''Australian Book Review'' is an Australian arts and literary review. Created in 1961, ''ABR'' is an independent non-profit organisation that publishes articles, reviews, commentaries, essays, and new writing. The aims of the magazine are 'to foster high critical standards, to provide an outlet for fine new writing, and to contribute to the preservation of literary values and a full appreciation of Australia's literary heritage'.

History and profile

''Australian Book Review'' was established by Max Harris and Rosemary Wighton as a monthly journal in Adelaide, Australia, in 1961. In 1971 production was reduced to quarterly releases, and lapsed completely in 1974. In 1978 the journal was revived by the National Book Council and, moving to Melbourne, began producing ten issues per year. ABR published the 400th issue of the second series in April 2018. An eleventh issue was added in 2021 (the magazine publishes a double issue in January–February). ''ABR'' is currently in partnership with

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

and had a previous partnership with

Flinders University Flinders University is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across 11 locations in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of British navigator ...

. The magazine is supported by various organisations including the

Australia Council for the Arts The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

, Creative Victoria, Arts SA, and Copyright Agency Limited. ''ABR'' publishes reviews, essays, commentaries, interviews and new creative writing. The magazine is national in readership, authorship, distribution, events and partners. It is available in print and online. ''ABR''’s diverse programs include three prestigious international prizes, writers’ fellowships worth as much as $10,000, themed issues, national events, cultural tours, and paid editorial internships/cadetships. Peter Rose is the Editor; and

Sarah Holland-Batt Sarah Holland-Batt is a contemporary Australian poet, critic, and academic. Early life and education Born in Southport, Queensland, Sarah Holland-Batt grew up in Australia and Denver, Colorado. She was educated at the University of Queensland ...

is Chairperson of the Board.

Editors

* 1961 to 1974 –

Geoffrey Dutton Geoffrey 'Geppie' Piers Henry Dutton AO (2 August 192217 September 1998) was an Australian author and historian. Biography Dutton was born into a prominent pastoralist family of Anlaby Station near Kapunda, South Australia in 1922. His grandfa ...

, Max Harris and Rosemary Wighton * 1978 to 1986 – John McLaren * 1986 to 1987 –

Kerryn Goldsworthy Dr. Kerryn Lee Goldsworthy (born 14 May 1953) is an Australian freelance writer and former academic. Life and career Goldsworthy has edited four anthologies of Australian writing. She has also written many articles, essays and reviews. She has ...

* 1988 –

Louise Adler Louise Adler (born 1954) is a prominent figure in Australian publishing, known for being CEO of Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) since 2003. Early life and education Louise Adler was born in Melbourne to Jacques and Ruth Adler, Jewish immi ...

* 1989 to 1995 – Rosemary Sorensen * 1995 to 2000 – Helen Daniel * 2001 to present day – Peter Rose

Calibre Essay Prize

The Calibre Essay Prize is given annually. The prize, first awarded in 2007, is currently worth a total of A$7,500. The prize is open to authors around the world writing in English. ''ABR'' accepts entries from published authors commentators, and emerging writers. All non-fiction subjects are eligible.

Winners

* 2007 – Elisabeth Holdsworth: ''An die Nachgenborenen: For Those Who Come After'' * 2008 – Rachel Robertson: ''Reaching One Thousand'' and Mark Tredinnick: ''A Storm and a Teacup'' * 2009 – Kevin Brophy: ''"What're yer looking at yer fuckin' dog": Violence and Fear in Žižek's Post-political Neighbourhood'' and Jane Goodall: ''Footprints'' * 2010 – Lorna Hallahan: ''On being Odd'' and David Hansen: ''Seeing Truganini'' * 2011 – Dean Biron: ''The Death of the Writer'' and Moira McKinnon: ''Who Killed Matilda?'' * 2012 – Matt Rubinstein: ''Body and Soul: Copyright and Law Enforcement in the Age of the Electronic Book'' * 2013 – Martin Thomas: ''"Because it's your country": Bringing Back the Bones to West Arnhem Land'' * 2014 –

Christine Piper Christine Piper is an Australian author and editor. Her first novel, ''After Darkness'', won the 2014 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2015 Miles Franklin Literary Award. She won the 2014 Calibre Prize for an Outsta ...

: ''Unearthing the past'' * 2015 –

Sophie Cunningham Sophie Cunningham is an Australian writer and editor based in Melbourne. She is the current Chair of the Board of the Australian Society of Authors, the national peak body representing Australian authors. Career Publisher Cunningham was pub ...

: ''Staying with the trouble'' * 2016 – Michael Winkler: ''The Great Red Whale'' * 2017 – Michael Adams: ''Salt Blood'' * 2018 – Lucas Grainger-Brown: ''We Three Hundred'' * 2019 –

Grace Karskens Grace Elizabeth Karskens, (born 12 March 1958) is an Australian historian who is professor of history at the University of New South Wales. Career Grace Elizabeth Karskens, born in Sydney, New South Wales in 1958, graduated from the Universit ...

: ''Nah Doongh's Song'' * 2020 –

Yves Rees Yves Rees is an Australian researcher in Australian history, best known for their work on gender, transnational and economic history, as well as writings on contemporary transgender identity, and politics. Early life and education Rees recei ...

: ''Reading the Mess Backwards'' * 2021 – Theodore Ell: ''Façades of Lebanon''

Peter Porter Poetry Prize

''Australian Book Review'' established its annual Poetry Prize in 2005, and in 2011 renamed it the

Peter Porter Poetry Prize The Peter Porter Poetry Prize is an ongoing international literary award run by the Australian Book Review for outstanding poetry. Established by the ''ABR'' in 2005, the Prize is named after the late Australian poet Peter Porter. The Porter Pri ...

in memory of the Australian poet Peter Porter (1929–2010). The Prize is one of Australia's most lucrative awards for poetry. Winning and short-listed entries are published in ''ABR''.

Judith Bishop Judith Bishop (born 1972) is a contemporary Australian poet, linguist and translator. Biography Judith Bishop was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1972. She holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, an Master of Fine Arts, MFA in Writing f ...

and Anthony Lawrence are the only poets to win the prize twice. The prize is open to poets around the world writing in English. Entrants can submit a single poem of no more than 75 lines. Multiple entries are permitted, and all poems are judged anonymously.

Winners

* 2005 – Stephen Edgar: ''Man on the Moon'' * 2006 –

: ''Still Life with Cockles and Shells'' * 2007 – Alex Skovron:''Sanctum'' * 2008 – Ross Clark:' 'Danger: Lantan''a * 2009 – Tracy Ryan: ''Lost Property'' * 2010 – Anthony Lawrence: ''Domestic Emergencies'' * 2011 –

: 'Openings' and Tony Lintermans: ''Self-portrait at Sixty'' * 2012 – Michael Farrell: ''Beautiful Mother'' * 2013 – John A. Scott: ''Four Sonnets'' * 2014 – Jessica L. Wilkinson: ''Arrival Platform Humlet'' * 2015 –

Judith Beveridge Judith Beveridge (born 1956) is a contemporary Australian poet, editor and academic. She is a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award. Biography Judith Beveridge was born in London, England, arriving in Australia with her parents in 1960. She ...

: ''As Wasps Fly Upwards'' * 2016 – Amanda Joy: ''Tailings'' * 2017 – Louis Klee: ''Sentence to Lilacs'' and Damen O'Brien: ''pH'' * 2018 – Nicholas Wong: ''101, Taipei'' * 2019 – Andy Kissane: ''Searching the Dead'' and Belle Ling: ''63 Temple Street, Mong Kok'' * 2020 – A. Frances Johnson: ''My Father's Thesaurus'' * 2021 – Sara M. Saleh: ''A Poetics of Fo(u)rgetting'' * 2022 – Anthony Lawrence: ''In the Shadows of Our Heads''

''ABR'' Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize

''Australian Book Review'' revived its annual short story competition in 2010, and in 2011 renamed it the ''ABR'' Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize in memory of the late Australian writer,

Elizabeth Jolley Monica Elizabeth Jolley AO (4 June 1923 – 13 February 2007) was an English-born Australian writer who settled in Western Australia in the late 1950s and forged an illustrious literary career there. She was 53 when her first book was publishe ...

(1923–2007). The total prize money is now $12,500. The prize is open to authors around the world writing in English.

Winners

* 2010 –

Maria Takolander Maria Takolander, born in Melbourne in 1973, is an Australian writer of Finnish heritage. Biography Takolander graduated from Deakin University in 2003 with a PhD on magical realism. Since then she has continued to produce scholarly journal art ...

: ''A Roānkin Philosophy of Poetry'' * 2011 –

Carrie Tiffany Carrie Tiffany (born 1965) is an English-born Australian novelist and former park ranger. Biography Tiffany was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and migrated to Australia with her family in the early 1970s. She grew up in Perth, Western Australi ...

: ''Before He Left the Family'' and

Gregory Day Gregory Day is an Australian novelist, poet, and musician. Life Gregory Day is a novelist, poet, essayist and musician based in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. He is well known for his Mangowak novels, which document generationa ...

: ''The Neighbour's Beans'' * 2012 – Sue Hurley: ''Patterns in Nature'' * 2013 – Michelle Michau-Crawford: ''Leaving Elvis'' * 2014 –

Jennifer Down Jennifer Down (born 1990) is an Australian novelist and short story writer. She won the 2022 Miles Franklin Award for her novel ''Bodies of Light''. Biography Down was in born 1990. She studied arts at Melbourne University before studying ...

: ''Aokigahara'' * 2015 –

Rob Magnuson Smith Rob Magnuson Smith is a novelist, short story writer, journalist, and university lecturer. A dual citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom, Smith currently resides in Cornwall. He has a BA in philosophy and a BA in psychology from P ...

: ''The Elector of Nossnearly'' * 2016 – Josephine Rowe: ''Glisk'' * 2017 – Eliza Robertson: ''Pheidippides'' *2018 – Madelaine Lucas: ''Ruin'' *2019 – Sonja Dechian: ''The Point-Blank Murder'' *2020 – Mykaela Saunders: ''River Story'' *2021 – Camilla Chaudhary: ''The Enemy, Asyndeton''

''ABR'' Arts

In 2012, ''Australian Book Review'' launched an extension of its coverage of Australian culture, Arts Update, now known as ''ABR'' Arts. It presents reviews of film and television, plays, operas, concerts, dance, and art exhibitions.

Podcasts

In 2015, ''Australian Book Review'' launched two podcasts: Poem of the Week and The ''ABR'' Podcast. The ''ABR'' Podcast was subsequently revived in 2020.

Fellowships

''ABR'''s Fellowship program began in 2011. Funded by ''ABRs Patrons and by philanthropic foundations, the Fellowship program is intended to reward Australian writers. Most ''ABR'' Fellowships are now worth $10,000. The Fellowship program was originally intended for the creation of a single piece of long-form journalism but since 2018 (starting with Beejay Silcox's ''ABR'' Fortieth Birthday Fellowship) Fellows have written and published several long articles over the course of twelve months.

Fellowships

* Patrick Allington: ''"What is Australia, anyway?" The glorious limitations of the Miles Franklin Literary Award'' * Rachel Buchanan: ''Sweeping Up the Ashes'' * Felicity Plunkett: ''Sound Bridges: A Profile of Gurrumul'' * Jennifer Lindsay: ''Man on the Margins'' * Ruth Starke: ''Media Don: A political enigma in pink shorts'' *

: ''Everyone's a Critic'' * Helen Ennis: ''Olive Cotton at Spring Forest: The modernist photographer at Spring Forest'' * Arthur Fuhrmann: ''Patrick White: A theatre of his own'' * Danielle Clode: ''Seeing the wood for the trees'' * James McNamara: ''The Golden Age of Television?'' * Shannon Burns: ''The scientist of his own experience: A Profile of Gerald Murnane'' *

Ashley Hay Ashley Hay (born 1971) is an Australian writer. She has won awards for both her nonfiction science writing and her novels. she is editor of the Griffith Review. Career Hay is the author of three novels, including ''The Railwayman's Wife'', ...

: ''The forest at the edge of time'' * Michael Aiken: extract from ''Satan Repentant'' * Alan Atkinson: ''How Do We Live With Ourselves? The Australian National Conscience'' * Philip Jones: ''Beyond Songlines'' * Stephen Orr: ''Ambassadors from Another Time'' * Elisabeth Holdsworth: ''If This Is A Jew'' * Marguerite Johnson: ''"Picnic at Hanging Rock" fifty years on'' * Beejay Silcox (''ABR'' Fortieth Birthday Fellow): ''We are all MFAs now!, The art of pain: Writing in the age of trauma'', and ''This is the way the world ends'' * Felicity Plunkett: ''A mutinous and ferocious grace: Nick Cave and trauma's aftermath'', review of ''The Weekend'' by

Charlotte Wood Charlotte Wood (born 1965) is an Australian novelist. ''The Australian'' newspaper described Wood as "one of our ustralia'smost original and provocative writers". Biography Wood was born in Cooma, New South Wales. She is the author of six ...

, and a review of ''Summer'' by

Ali Smith Ali Smith CBE FRSL (born 24 August 1962) is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as "Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting". Early life and education Smith was born in Inverness on 24 Au ...

* Hessom Razavi (''ABR'' Behrouz Boochani Fellowship): ''Notes on a Pandemic: How society has responded to Covid-19'', ''Failures of imagination: A journey from Tehran's prisons to Australia's immigration detention centres'', and ''The split state: Australia's binary myth about people seeking asylum''

Rising Stars

The Rising Stars program was established in 2019. The program is intended to encourage younger writers, enhancing their critical practice and advancing their careers.

Rising Stars

* 2019 – Alex Tighe and Sarah Walker * 2020 – Declan Fry * 2021 – Mindy Gill and Anders Villani

''ABR'' Laureates

Every couple of years ''ABR'' names an ''ABR'' Laureate.

''ABR'' Laureates

* 2014:

David Malouf David George Joseph Malouf AO (; born 20 March 1934) is an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and librettist. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008, Malouf has lectured at both the University of Quee ...

* 2016:

Robyn Archer Robyn Archer, AO, CdOAL (born 1948) is an Australian singer, writer, stage director, artistic director, and public advocate of the arts, in Australia and internationally. Life Archer was born Robyn Smith in Prospect, South Australia. She beg ...

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

''Australian Book Review''

The ''ABR'' Podcast

Calibre Essay Prize

''ABR'' Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize

Peter Porter Poetry Prize
1961 establishments in Australia Literary magazines published in Australia Australian literary awards Monthly magazines published in Australia Magazines established in 1961 Book review magazines Mass media in Adelaide