Books and literature

Looking closely at the spine could unlock the mystery of a rare book, or it could raise more questions.

The opposite of kindness is not cruelty or malice. It is reason.

On diversity, discomfort and the turning of a new page for the Australian publishing industry.

Jamie Marina Lau began her second novel in a dream-like state that belies her intense research.

Protecting the innocent through censorship has been a fraught and — in hindsight — sometimes comic endeavour. 

In the Schumacher household it was legendary: The Alarm Clock.

Sydney Writers’ Festival Artistic Director Michael Williams is ready for the challenges of 2021.

The theme of friendship and betrayal took this writer and editor from her non-fiction debut to her first novel.

A poem by Eunice Andrada.

Two writers’ search for their mysterious and talented forebear was full of archival riches.

After a person dies, there is the game show.

She found fame as a teenage poet, but Grace Perry’s startling later work and her support for fellow poets are barely remembered.

A poem by Maryam Azam.

Stan didn’t look good at all. I could see him in the garden, through a window. Hunched forward, sucking on a cigarette, mistaking it for a sign of life.

The Library is the new home of award-winning children’s author and illustrator Pamela Allen’s extensive archive.

It’s just a bag of peas, she told herself. I can order more online. So why was she crying?

What’s the process for turning words on a page into words in your ear?

As writers adapt to a vastly altered publishing landscape, how will they remake themselves in a post-pandemic world?

The Library's holdings illustrate the significance of what can at first appear to be copies of the same work.

Donald Horne’s unlikely editorship of the mass-market Weekend magazine was a crucial stage in the Lucky Country author’s development as a public intellectual.

In October 1918 Angus & Robertson published what would become one of Australia’s best known children’s stories: The Magic Pudding.

The Library's collection of World War I diaries offers a glimpse into the life of Australians at war. 

‘Heaven could be no more magical and mystical than unspoiled Australia' - the brilliant career of Miles Franklin.

Charles Dickens saw Australia as a utopia for the working class — and his wayward sons.

Between 1919 and 1930  Andre Breton published experimental texts that defined the Surrealist movement.

In 1864 the Reverend John M. Jephson published his book on the birthplace, home, and grave of Shakespeare. Nestled within the pages of text are a series of photographs of sites relating to Shakespeare’s life in Stratford-on-Avon.