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Works By

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1 Jock Serong Preservation CR , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 17-23 November 2018;

'The Sydney Cove has the mixed distinction of being among the first ships wrecked on Australia’s east coast; it was on its way from Calcutta to Port Jackson in 1797 when it wrecked on an island – now called Preservation Island – in Bass Strait. Seventeen men survived and set off in the ship’s longboat to Port Jackson, on the way to which they wrecked again, this time on the mainland, leaving them few choices but to walk the 600-plus kilometres to Sydney from Ninety Mile Beach. Three survivors – a British merchant, a Scottish merchant and one Indian lascar – made it to Sydney, where, in this fourth novel by Jock Serong, those able to communicate are interrogated by Lieutenant Joshua Grayling, who is tasked with solving the many mysteries their bodies bear. One of them has a broken nose. Another has been speared through both hands.' (Introduction)

1 Future D. Fidel : Prize Fighter CR , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 14-20 July 2018;

'The author of this first novel is a young playwright from Brisbane by way of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The narrator, Isa Alaki, is a young prize-fighter who’s ended up in Brisbane by way of the same place, but there the biographies diverge.' (Introduction)

1 Various : Light Borrowers : UTS Writers’ Anthology 2018 CR , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 7-13 July 2018;

'The UTS Writers’ Anthology sits on an interesting precipice, one no less interesting because it sits there with such grace and style. On the one hand, it’s the outcome of a learning and teaching project; the yearly editorial committee is composed of UTS students, who spend six months building the anthology from submissions from student writers. On the other hand, it’s published by Xoum, a commercial publisher, now trading as Brio. Hence it puts a learning and teaching product in a commercial space.' (Introduction)

1 Bri Lee : Eggshell Skull CR , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 16-22 June 2018;

'This memoir is named for the legal premise that “a victim must be accepted for who they are individually, regardless of where their strengths and weaknesses place them on a spectrum of human normality. If you strike a person whose skull happens to be as thin as an eggshell, and they break their head open and die, you can’t claim that they were not a ‘regular’ person. Full criminal liability – and responsibility – cannot be avoided because a victim is ‘weak’.”'  (Introduction)

1 [Review Essay ] Christos Tsiolkas On Patrick White CR , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 12-18 May 2018;

'This short book, the third in Black Inc’s “Writers on Writers” series, sees Christos Tsiolkas reviving his love of Patrick White. Tsiolkas acknowledges David Marr’s thorough and acclaimed White biography early on – here he’s writing something between a personal–professional appreciation and a critical study.' (Introduction)

1 Ceridwen Dovey : In the Garden of the Fugitives CR , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 24 February - 2 March 2018;

'A friend and I recently argued about Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey. A collection of stories about the souls of 10 animals caught up in wars of the 20th century, each of the animals also bears a relationship to a famous literary figure, such as Kerouac or Tolstoy, and often the animal has a proclivity for mimicking the author’s voice. I argued that the strength of the book was that anyone could have thought of it, but only Ceridwen Dovey could have pulled it off so well. My friend argued not only that she pulled it off so beautifully, but that it’s a miracle anyone came up with the idea at all.' (Introduction)

1 Chris Gooch : Bottled CR , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 27 January - 2 February 2018;

'Bottled is the right word for this graphic novel by Chris Gooch, a young and accomplished member of a talented field of comics-makers coming out of Melbourne and debuting on the international stage. You don’t know what kind of book this is until quite a long way in, beyond its intimations of malaise and disaster, but it’s clear from the outset that it’s fizzing with dark juice – you feel like someone’s thrown it at you.' (Introduction)

1 [Review Essay] Suburbia CR , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 14-20 October 2017;

'If it’s possible to write richly about a very bleak place, Jeremy Chambers has done it in this book about the Australian suburb, a place “not really known for anything: people lived here, but that was all”. Suburbia, Chambers’ second novel after the much-praised The Vintage and the Gleaning, adds another voice to a welcome wave of Australian fiction that re-evaluates family life at the end of the 20th century, a time just close enough to make readers feel rather uncomfortable without quite causing us to look away.' (Introduction)

1 Felicity Castagna : No More Boats CR , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 24-30 June 2017;
'Although this novel opens with the disappearance of Harold Holt and ends with the collapse of the Twin Towers, most of it is focused on a brief, important moment that feels both distant from the present day and uncomfortably close. No More Boats tells the story of how Antonio Martone, the patriarch of a Parramatta family in late 2001, reaches an “existential crisis” that coincides with our own when we can’t decide what to do about the Tampa and its 438 human passengers. ' (Introduction)
1 Melanie Joosten : Gravity Well CR , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 10-16 June 2017;
'Gravity Well is about Lotte and Eve, two intelligent women who start out as friends and whose relationship, over time, develops into something harsher, deeper and odder, as they both swerve between a number of diverging plans and desires. It’s only the second novel by Melanie Joosten, whose Berlin Syndrome was recently adapted into a film, but it achieves a textured and realistic quality that for some writers takes a lifetime.' (Introduction)
1 Inga Simpson : Understory CR , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 3-9 June 2017;
'In 2007 Inga Simpson, not yet a successful novelist, is stuck on a wearying conference call when she first sees the cedar cottage that will change her life. It sits in a misty forest and is up for sale. Simpson and her partner, a writer known here as N, aren’t ready for their tree change, but many things in this memoir happen before the pair is ready; they meet challenges as opportunities, equally inspiring and frightening.' (Introduction)
1 Various, Overland #223 CR , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 13 August 2016;

— Review of Overland no. 223 Winter 2016 periodical issue
1 Review : Dark Fires Shall Burn CR , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 14 May 2016;

— Review of Dark Fires Shall Burn Anna Westbrook , 2016 single work novel
1 C. S. Pacat, Kings Rising CR , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 27 February 2016;

— Review of Kings Rising C. S. Pacat , 2016 single work novel
1 Everywhere I Look, Helen Garner CR , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 26 March 2016;

— Review of Everywhere I Look Helen Garner , 2016 selected work essay
1 Jack Cox, Dodge Rose CR , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 30 April 2016;
1 Robert Forster, Grant & I CR , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 10 September 2016;

— Review of Grant and I : Inside and Outside The Go-Betweens Robert Forster , 2016 single work autobiography
1 Review : Small Acts of Disappearance CR , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 19 September 2015;

— Review of Small Acts of Disappearance : Essays on Hunger Fiona Wright , 2015 selected work essay
1 Review : Captive Prince CR , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 4 April 2015;

— Review of Captive Prince C. S. Pacat , 2012 single work novel
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