No history of violence, so girls, keep on bashing the blokes Nov 22, 2008
"Of course not," says Helen Garner, author of The First Stone. "Because there's no history of women's violence towards men that it would be subverting.". (Sydney Morning Herald)
NSW Premiers History Awards Address 2008 Oct 28, 2008
Just to speak of fiction writers, new books by Murray Bail, Geraldine Brooks, Peter Carey, J M Coetzee, Michelle de Kretser, Helen Garner, Gail Jones, Mireille Juchau, Tom Keneally, Julia Leigh, Joan London, David Malouf and Tim Winton, many appearing on national and international award lists, make this a bumper season. Alexis Wrights Miles Franklin-winning Carpentaria had a lengthy appreciation in the London Review of Books on its UK publication earlier this year, with US publication still to... (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Booker nomination surprise for de Krester Jul 31, 2008
Together they made up a substantial fraction of the whole 13-book list the Booker's dozen but other Australian novelists such as Tim Winton, Helen Garner and Alexis Carpenter, all of whose latest books have received glowing reviews in Britain, failed to make the literary cut. "I had no idea it was being announced last night," de Kretser said yesterday. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Aussie upstarts beat Winton, Garner to Booker list Jul 31, 2008
Michelle de Kretser, from Melbourne, and a debut novelist, Steve Toltz, from Sydney, edged out the veteran writers Tim Winton and Helen Garner, who had been tipped for inclusion on the long list for the prize. De Kretser was nominated for her third novel, The Lost Dog, which won the NSW Book of the Year in May, while Toltz's first novel, A Fraction of the Whole, secured him a spot on the list. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Hope and joy at Earth's end Jul 16, 2008
Perhaps as author Helen Garner suggests in her recent collection of essays, the "Holy Spirit" is the aspect of God to which ordinary, uncommitted, possibly faithless people can most easily relate. World Youth Day, which like many other contemporary observances now stretches into a week, has been described as part rock concert (Woodstock, say the old-timers), part Olympic Games, part revivalist meeting. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Australia)
Bending another writer's spine Jun 29, 2008
"The Spare Room, by Helen Garner, who is an Australian writer I always thought to be one of our finest, but her work never appears to have traveled well. It's a novel about a woman of about my age - 64 - with a spare room, and she has a friend who is dying of cancer who comes to stay with her and seek alternate treatment. It's horrifying, but it's very funny, it's very beautiful, it's very moving. She has such a wonderful visual intelligence. She is really something.". Compiled by John Freeman. (Boston Globe)
Modesty prevails Jun 28, 2008
In that hard decade there was also a divorce from Helen Garner, his second wife; there were the deaths of his mother and close friends such as the sculptor Robert Klippel and the artist's wife Maisie Drysdale; and there was a near-fatal heart attack. Bail had been to a literary festival in Iceland and after salmon fishing with the writer Nicholas Shakespeare he had an aching left arm. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Helen Garner's consolation Jun 16, 2008
It is Tuesday morning at the Napier Street Theatre in South Melbourne and Helen Garner is on an old green couch amid an ensemble of musicians, opera singers and production supervisors ... She mentions last year's novel by Sydney academic Alex Jones, Helen Garner And The Meaning Of Everything, which includes a "meditation" on the notion that Garner's books are full of rabbits and that this must hold some deeper meaning. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
The Household Guide To Dying Jun 14, 2008
Earlier this year, a novel was published with a very similar storyline ( Things I Want My Daughters To Know); and Helen Garner, Joan Didion and Julian Barnes, among others, have also recently written about dying. Death is in vogue, you might say, but Debra Adelaide's take on impending mortality is in a class of its own. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
A spy and loving it ... not Jun 3, 2008
Welcome to The Sydney Morning Herald. Simon WebsterJune 1, 2008. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Opinion)
All White on night as true tale gets nod May 24, 2008
Helen Garner discusses The Spare Room, her first novel in 15 years. Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay, 3. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
A page-turner on every corner May 18, 2008
And this week, with more than 40 international guests (including Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz, the Man Booker Prize winner Anne Enright, and Jeanette Winterson), and 136 locals (among them Helen Garner, Debra Adelaide and Luke Davies) taking part in more than 330 literary events across Sydney and from the Blue Mountains to Wollongong, it is bigger and more diverse than ever - a festival to get lost in ... - I'm fascinated by the festival theme of dying and want to catch David Rieff on his... (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
What Makes For Good Writing? Apr 20, 2008
In a recent interview, the Australian writer Helen Garner said: ;you've got to practice every day. It's like practicing an instrument if you're a musician or keeping your tools sharpened. (Suite101.com)
Peeves aplenty in poets' corner Feb 23, 2008
Another eminent poet, David Malouf, launched Puncher & Wattmann three years ago and gave a blurb for one of its books, as have writers such as Helen Garner and John Tranter. send photos, videos ffs to 0424 SMS SMH (+61 424 767 764), or us. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Where are the ridgy-didge artists? Jan 25, 2008
But Helen Garner, Peter Carey, Shirley Hazzard, Alex Miller, Kate Grenville and Tim Winton - among many others - have still to be recognised by the nation for their services to literature. Republicans among them may feel now is not the time to accept such honours, but clearly the business of writing isn't high on the list of achievements officially blessed in today's Australia. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Australia)
Between two worlds Jan 19, 2008
"There are tiny scraps of American popular culture deeply embedded in nearly every other culture. I can remember being at a party years ago with the Australian writer Helen Garner and the American writer Craig Unger who was genuinely amazed that Helen could talk knowledgeably about Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys. Unger couldn't believe that we'd heard of Friedman.". Carey's own engagement with American culture is still a work in progress. (Guardian Unlimited -- Arts)
A literary feast awaits Jan 5, 2008
On the other hand, Helen Garner has been focused on nonfiction and is publishing her first novel in 15 years ... The Spare Room (Text, April) by Helen Garner is a short, intense novel about the love and tensions between a woman called Helen and her friend Nicola, who moves in while having alternative treatment for cancer. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
University relationships marked private Sep 17, 2007
THE controversy that followed the book The First Stone by the Australian author Helen Garner more than a decade ago demonstrated the sensitive nature of the debate over relationships between adult students and their academic elders. The book - which examined claims by two female students at Ormond College at Melbourne University they had been propositioned or groped by a senior professor, and his strenuous denial - divided feminists and university campuses across the nation. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Australia)
Rolling Stone still rocking 35 years on Apr 23, 2007
One of the more surprising inclusions is a piece by Helen Garner on the late Billy Thorpe from 1973. In it, Thorpe states that radio is "hanging on by its balls" and predicts the medium will be "out in five years". (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Rich new award for the female unique Mar 31, 2007
Writers including Tom Keneally, Helen Garner, Frank Moorhouse, Gavin Souter, Rosie Scott, Gerald Murnane, Anne Deveson and Brian Castro expressed admiration for Jefferis and Hinde and their gift. While the society's committee is still to decide on its final value, the Jefferis Award will rival the Miles Franklin ($42,000) and the biennial Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize ($40,000) as the country's richest. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Author Elizabeth Jolley dies, aged 83 Feb 20, 2007
"Helen Garner was very close to her and she was very important to Tim Winton, she taught for quite a few years at Curtin University in creative writing and Tim Winton was a student there and they became very good friends," he said. Elizabeth Jolley was made a Professor of Creative Writing at Curtin University in 1998. (ABC News Online, Australia -- Arts)
