzerigian (USA) 'Laika' by Anthony Lawrence 'Drone' by Michael Lee Phillips (USA) 'The Snow Lies Deep' by Jen Saunders 'and it is what it is' by Jessie Tu
2018
'Compass' by Eileen Chong 'Decoding Paul Klee’s Mit Grünen Strümpfen (With Green Stockings) 1939' by Katherine Healy 'The Abstract Blue Background' by LK Holt 'breather' by Tracey Slaughter (second place, New Zealand) '101, Taipei' by Nicholas Wong (winner, Hong Kong)
2019
'63 Temple St, Mong Kok' by Belle Ling (joint winner, Qld/Hong Kong) 'Searching the Dead' by Andy Kissane (joint winner) 'Dancing with Stephen Hawking' by John Foulcher 'The Mirror Hurlers' by Ross Gillett 'Raven' by Mark Tredinnick
2020
'Precision Signs' by Lachlan Brown 'That Wadjela Tongue' by Claire G. Coleman 'South Coast Sonnets' by Ross Gillett 'My Father's Thesaurus' by Frances Johnson (winner) 'Constellation of Bees' by Julie Manning
2021
‘The Vernal Equinox Story’ by Danielle Blau (USA) ‘Would You Rather’ by Y.S. Lee (Canada) ‘bila, a river cycle’ by Jazz Money ‘A Poetics of Fo(u)rgetting’ Sara M. Saleh (winner) ‘before dawn, with the street lamp’s beam across your face’ by Raisa Tolchinsky (USA)
2022
'Sixes and sparrows' by Chris Arnold 'Gippslanding (triptych)' by Dan Disney (South Korea/Australia) 'Australianesque' by Michael Farrell 'In the Shadows of Our Heads' by Anthony Lawrence (winner) 'Hummingbird Country' by Debbie Lim
2023
'Loss Invaded Catalogue' by Chris Andrews 'Running Up That Bill' by Chris Arnold 'Field Notes for an Albatross Palimpsest' by Michelle Cahill 'periferal, fantasmal' by Dan Disney (South Korea/Australia, winner) 'Abiquiu, New Mexico' by Raisa Tolchinsky (US)
From Prize to Publication
Many past ABR prize shortlisted entrants have gone on to publish full-length works (novels, short story collections, films etc) based on, or including, their shortlisted or winning works. We have listed some of these below.
Books
Fat Girl Dancing by Kris Kneen Leaving Elvis by Michelle Michau Crawford Pulse Points by Jennifer Down Barking Dogs by Rebekah Clarkson The Double by Maria Takolander Those Who Come After by Elisabeth Holdsworth Reaching One Thousand by Rachel Robertson City of Trees by Sophie Cunningham Olive Cotton by Helen Ennis Here Until August by Josephine Rowe All About Yves by Yves Rees The First Time I Thought I was Dying by Sarah Walker
Film
Etched in Bone Martin Thomas
Reading Australia
ABR commissioned and published twenty-six essays on major Australian writers as part of the Australia Council’s Reading Australia project. These essays are all available open access online.
Reading Australia essays
Kerryn Goldsworthy on Jessica Anderson's Tirra Lirra by the River Susan Sheridan on Thea Astley's It's Raining in Mango Agnes Nieuwenhuizen on A.J. Betts's Zac and Mia Ruth Starke on Isobelle Carmody's The Gathering Brian Matthews on Marcus Clarke's For the Term of His Natural Life Kerryn Goldsworthy on Robert Dessaix's A Mother's Disgrace Alice Pung on Garry Disher's The Divine Wind Kerryn Goldsworthy on Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North Danielle Clode on Tim Flannery's Here on Earth Kári Gíslason on Raimond Gaita's Romulus, My Father Bernadette Brennan on Helen Garner's The Children's Bach Miriam Cosic on Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch Peter Craven on Kate Grenville's Lilian's Story Felicity Plunkett on Steven Herrick's by the river Judith Rodriguez on Jack Hibberd's Dimboola Delys Bird on Elizabeth Jolley's Miss Peabody's Inheritance Tony Birch on Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith Morag Fraser on Alex Miller's Journey to the Stone Country Susan Lever on John Romeril's The Floating World Patrick Allington on Kim Scott's That Deadman Dance Peter Kirkpatrick on Kenneth Slessor's One Hundred Poems: 1919–1939 Gary Crew on Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing Kerryn Goldsworthy on Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap Billy Griffiths on David Unaipon's Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines James McNamara on David Williamson's The Removalists Felicity Castagna on Markus Zusak's The Messenger
States of Poetry
Between 2016 and 2018 ABR published nearly four hundred poems by eighty poets as part of States of Poetry, a federally arranged poetry anthology supported by Copyright Agency Limited that also included podcasts. Anthologies were published by poets from New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and the ACT. These anthologies are all open access. The poets and state editors are listed below.
New South Wales
Elizabeth Allen (State Editor) Fiona Wright Kate Middleton David Malouf Toby Fitch Pam Brown Susie Anderson
South Australia
Peter Goldsworthy (State Editor) Ken Bolton Thom Sullivan Kate Llewellyn Jill Jones Jelena Dinic Aidan Coleman Cath Kenneally Jan Owen Dominic Symes Jules Leigh Koch Louise Nicholas Steve Brock
Victoria
David McCooey (State Editor) Jessica L. Wilkinson Cameron Lowe A. Frances Johnson Michael Farrell Amy Brown Kevin Brophy Gig Ryan Chris Wallace-Crabbe Brendan Ryan Bella Li Lisa Gorton
Western Australia
Kevin Brophy (State Editor) Lucy Dougan (State Editor and poet) Carolyn Abbs Kia Groom Graham Kershaw Charmaine Papertalk Green J P Quinton Barbara Temperton Edwin Lee Mulligan Annamaria Weldon Chris Arnold John Kinsella Josephine Clarke
Tasmania
Sarah Day (State Editor) Adrienne Eberhard Tim Thorne Louise Oxley Karen Knight Jane Williams Graeme Hetherington Ben Walter Christiane Conésa-Bostock Gina Mercer Jim Everett-puralia meenmatta James Charlton Anne Kellas
Queensland
Felicity Plunkett (State Editor) Nathan Shepherdson Ellen van Neerven Lionel Fogarty MTC Cronin Sarah Holland-Batt Stuart Barnes Anna Jacobson Zenobia Frost Samuel Wagan Watson David Stavanger Liam Ferney Pascalle Burton
ACT
Jen Webb (State Editor) Sarah Rice Omar Musa Jeanine Leane Paul Hetherington Jen Crawford Adrian Caesar Merlinda Bobis Melinda Smith Kerry Reed-Gilbert John Foulcher Isi Unikowski Geoff Page Anita Patel Mark O'Connor Paul Munden Miranda Lello Lesley Lebkowicz Paul Collis
Editorial note
The statistics listed above were last updated on 16 October 2023. The information on this page will continue to be updated and expanded over time.
Issue #1, June 1978Australian Book Review is one of the country’s leading cultural magazines. Founded in 1961 in Adelaide and revived in Melbourne in 1978, it is an independent, not-for-profit magazine committed to publishing critical and creative writing of the highest standard. Through its print and digital publishing, website, prizes, fellowships, events, and partnerships, ABR makes a major contribution to Australia’s culture of ideas. 
First issue, 1961 (series one)First Series