{"title":"Authors and Writers","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"on-david-malouf-writers-on-writershardback","title":"On David Malouf by Nam Le","description":"\u003cp\u003eHere was a very-much-alive half-Lebanese writer (from provincial Brisbane, no less) producing English-language writing of the very first order … The poetry was in the prose; it stayed and sprung its rhythms, chorded its ideas, concentrated its images. Every other novel claims to be written in “poetic prose”; the real thing, when you come across it, is actually shocking.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNam Le takes the reader on a thrilling intellectual ride in this sharp, bold essay. Encompassing identity politics, metaphysics, the relationship between life and art, and the ‘Australianness’ of Malouf’s work, it is unlike anything else written about one of Australia’s most acclaimed writers.\u003cbr\u003e\nIn the Writers on Writers series, leading writers reflect on another Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlso in the Writers on Writers series\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n \u003cp\u003eAlice Pung on John Marsden\u003cbr\u003e\nErik Jensen on Kate Jennings\u003cbr\u003e\nChristos Tsiolkas on Patrick White\u003cbr\u003e\nCeridwen Dovey on J.M. Coetzee\u003cbr\u003e\nMichelle de Kretser on Shirley Hazzard  (forthcoming)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39619592650887,"sku":"9781760640392-Office","price":22.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/WoW_20Le_20on_20Malouf_20_28online_29.jpg?v=1636455095"},{"product_id":"on-jm-coetzee-writers-on-writershardback","title":"On JM Coetzee by Ceridwen Dovey","description":"\u003cp\u003eI was born in the year J.M. Coetzee published his third novel, Waiting for the Barbarians. My mother read this dark, disturbing book with its multiple scenes of torture as she breastfed me at night, while my older sister slept and the house was quiet. It was 1980. The apartheid government had declared a state of emergency in the face of growing internal revolt, and my parents were thinking of leaving South Africa again.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor Ceridwen Dovey, J.M. Coetzee ‘has always been there, an unseen but strongly felt presence in our small family drama’. As a child, she observed with fascination her mother’s immersion in Coetzee’s writing as she worked on what would become the first critical study of his early novels. Even now, as a writer herself, Ceridwen’s relationship with Coetzee’s books is still mediated by her mother’s readings of them: to get to him, she must first step through her mother’s formidable mind. With tenderness and insight, Dovey draws on this personal history to explore the Nobel Prize-winner’s work – how his books ‘do theory’ on themselves – while also tracing the intellectual heritage that has been passed from mother to daughter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the Writers on Writers series, leading writers reflect on another Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative, crisp and written from a practitioner’s perspective, the series starts a fresh conversation between past and present, writer and reader. It sheds light on the craft of writing, and introduces some intriguing and talented authors and their work.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublished by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.\u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\nAlso available in the Writers on Writers series\u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\nAlice Pung on John Marsden\u003cbr\u003e\nErik Jensen on Kate Jennings\u003cbr\u003e\nChristos Tsiolkas on Patrick White\u003cbr\u003e\nNam Le on David Malouf (forthcoming) \u003cbr\u003e\nMichelle de Kretser on Shirley Hazzard (forthcoming)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39619592716423,"sku":"9781760640613-Office","price":22.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/WoW_20Dovey_20on_20Coetzee_20_28online_29.jpg?v=1636455088"},{"product_id":"on-john-marsden-writers-on-writershardback","title":"On John Marsden by Alice Pung","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn original and moving look by award-winning writer Alice Pung at one of her biggest influences – the much-loved and hugely successful writer John Marsden.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on an Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePublished by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39619592749191,"sku":"9781863959568-Office","price":22.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/9781925435726_FC.jpg?v=1636455084"},{"product_id":"on-kate-jennings-writers-on-writershardback","title":"On Kate Jennings by Erik Jensen","description":"\u003cp\u003eWeaving in his interviews with Jennings in New York, he shows how poetry, politics and family were transmuted into her first novel,  Snake  – a work of art that depicts rural Australia in a funny, cutting and unforgettable way. This is a biography of a book and the life that made it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on an Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePublished by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39619592781959,"sku":"9781863959834-Office","price":22.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/9781925435818_FC.jpg?v=1636455081"},{"product_id":"on-patrick-white-writers-on-writershardback","title":"On Patrick White by Christos Tsiolkas","description":"\u003cp\u003ePatrick White, the un-Australian writer who did more than any other writer in the twentieth century to create an imaginative language that we can call Australian, who unshackled us from the demand that we write as the English do, who recognised, through his own alienation and also through his profound love for his partner, that we were a migrant and mongrel nation forging our own culture and our own language.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eChristos Tsiolkas spent a year of ‘discovery and rediscovery’ reading Patrick White. In this passionate and original book, he shows how the Nobel Prize winner’s work still speaks to us.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39619592847495,"sku":"9781863959797-Office","price":22.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/WoW_20Tsiolkas_20on_20White_20_28online_29_0.jpg?v=1636455075"},{"product_id":"simon-leys-navigator-between-worldshardback","title":"Simon Leys by Philippe Paquet","description":"\u003cp\u003eSimon Leys is the pen-name of Pierre Ryckmans, who was born in Belgium and settled in Australia in 1970. He taught Chinese literature at the Australian National University and was Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Sydney from 1987 to 1993. He died in 2015.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWriting in three languages – French, Chinese and English – he played an important political role in revealing the true nature of the Cultural Revolution. His writing on China and on varied literary and cultural topics appeared regularly in the  New York Review of Books ,  Le Monde ,  Le Figaro Littéraire ,  Quadrant  and the  Monthly , and his books include  The Hall of Uselessness ,  The Death of Napoleon ,  Other People’s Thoughts  and  The Wreck of the Batavia \u0026amp; Prosper . In 1996 he delivered the ABC’s Boyer Lectures. His many awards include the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Mondial Cino Del Duca, the Prix Guizot and the Christina Stead Prize for fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis substantial biography – recently published by Gallimard in France to wide acclaim and winning an academy award from the Académie Francaise – draws on extensive correspondence with Ryckmans, as well as his unpublished writings. It has been translated by an internationally renowned French translator Julie Rose (based in Sydney).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘Leys was a writer of great virtue and great competence; he was obscure mainly in the minds of those who think of writing in terms of the bestseller lists. He was read by good readers in many parts of the world, and this was, I would guess, exactly what he wanted. Will this biography make him less 'obscure'? I suspect that he would not have cared one way or the other; he would be serene about the matter. But for those of us who admire his daring, darting and capacious mind, I hope very much that it does.’ — Julian Barnes\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39619595174023,"sku":"9781863959209","price":59.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/cover_64_c5c89275-c02a-4a27-ba7f-97b128078e71.jpg?v=1636534154"},{"product_id":"the-last-man-in-europe-a-novelpaperback","title":"The Last Man in Europe by Dennis Glover","description":"\u003cp\u003eForty-four years old and suffering from the tuberculosis that within three winters will take his life, Orwell comes to see the book as his legacy – the culmination of a career spent fighting to preserve the freedoms which the wars and upheavals of the twentieth century have threatened. Completing the book is an urgent task, a race against death.\u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\nIn this illuminating novel, Dennis Glover masterfully explores the creation of Orwell’s classic work, which for millions of readers worldwide defined the twentieth century. Simultaneously a captivating drama, a unique literary excavation and an unflinching portrait of a beloved British writer, The Last Man in Europe will change the way you understand Nineteen Eighty-Four.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39619598712967,"sku":"9781760640729","price":27.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/cover-2021-11-10T151330.095.jpg?v=1636517647"},{"product_id":"their-brilliant-careers-the-fantastic-lives-of-sixteen-extraordinary-australian-writerspaperback","title":"Their Brilliant Careers by Ryan O'Neill","description":"\u003cp\u003eAbsurd, original and highly addictive . . .\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn  Their Brilliant Careers , Ryan O'Neill has written a hilarious novel in the guise of sixteen biographies of (invented) Australian writers. Meet Rachel Deverall, who unearthed the secret source of the great literature of our time – and paid a terrible price for her discovery. Meet Rand Washington, hugely popular sci-fi author (of  Whiteman of Cor ) and inveterate racist. Meet Addison Tiller, master of the bush yarn, \"The Chekhov of Coolabah\", who never travelled outside Sydney.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n \u003cp\u003eTheir Brilliant Careers  is a playful set of stories, linked in many ways, which together form a memorable whole. A wonderful comic tapestry of the writing life, this unpredictable and intriguing work takes Australian writing in a whole new direction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘You have to admire O’Neill’s delicious bravura. He’s been one of the few short fiction writers of recent years willing to play around with the form’s possibilities … Apart from the fact there are more funny lines in O’Neill’s 288 pages than there are likely to be in the entirety of Australian literature elsewhere this year, the profiles are woven smartly together, as the characters’ fates and careers intertwine.’— Saturday Paper \u003cbr\u003e\n   \u003cbr\u003e\n‘[Ryan O'Neill] offers a book that is a piss-take, a celebration, a revisionist history and, perhaps most impressively, exceedingly good fun.’—Dominic Amerena, the  Australian \u003cbr\u003e\n   \u003cbr\u003e\n‘Ryan O’Neill combines conventions of biography and short story in an exhaustively brazen blend of Australian literary history and plausible yet gloriously bonkers invention.’—Elke Power,  Readings Monthly \u003cbr\u003e\n   \u003cbr\u003e\n ‘Their Brilliant Careers  … brims with crackerjack wit. Pressure is subtly built; punchlines are explosive.’— Australian Book Review\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003e‘Ryan O’Neill has embarked on the task of creating a satirical, funny alternative history to Australian literature, an exercise he has achieved admirably and with brilliance.’—Writers Bloc\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘O'Neill has arranged a beautiful board of slain waxwings, no less funny or moving for being, in the final estimate of things, no more than shadows of the never living and the forever dead.’—Adam Rivett,  Sydney Morning Herald\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39619600810119,"sku":"9781863958639","price":32.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0313\/7211\/6103\/products\/cover_72.jpg?v=1636511341"},{"product_id":"with-stendhal-1","title":"With Stendhal by Simon Leys","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWith Stendhal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis a delightful portrait of the nineteenth century French novelist Henri Beyle, better known to us as Stendhal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTwo linked texts, introduced, annotated and translated into English for the first time by multi-award-winning author Simon Leys, illuminate the life and mind of the great writer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe first piece is a set of impressions and memories written by Stendhal’s famous friend Prosper Mérimée. 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A public figure by the end of her life, she was always deeply protective of her privacy, and even now, some twenty-six years after her death, little is known of the experiences that gave rise to her extraordinary poems. This book follows Harwood from her childhood in 1920s Brisbane to her final years in Hobart in the 1990s. It traces how a lively, sardonic and determined young woman built a career in the conservative 1950s, blasting her way into the patriarchal strongholds of Australian poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHarwood refused to be bound by convention, ‘liberating’ herself, to use her word, before women’s lib existed. Yet she also struggled for much of her life to combine marriage and motherhood with her creative ambitions. In this sense, she is a twentieth-century everywoman. 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