Literature

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Novelist Amy Taylor has sold the screen rights to her novels The Ruins and Search History.

She’d finished her novel and was about to have a baby. Then Hollywood came calling

Book? Check. Baby? Check. Blockbuster? Check.

  • Melanie Kembrey

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Book Reviews 2025

Book Reviews

What’s good, what’s bad, and what’s in between in literature this year? Here we review the latest titles.

What literary satires reveal about the state of the publishing industry

Two recent novels featuring literary fraudsters comment on how fearfully difficult it is to scratch a living as a writer waiting for the big break.

  • Jane Sullivan
CEO of Sydney Writers Festival, Brooke Webb.

‘Censorship is never the answer’: Writers festival organisers call for braver spaces after Bendigo boycott

Festival organisers around the country have expressed dismay over the Bendigo Writers Festival code-of-conduct push, saying such codes stifle freedom of expression.

  • Kerrie O'Brien
R.F. Kuang.

The cult author who refuses to play by the book world’s rules

Yellowface author Rebecca F. Kuang won’t stick to anyone’s pigeonhole.

  • Melanie Kembrey

Writer boycott proves strangely selective

Readers puzzle the problems around freedom of speech following the writer boycott of the Bendigo Writers Festival.

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Author Sally Rooney, pictured in 2021.

Novelist vows to use TV royalties to fund Palestine Action

Bestselling writer Sally Rooney says she felt compelled to express support for the organisation that was recently designated a proscribed terror group.

  • Hayley Dixon
Dr Randa Abdel Fattah and the letter about her appearance at BWF.

Letter to Bendigo Writers Festival flagged concern over Palestinian author

A note warning about the appearance of Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah was sent to event organisers by lobby group 5A in July.

  • Kerrie O'Brien
Rosemary Sorensen, founder and former director of the Bendigo Writers Festival.

‘Inflammatory, divisive, disrespectful’: Bendigo Writers Festival founder speaks out

Rosemary Sorensen founded the event 13 years ago. What has happened in the past week has left her in despair.

  • Karl Quinn
Dozens of writers have ditched the 2025 Bendigo Writers Festival.

‘Heartbreaking’: Bendigo Writers Festival opens, barely, with dozens of events cancelled

The festival has gone ahead despite a growing cohort of authors withdrawing from scheduled events.

  • Hannah Hammoud