Tag Archives: Alexis Wright

“go thither in a fantastical story that began not at the beginning”*

In my last year as an undergraduate, I became involved in what I’ve always since described as “a traveling roadshow of Finnegans Wake.”  For a year a troupe of a dozen faculty and students met weekly to rehearse a reading … Continue reading

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Cui Bono?

The shadow of war is falling across Northern Australia once again. I think we all knew that Campbell Newman was going to be trouble, in many ways.  The election of the CLP to power in the Territory under the leadership … Continue reading

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Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria in the New York Times

This week’s New York Times Book Review carries an essay by Jane Perlez, unfortunately headlined “Aboriginal Lit,” profiling Alexis Wright’s masterpiece, Carpentaria(Giramondo, 2006). The bad news is that the book still hasn’t found an American publisher, but maybe the attention focused on it … Continue reading

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Carpentaria Wins Miles Franklin Award

There’s been an incredibly rush of news about Aboriginal Australia in the last few days, most of it very hard to absorb: the verdict in the Mulrunji case, the release of the Children are Sacred report and the predictably ham-fisted (iron-fisted? jackbooted?) … Continue reading

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February’s Book: An Aboriginal (and) Australian Masterpiece

Once upon a time, longer ago than seems possible, I left home to study literature at college. I thought I’d had a fairly sophisticated taste of English lit up to that point, thanks to wonderful teachers who had supplemented John … Continue reading

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