Author:

A review of Naming the Silence by Michael David Blanchard

Blanchard consistently displays an ease with poems in both short and long form and reveals a practiced command of nuanced phrasing, versification, and evocative imagery. While the works might be somewhat more formal in style than those of many of his contemporaries, there is no dominant or predetermined verse form here.

A review of The Northway by Lisa Bellamy

With its keen eye and impeccable phrasing, Lisa Bellamy’s The Northway gives us good-natured laughter, the kind of feeling you get from a Masterpiece Theater series…and it is ever so much more respectable and rewarding than a binge-watch.

A review of Crowd of One by Filip Severin

There is a great deal of talk about ‘the big picture’ in Crowd of One, a metaphor frequently used to make the ends justify the means and enable a megalomaniac’s vision to outweigh a world of suffering.

An interview with Melissa Chan

Melissa Chan is a lifelong reader and the designer of Literary Book Gifts which features book related products like t-shirts and totes ranging from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. She drops by to talk about her venture, her favourite books, her love of the classics, and more.

Great new giveaway!

We have 3 copies of In the Measuring by Carol Smallwood to giveaway.

To win, sign up for our Free Newsletter on the right hand side of the site and enter via the newsletter. Winner will be chosen by the first of January 2019 from subscribers who enter via the newsletter.

A review of Apocalypse Chow by David Julian Wightman

It is entertaining for anyone familiar with the works it lovingly skewers (note the culinary metaphor) and it is strangely compelling even if, like me, you haven’t read Conrad for a long time. It is quietly witty and also serious. It manages to borrow something of the gravitas of Conrad’s novel and – like all good parody – it makes you want to return to the original for a fresh look.

A review of and my heart crumples like a coke can by Ali Whitelock

The poetry manages to be both pithy and almost hysterically funny, not an easy mix to achieve, but that is how life works: the paradox of what we carry and what we experience in each moment. Whitlock captures this duality perfectly, taking a stand-up comedian’s incision to pretension and human foibles.

Interview with Ber Carroll

An Irish native, Ber moved to Sydney in 1995 and spent much of her early career working within the financial sector. Since then, she has pursued writing full-time and has thus far penned eight novels, that include Once Lost, Worlds Apartand Less Than Perfect. The Missing Pieces of Sophie McCarthymarks the first work to be published under the name B. M. Carroll. She drops by to talk about her latest book and lots more.

A review of The Usual Story by Libby Sommer

It is impressive the ability of Sommer to fragment the narrative when we encounter Sofia’s visits to the psychiatrist. We read about her participation in Milongas, asking relatives about her past, and about love and its many facets. All of these interspersed with poetic descriptions of place. Sydneysiders will recognise many areas of the Eastern suburbs in Sommer’s vivid imagery.

A review of All The Answers by Michael Kupperman

As dementia begins to rob an already private and absentminded man of his memories, Michael becomes set on reconstructing his father’s childhood from recordings, news articles, and his father’s own accounts, in a journey to understand what had crafted his father into the man he is, and how that has formed Michael himself.