A column canvassing current literary news including a report on changes to the judging criteria for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Susan Wyndham writes that the award trustees have updated the interpretation of Franklin's requirement that the winning book 'present Australian life in any of its phases'. Judges may now use their discretion to modernise the definition of 'Australianness'.
Wyndham also notes Chris Andrews's win in the UK Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize for his collection 'Lime Green Chair', and she highlights Text Publishing's new Australian classics list.