I came across the following story a wee while ago – in New York City, there's a new Poets House, just by Rockerfeller Park. It looks like a lovely space, and if I ever had to visit NY it'd be high on my Must See list. I especially love the idea of having sensors in …
The disturbingly talented Emma Jones
Just a little out of date (ok, a couple of weeks) is the news that my disturbingly talented compatriot, Emma Jones, has won the Forward Prize for Best First Book 2009 for her book, The Striped World (Faber and Faber, 2008). Apparently not only is she the first Australian to win the award, but also …
Science Fiction (denial) is alive and well
I was sent a link to an interesting article about science fiction's position with the literary mainstream:Why science fiction authors just can't win. Posted using ShareThis I'd never really thought about how to classify books like The Handmaid's Tale and 1984, other than as “distopian” (which tends to acquire the suffix “fantasy” by default). (And …
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What do your bookcases say about you?
The BBC magazine website has a rumination on the subject of bookcases, why we might use them, and what inferences can be drawn from them. The writer poses a (mildly) provocative question: But why are we so keen to show off our books – necessitating all these shelves and swelling the already bursting coffers of …
Becoming a Book
I love books. Reading them, of course, but also making them. It's one of the chief pleasures of editing – being a part of that process, watching a book becoming. Because there's something more to it than just an assemblage of paper and ink. Even in these desktop-printing days, there's some level of specialness that sets …
