This week on The ABR Podcast, Michael Winkler reviews Chinese Postman by Brian Castro. ‘Reading Castro for plot is like listening to Bob Dylan for melody,’ says Winkler of the prize-winning author of eleven novels. Michael Winkler was the winner of the 2016 Calibre Essay Prize and is the author of Grimmish. Listen to Michael Winkler’s ‘Giving up mirrors: Brian Castro’s soaring stridulation’, published in the October issue of ABR.

This week on The ABR Podcast, Michael Winkler reviews Chinese Postman by Brian Castro. ‘Reading Castro for plot is like listening to Bob Dylan for melody,’ says Winkler of the prize-winning author of eleven novels. Michael Winkler was the winner of the 2016 Calibre Essay Prize and is the author of Grimmish. Listen to Michael Winkler’s ‘Giving up mirrors: Brian Castro’s soaring stridulation’, <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/1007-october-2024-no-469/13134-michael-winkler-reviews-chinese-postman-by-brian-castro">published in the October issue of ABR</a>.

Welcome to The ABR Podcast, produced by Australian Book Review. Released every Thursday, The ABR Podcast features a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

For more information about ABR, visit our website, www.australianbookreview.com.au

Welcome to The ABR Podcast, produced by Australian Book Review. Released every Thursday, The ABR Podcast features a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.
For more information about&nbsp;ABR, visit our website, <a href="http://www.australianbookreview.com.au">www.australianbookreview.com.au</a>

Welcome to The ABR Podcast, produced by Australian Book Review. Released every Thursday, The ABR Podcast features a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

The ABR Podcast

ABR is delighted to introduce its brand-new podcast, The ABR Podcast.

Released fortnightly every Wednesday, The ABR Podcast will feature a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on the iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

ABR&nbsp;is delighted to introduce its brand-new podcast,&nbsp;The ABR Podcast.
Released fortnightly every Wednesday,&nbsp;The ABR Podcast&nbsp;will feature a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on the iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

‘Giving up mirrors: Brian Castro’s soaring stridulation’ by Michael Winkler

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature the winner of the 2026 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, ‘C.Q.D.’ by Laura Elvery. The young narrator of ‘C.Q.D.’ is on board the Carpathia in the year 1912. The ship is racing towards the Titanic after hearing its distress signal. Will it reach the Titanic in time? This year’s Jolley judges called ‘C.Q.D.’ an ‘iceberg of a story: it carries its heft below the surface’. An irreverent mix of melodrama, time travel, and pop culture, Elvery’s story also asks ‘unexpectedly profound questions about what it means to witness, remember, and share a catastrophe’.

This year’s Jolley, the sixteenth in the history of the prize, was judged by Delia Falconer, Jonathan Ricketson, and Beejay Silcox. The judges chose ‘C.Q.D.’ from a field of 1,174 entries across thirty-two countries. The Jolley Prize is worth a total of $12,500 and is for an original work of short fiction of between 2,000 and 5,000 words, written in English. 

Laura Elvery is the author of two short story collections, Ordinary Matter (2020), and Trick of the Light (2018), as well as a novel, Nightingale (2025), which received the 2025 People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award.

Here is Laura Elvery with ‘C.Q.D.’, published in the August issue of ABR.

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature the winner of the 2026 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, &lsquo;C.Q.D.&rsquo; by Laura Elvery. The young narrator of &lsquo;C.Q.D.&rsquo; is on board the&nbsp;Carpathia&nbsp;in the year 1912. The ship is racing towards the&nbsp;Titanic&nbsp;after hearing its distress signal. Will it reach the&nbsp;Titanic&nbsp;in time? This year&rsquo;s Jolley judges called &lsquo;C.Q.D.&rsquo; an &lsquo;iceberg of a story: it carries its heft below the surface&rsquo;. An irreverent mix of melodrama, time travel, and pop culture, Elvery&rsquo;s story also asks &lsquo;unexpectedly profound questions about what it means to witness, remember, and share a catastrophe&rsquo;.
This year&rsquo;s Jolley, the sixteenth in the history of the prize, was judged by Delia Falconer, Jonathan Ricketson, and Beejay Silcox. The judges chose &lsquo;C.Q.D.&rsquo; from a field of 1,174 entries across thirty-two countries. The Jolley Prize is worth a total of $12,500 and is for an original work of short fiction of between 2,000 and 5,000 words, written in English.&nbsp;
Laura Elvery is the author of two short story collections,&nbsp;Ordinary Matter (2020), and&nbsp;Trick of the Light&nbsp;(2018), as well as a&nbsp;novel,&nbsp;Nightingale&nbsp;(2025), which&nbsp;received the 2025 People&rsquo;s Choice Queensland Book of the Year&nbsp;Award.
Here is Laura Elvery with &lsquo;C.Q.D.&rsquo;, published in the August issue of ABR.

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature the winner of the 2026 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, ‘C.Q.D.’ by Laura Elvery. The young narrator of ‘C.Q.D.’ is on board the Carpathia in the year 1912. The ship is racing towards the Titanic after hearing its distress signal. Will it reach the Titanic in time? This year’s Jolley judges called ‘C.Q.D.’ an ‘iceberg of a story: it carries its heft below the surface’. An irreverent mix of melodrama, time travel, and pop culture, Elvery’s story also asks ‘unexpectedly profound questions about what it means to witness, remember, and share a catastrophe’. This year’s Jolley, the sixteenth in the history of the prize, was judged by Delia Falconer, Jonathan Ricketson, and Beejay Silcox. The judges chose ‘C.Q.D.’ from a field of 1,174 entries across thirty-two countries. The Jolley Prize is worth a total of $12,500 and is for an original work of short fiction of between 2,000 and 5,000 words, written in English.  Laura Elvery is the author of two short story collections, Ordinary Matter (2020), and Trick of the Light (2018), as well as a novel, Nightingale (2025), which received the 2025 People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award. Here is Laura Elvery with ‘C.Q.D.’, published in the August issue of ABR.

‘C.Q.D.’ by Laura Elvery

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature Elise Westin’s essay, titled ‘The architecture of erasure’. The third-place winner of the 2026 Calibre Essay Prize, ‘The architecture of erasure’ merges personal intimacy with an examination of the systematic Soviet erasure of Ukrainians. Westin recounts her inability to find records of her great-grandparents’ names at the Holodomor memorial in Kyiv. ‘Erasure is deliberate’, she writes. Her essay is freighted with urgency: ‘When you lose a record of the past, you risk repeating its vulnerabilities.’

Elise Westin is an Australian writer whose work explores identity in the afterlives of displacement. Her poetry was longlisted for the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, while her prose has appeared in The Saltbush Review and Kindling, and was performed at the International Association of Genocide Scholars conference.

Here is Elise Westin with ‘The architecture of erasure’, published in the July issue of ABR.

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature Elise Westin&rsquo;s essay, titled &lsquo;The architecture of erasure&rsquo;. The third-place winner of the 2026 Calibre Essay Prize, &lsquo;The architecture of erasure&rsquo; merges personal intimacy with an examination of the systematic Soviet erasure of Ukrainians. Westin recounts her inability to find records of her great-grandparents&rsquo; names at the Holodomor memorial in Kyiv. &lsquo;Erasure is deliberate&rsquo;, she writes. Her essay is freighted with urgency: &lsquo;When you lose a record of the past, you risk repeating its vulnerabilities.&rsquo;
Elise Westin is an Australian writer whose work explores identity in the afterlives of displacement. Her poetry was longlisted for the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, while her prose has appeared in&nbsp;The Saltbush Review&nbsp;and&nbsp;Kindling, and was performed at the International Association of Genocide Scholars conference.
Here is Elise Westin with &lsquo;The architecture of erasure&rsquo;, published in the July issue of ABR.

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature Elise Westin’s essay, titled ‘The architecture of erasure’. The third-place winner of the 2026 Calibre Essay Prize, ‘The architecture of erasure’ merges personal intimacy with an examination of the systematic Soviet erasure of Ukrainians. Westin recounts her inability to find records of her great-grandparents’ names at the Holodomor memorial in Kyiv. ‘Erasure is deliberate’, she writes. Her essay is freighted with urgency: ‘When you lose a record of the past, you risk repeating its vulnerabilities.’ Elise Westin is an Australian writer whose work explores identity in the afterlives of displacement. Her poetry was longlisted for the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, while her prose has appeared in The Saltbush Review and Kindling, and was performed at the International Association of Genocide Scholars conference. Here is Elise Westin with ‘The architecture of erasure’, published in the July issue of ABR.

‘The architecture of erasure’ by Elise Westin

This week on The ABR Podcast, Lucy Sussex reviews The Stained Man by Patrick Mullins, a biography of the first Labor Lord Mayor of Sydney, Richard Meagher. Mullins’s book is a ‘genuinely riveting and fascinating’ account of Meagher’s ‘mania for restitution’ following his scandalous errors of judgement as a prominent lawyer. Disbarred after his unethical defence of George Dean, a ferryman accused of poisoning his wife, Meagher sought a second career under the lights of the political stage. Meagher was a ‘rogue’ who ‘loved that drug’ of celebrity, Sussex writes.

Lucy Sussex is a lecturer at La Trobe University who has both written and edited several anthologies of short fiction. She is the author of Outrageous Fortunes: The adventures of Mary Fortune, crime-writer, and her criminal son George, published in 2025.

‘The lie and the law: The biography of a rogue’ by Lucy Sussex is published in the July issue of ABR.

This week on&nbsp;The ABR Podcast, Lucy Sussex reviews The Stained Man by Patrick Mullins, a biography of the first Labor Lord Mayor of Sydney, Richard Meagher. Mullins&rsquo;s book is a &lsquo;genuinely riveting and fascinating&rsquo; account of Meagher&rsquo;s &lsquo;mania for restitution&rsquo; following his scandalous errors of judgement as a prominent lawyer. Disbarred after his unethical defence of George Dean, a ferryman accused of poisoning his wife, Meagher sought a second career under the lights of the political stage. Meagher was a &lsquo;rogue&rsquo; who &lsquo;loved that drug&rsquo; of celebrity, Sussex writes.
Lucy Sussex is a lecturer at La Trobe University who has both written and edited several anthologies of short fiction. She is the author of Outrageous Fortunes: The adventures of Mary Fortune, crime-writer, and her criminal son George, published in 2025.
&lsquo;The lie and the law: The biography of a rogue&rsquo; by Lucy Sussex is published in the July issue of&nbsp;ABR.

This week on The ABR Podcast, Lucy Sussex reviews The Stained Man by Patrick Mullins, a biography of the first Labor Lord Mayor of Sydney, Richard Meagher. Mullins’s book is a ‘genuinely riveting and fascinating’ account of Meagher’s ‘mania for restitution’ following his scandalous errors of judgement as a prominent lawyer. Disbarred after his unethical defence of George Dean, a ferryman accused of poisoning his wife, Meagher sought a second career under the lights of the political stage. Meagher was a ‘rogue’ who ‘loved that drug’ of celebrity, Sussex writes. Lucy Sussex is a lecturer at La Trobe University who has both written and edited several anthologies of short fiction. She is the author of Outrageous Fortunes: The adventures of Mary Fortune, crime-writer, and her criminal son George, published in 2025. Here is Lucy Sussex with ‘The lie and the law: The biography of a rogue’, published in the July issue of ABR.

‘Giving up mirrors: Brian Castro’s soaring stridulation’ by Michael Winkler

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