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Vale Frank McCourt
Frank McCourt, 2007 (Photo by David Shankbone, used under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0) I’ve only read one of Frank McCourt’s books, his Pulitzer Prize winning memoir, Angela’s ashes. I...
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Vale Kate McGarrigle
Kate McGarrigle, 2008 (Courtesy: Dfrancois, via Wikipedia, under CC-BY-3.0 Unported) Last week I read on Cat Politics’ blog that Kate McGarrigle – one part of the Kate and Anna McGarrigle duo – had...
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Vale Ruth Park
“Harp in the South silenced: author Ruth Park dead at 93″ confronted me this morning on page 3 of our daily newspaper. I guess it had to happen, but it is nonetheless sad to see such a grand dame of...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: the National Centre of Biography
What is life? Life itself, as you will realise if you consult a dictionary, is hard enough to define. But what is a life? And why does it matter? For itself (a question of honour)? Or for what one can...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: Japanese poetry in Australia
Haiku by Suiin Emi, along the Path of Literature in Onimichi, Japan Papa Gums loves to give me clippings of obituaries that he knows will interest me. Last week, from his hospital bed, he gave me one...
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What do Di Gribble and Steve Jobs have in common?
My current beloved MacBook Pro - aging but still fine You probably think it’s strange to put these two luminaries together – one a lesser-known Australian publisher and entrepreneur and the other an...
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Vale Sarah Watt
Non-Australians may not be aware of Sarah Watt, unless they are interested in Australian film. Sarah Watt is an animator-writer-photographer-film director who made a small number of well-reviewed...
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Vale Rosemary Dobson (Australian poet)
Last time I wrote about poet Rosemary Dobson was in my post on Australian literary couples but my post today is a sadder one as Dobson died this week, just a week or so after her 92nd birthday. She had...
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Vale Jeffrey Smart
There is a logic for writing a brief post on the death of an artist on my litblog … For those of you who haven’t heard, the Australian artist Jeffrey Smart died today in Italy (20 June in the Northern...
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Vale Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger, 2007 (Photo: Anthony Pepitone, using CC-BY-SA 3.0, via Wikipedia) If music is powerful, and words are powerful, what power can words set to music have? Pete Seeger knew, but I don’t need...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: Inga Clendinnen
I cannot let this week pass without adding my voice to the tributes made by my blogger friends to anthropologist-historian Inga Clendinnen (1934-2016), who died last week at the too-young age of 82. It...
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Vale Anne Deveson (1930-2016) and Georgia Blain (1964-2016)
Anne Deveson, 2013 (Photo: Courtesy Mosman Library, using CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons) If you are a person of a certain age in Australia you will know Anne Deveson. She was a radio broadcaster...
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Vale Jill Ker Conway
Just before Mr Gums and I set off for our Arnhem Land holiday in early July, I came across an obituary for the Australian-born academic, educator and writer Jill Ker Conway (1934-2018). She had died on...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: Eleanor Witcombe
Eleanor Witcombe, 1950 from Australian Women’s Weekly (Presumed Public Domain) Eleanor Witcombe, who died in October at the venerable age of 95, is not exactly a household name in Australia – but some...
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Vale Andrew McGahan (1966-2019)
My reading group was only talking about Andrew McGahan (1966-2019) this week. We knew he was terminally ill, but little did we know that his end was so near. How very sad, then, to hear today that he...
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NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2019 Winners; and Vale Les Murray AO (1939-2019)
I decided to replace today’s Monday Musings with an awards announcement, because the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards were being announced tonight, and they comprise a swag of prizes, many being of...
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Vale Kerry Reed-Gilbert
Note: It is traditional in most indigenous Australian communities to avoid using the name of a deceased person, for some time after their death. And so, as is my wont regarding writing about indigenous...
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Vale my magnificent Mum (1929-2020)
Some of you already know, but most of you may be wondering about my recent silence. I am really too heartsore to write much now, but I feel all you lovely followers deserve to know whyfor this silence....
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Vale my dear old Dad (1920-2021)
If it was my Mum who introduced me to Jane Austen and the classics of English literature, together with a love of language (and thus Scrabble and cryptic crosswords), it was my Dad who introduced me...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: Kate Jennings (1948-2021)
Strangely, Australian writer and intellectual, Kate Jennings, has been in the air lately, even though she has lived in New York since 1979. She’s been in blogosphere because blogger Kim Forrester...
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