The Best Australian Essays 2016
- Editor: G. Williamson
- Title: The Best Australian Essays 2016
- Published: 2016
Geordie Williamson (editor)
- He was for several years chief literary critic of he former chief literary critic of the Australian.
- He is now the Publisher at Picador Australia.
- Geordie Williamson won the 2011 Pascall Prize for Criticism.
- He edited the 2015 and 2016 editions of The Best Australian Essays.
Conclusion:
- Australia has much to celebrate in its non-fiction writing.
- This is a collection of personal experiences, culture and politics.
- The writing is very good!
- Strongest point of this book:
- Introduced me to some extraordinary writers!
- …that I would never have discovered!
- The essays I liked the most were ‘personal essays’.
- Essays are more real than fiction….
- The personal essay is like an offering, a hand
- ….reaching out in a gesture of connection.
- Maggie Mackellar – Willie Wagtail…..that help with Mackellar’s grief!
- Tegan Bennett Daylight – clever metaphor…is the solution to the problem!
- Anna Spargo-Ryan: – heartwarming essay that gave me a ‘good feeling’ !
Other essays……
- Rebecca Giggs: I’ll never look at a whale in the same way.
- Melinda Harvey – insights about…the E. Ferrante novels.
- Helen Garner – interesting fragments from iconic writer.
- Jennifer Mills – well-researched…environment warning to us all
- Ashley Hay – weather has the power to change people’s lives.
- M. de Kretser – my first introduction to Randolph Stow
- Jo Chandler – …amazing Great Barrier Coral Reef!
- Gregory Day and Peter Goldsworthy – review of poem collections
- J.M. Coetzee (Nobel Prize winner 2003) ‘ introduction to book The Good Soldier.
- James Bradley – essay David Bowie
- …music is the way we remember ourselves
- ……to the connection to the people we once were.”
- Julian Burnside – barrister…...was “no holds barred” !
- His essay: “What Kind of a Country are We?”
Last thoughts:
- There are many writers I have yet to discover.
- Editor G. Williamson has made some hard decisions and
- narrowed his selections to 29 TOP Australian essays 2016.
- This is a perfect Xmas gift for the
- person on your shopping list that keeps saying:
- “I don’t have time to read a long book!”
- You can read an essay….with your morning coffee!
10 Comments
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NancyElin 
I keep seeing these Australian books pass by and feel very badly that I have not yet had time to participate in Brona’s read-along. Thanks for keeping me inspired!
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i needed help finding interesting Australian books to read…..Brona’s Books has many links and reveiws I could peruse! Thanks for stopping by!
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I ‘met’ Geordie Williamson earlier on this year when I attended an honouring-the-author event at the Library of NSW. We were honouring Jessica Anderson (who I read during #AusReadingMonth) and he admires a lot (which is why he was invited to chair the discussion). He was a lovely, gentle, thoughtful man – & you might like to read his review of Thea Astley – http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/thea-astleys-glorious-paradox-laid-bare-in-karen-lambs-biography/news-story/14103251c8b154f043be822b1e2839bc
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Thanks so much for the link….and sorry my reaction is a bit late! I’ve been so busy ‘cooking up a storm’ in the pre-Christmas kitchen! Today the stores will be mobbed and I have all my ingredients! So let the games begin! What is your family’s favorite culinary tradition for Xmas?
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Aunty Vicki entrusted my with her glazed ham recipe. This year I did it on my own in her honour (Mr Books did help, of course, he’s good like that). But it was a bit hard to get excited about the whole thing this time round.
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At moments like Christmas with some place settings that remain empty…give it time. Hope your ham with glaze made Aunt Vicki proud.
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