Australian books

Betty Can Jump at the Pram Factory: the radical 1970s play that built a scene – and changed Australia

Conceived at Helen Garner’s Fitzroy share house during the 70s, this women’s show upended the establishment – and reminds us why arts funding matters

Kath Kenny

18, Jan, 2023 @2:00 PM

‘A visceral feeling’: how a young editor discovered the Australian classic A Fortunate Life

Wendy Jenkins, who has died aged 70, took some unpromising typed pages from a pile of unsolicited manuscripts and was immediately captivated

Jennifer King

30, Dec, 2022 @2:00 PM

‘Cheap compared with most holidays’: booking a vacation just to read

Making a reading list the focus of an entire holiday is a convenient way to spend your time off. And as people who’ve done it found – it can be life-changing

Lee Tran Lam

28, Dec, 2022 @2:00 PM

The 25 best Australian books of 2022: Chloe Hooper, Alex Miller, Jessica Au and more

Just in time for your Christmas shopping: Guardian Australia’s critics and staff pick out the best of the best

Steph Harmon, Sian Cain, Lucy Clark, Beejay Silcox, Susan Wyndham, Michael Sun, Imogen Dewey, Paul Daley, Declan Fry, Bridie Jabour, Bec Kavanagh, Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, Fiona Wright and Donna Lu

19, Dec, 2022 @2:00 PM

Don’t give up your day job: how Australia’s favourite authors are making ends meet

According to new research, writing books brings in $18,200 a year on average. This leaves the celebrated authors we spoke to hustling seven days a week

Rafqa Touma

16, Dec, 2022 @2:00 PM

Prime Minister’s Literary awards 2022: Nicolas Rothwell and Mark Willacy win major prizes

Rothwell’s second novel collected the fiction prize with Willacy’s follow-up to his 2020 investigation Killing Field winning for non-fiction

Kelly Burke

13, Dec, 2022 @2:30 AM

Behrouz Boochani in Australia: ‘Some of those politicians who barred me are gone. But I am here’

The Kurdish Iranian refugee was always confident he would prove Peter Dutton’s declaration that he ‘wouldn’t be permitted to come to Australia’ wrong

Mostafa Rachwani

08, Dec, 2022 @12:57 AM

How Painters and Dockers’ hedonistic rocker Paulie Stewart cheated death – with help from some ‘punk’ nuns

Thanks to a liver transplant and a Timorese nun familiar with Stewart’s link to the Balibo Five, the Melbourne singer is alive to tell his remarkable story

Andrew Stafford

05, Dec, 2022 @1:55 AM

Readers are hungry for stories about trauma. But what happens to the authors?

A scan of recent Australian memoirs suggests an appetite for stories about pain. But after telling their story, writers have to sell it – and that can come at a cost

Imogen Dewey

18, Nov, 2022 @2:00 PM

Salonika Burning by Gail Jones review – wartime novel feels miraculously fresh

Jones takes four famous figures who served in Thessaloniki during the first world war and imagines how their stories could have overlapped

Bec Kavanagh

17, Nov, 2022 @2:00 PM

Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here by Heather Rose review – one woman’s quest for joy

This vibrant memoir in essays reveals the Australian author’s tragic childhood and her restless hunt for clarity via drugs, meditation and painful rituals

Susan Wyndham

10, Nov, 2022 @2:00 PM

Ever had a weirdly intense friendship? Tommi Parrish’s latest book is for you

The Australian artist and author spent three years hand-painting Men I Trust, a graphic novel about a relationship that becomes uncomfortably ambiguous

Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen