Posts Tagged ‘ Opinion ’
I shook hands with Julia Gillard yesterday morning, and then wound up on the telly about it. She made a rousing speech, praising the values of hard work and education, and I came away feeling really inspired by it all. Like me, Julia was raised in a working class family in Adelaide, where she became inspired [ READ MORE ]
Over at Virugle there is a mostly-one-way discussion being had about how terrible Australian Book Review is for deciding not to award the inaugural Young Calibre Non-fiction Prize – an essay prize that matches their esteemed Calibre Prize, but for writers under 21. Unfortunately, apart from a questionable call for transparency, I don’t get a [ READ MORE ]
Sam Cooney republished an article he wrote for Bookseller+Publisher about, well, the relationship between booksellers and publishers – and how this relationship is changing as publishers embark on direct-sales ventures, which, I guess, have the potential to undermine the traditional business models of booksellers. On the surface it seems like a superfluous debate, when compared [ READ MORE ]
An exciting opportunity has come up for young writers at one of Australia’s most prestigious platforms for the discussion of literature, ABC Radio National’s The Book Show. They are looking for five young bloggers to write about book culture on their new blog. I will certainly be applying, and I encourage other young book lovers [ READ MORE ]
Dave Eggers is neither a novelist any longer, nor ‘on a crusade for print journalism …‘ He is publishing an over-priced newspaper. That’s great, and his motives are noble, but he is no more on a crusade for journalism than he is for New Orleans victims, the Lost Boys of Sudan or the many disadvantaged [ READ MORE ]
In comments on my recent post about claims that YA literature is ‘intrinsically of less cultural value than the real books’, Linnet Hunter raised some interesting questions about the perception of YA literature in Australia I was going to reply with a comment, but I was compelled to delve deeper into the subject. Reviewing Space The first [ READ MORE ]
I often read claims like this: So is YA taking over the grown-ups’ table? It’s a revealing question, steeped in the kind of condescension that assumes books aimed at young people are intrinsically of less cultural value than the real books, speculative or otherwise, that are ostensibly for adult readers. It’s also drenched in fear because, [ READ MORE ]
Three Degrees of Uncoordination is a principle for navigating my way through life and ideas[ READ MORE ]