Sofija Stefanovic is a Serbian-Australian author now based in New York. Among her other writing endeavours, Stefanovic regularly hosts the prestigious literary salon Women Of Letters New York and This Alien Nation, the latter being founded on the ideal of offering those of immigrant backgrounds a platform through which to tell their unique stories. In addition to these hosting duties, she also constantly appears as a storyteller for The Moth and her writing has featured in the likes of The Guardian, Elle and The New York Times. Miss Ex-Yugoslavia is Stefanovic’s memoirs, detailing her childhood as an immigrant in Australia.
A review of A Matter of Selection by Carol Smallwood
Smallwood’s collection of finely honed, detail filled verses spring from the page as though borne on wings to fill the air, the room, the location with perfume for the eyes. I enjoyed reading these verses, some more than once, others a quick passage with scant time to savor the message before rushing on to the next just to see what was there.
A review of White Houses by Amy Bloom
An interview with Richard Godwin
Richard Godwin is the critically acclaimed author of Apostle Rising, Mr. Glamour, One Lost Summer, Noir City, Meaningful Conversations, Confessions Of A Hit Man, Paranoia And The Destiny Programme, Wrong Crowd, Savage Highway, Ersatz World, The Pure And The Hated, Disembodied, Buffalo And Sour Mash, and Locked In Cages. He joins us to talk about his later book Insincerity, as well as many other things like social conspiracies, where the book came from, his writing space, and lots more.
A review of The Boulevard Trial by Stephanie Laterza
In clear, often compelling prose, Stephanie Laterza’s debut novel, The Boulevard Trial, offers us a contemporary story of moral dilemmas, confused intentions and missed connections that frequently result in disappointing resolutions and, at times, even tragic consequences. The traumas of the novel’s characters bleed into their ongoing personal experiences like an unchecked, gaping wound.
A review of Cubist States of Mind/Not the Cruelest Month by Marc Jampole
If anything is consistent throughout Jampole’s work, it is its semiotic density. Cubist States of Mind/Not the Cruelest Month can feel like a lightning-quick read from cover-to-cover-to-cover, but begs to be re-read. The moment one closes the book, one has the peculiar sensation of having read it years ago, its contents so intricately layered that memory alone can only render the broad strokes.
A review of Tiny Shoes Dancing by Audrey Kalman
Kalman’s courage in tackling difficult subjects (unplanned pregnancy, psoriasis, adultery, anorexia, autism, depression and death) her gift for language, and her understanding of human nature make Tiny Feet Dancing a book to keep and reread.
A review of Broken Ground by Steve Armstrong
Broken Ground is a wonderful collection, deeply rooted in the natural world: in stone, eucalypt, “mounds of spinifex”, and above all, in an exploration of how life is created though language, recollection, in the precision of our natural world, and above all in the connections that we build over the short space of our lives.
A conversation with Justine Ettler
Justine Ettler burst onto the literary scene with her novel, The River Ophelia, in 1995. A debut that divided critics, it nevertheless went on to sell an almost unheard of 50,000 copies, propelling Ettler to the forefront of the Australian literary scene virtually overnight. Since then, her second novel, Marilyn’s Almost Terminal New York Adventure, was released to near universal acclaim. After which Ettler continued to net prestigious titles and awards, including being selected as one of the six Australian authors for the New Images Winter Tour, embarking on an extended journey of the United Kingdom that concluded with her living in the country until 2007. Bohemia Beach is her hugely anticipated new novel, now available with Transit Lounge.
A review of Black Queen White City by Sonya Kudei
Trams. Cats. Circles. We are immediately alerted by these allusions to Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita (1966) that we should expect the unexpected in Black Queen White City, an ambitious novel that aspires to paint its own universe (no less) by means of framing devices, parallel worlds and an eccentric cast of characters that includes the white city of Zagreb itself, where the author was born.