Craig Silvey has been longlisted for the 2010 Dylan Thomas award for his novel, Jasper Jones. This award "is open to any published writer in the English language under the age of thirty".
Angela Savage interviewed Garry Disher at the recent Crime and Justice Festival, which I would have gone to, except I was in Adelaide for my father's birthday - one ending in "0", so it was a tad important. I especially liked the bit in Angela's post: "I also asked Garry about how his approach to the latest Wyatt novel changed or was influenced by the Challis and Destry novels he has written, and he suggested he has become better at 'layering' his writing." Why did I like it? Because it was a question I suggested to Angela, leading up to the event. I sent it in an email and forgot to post it to her blog. My apologies Angela. But I'm glad it got asked, and answered. Shane Maloney reckons Disher's Wyatt is the best Australian crime novel ever written. A big call, as they say in the classics.
Kate Holden, author of In My Skin, had a Wikipedia page created for her. Trouble was, it was taken down very shortly afterwards as it was deemed, by someone as "...doesn't indicate importance/significance." You never know who these people making these judgements really are. They tend to be people who either delight in deleting stuff they don't think is worthy, or who have no knowledge of the subject matter and therefore consider it unimportant. Don't get me started. I have fought these battles. They tend towards the mindless and very, very irritating.
In the middle of 2009, Steve Grimwade (currently director of the 2010 Melbourne Writers Festival) released Literary Melbourne, a collection of prose and poetry which provided a literary and cultural view of the city of Melbourne. And now Kathleen Noonan wonders whether Brisbane has a distinctive literary voice as well. Best way to find out: produce something similar to Grimwade's anthology and see what happens.
The "International Noir Fiction" blog remembers an Australian crime novel written in the style of Jim Thompson and Ken Bruen, namely Dark Angel by John Dale. The author won Ned Kelly awards for this and his other novel, The Dogs are Barking. I'll have to try to track them down. But Dale isn't forgotten entirely, he's appearing during the 2010 Melbourne Writers Festival.
