This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature a special commentary by Simon Tedeschi on writers’ festivals. At the level below headlines, writers’ festivals have in recent years undergone a more subtle but pernicious shift, he argues. Whereas they were once sites of complex dialogue and genuine exchange, now ‘both political and literary language ... functions to perform reassurance and calibration’. Tedeschi reflects on a broader ‘societal impatience with ambiguity’ and asks us to consider: ‘What specific cultural function is a writers’ festival intended to perform?’ 

Simon Tedeschi won the ABR Calibre Essay Prize for his essay ‘This Woman My Grandmother’, and he is the author of Fugitive (2022). Here is Simon Tedeschi with ‘“Suppose I am wrong?”: On writers’ festivals, reassurance, calibration, and risk’, published in the April issue of ABR. 

This week on&nbsp;The ABR Podcast, we feature a special commentary by Simon Tedeschi on&nbsp;writers&rsquo; festivals.&nbsp;At the level below headlines, writers&rsquo; festivals have in recent years undergone a more subtle but pernicious shift,&nbsp;he&nbsp;argues. Whereas they were once&nbsp;sites of complex dialogue and genuine exchange,&nbsp;now&nbsp;&lsquo;both political and literary language&nbsp;...&nbsp;functions to perform reassurance and calibration&rsquo;.&nbsp;Tedeschi reflects&nbsp;on a broader&nbsp;&lsquo;societal impatience with ambiguity&rsquo;&nbsp;and asks us to consider: &lsquo;What specific cultural function is a writers&rsquo; festival intended to perform?&rsquo;&nbsp;
Simon Tedeschi won the&nbsp;ABR&nbsp;Calibre Essay Prize for his essay &lsquo;This Woman My Grandmother&rsquo;,&nbsp;and he is the author&nbsp;of&nbsp;Fugitive&nbsp;(2022). Here is Simon Tedeschi with &lsquo;&ldquo;Suppose I am wrong?&rdquo;: On writers&rsquo; festivals, reassurance, calibration, and risk&rsquo;, published in the April issue of ABR.&nbsp;

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.

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature a special commentary by Simon Tedeschi on writers’ festivals. At the level below headlines, writers’ festivals have in recent years undergone a more subtle but pernicious shift, he argues. Whereas they were once sites of complex dialogue and genuine exchange, now ‘both political and literary language ... functions to perform reassurance and calibration’. Tedeschi reflects on a broader ‘societal impatience with ambiguity’ and asks us to consider: ‘What specific cultural function is a writers’ festival intended to perform?’ 

‘“Suppose I am wrong?”: On writers’ festivals, reassurance, calibration, and risk’ by Simon Tedeschi

This week, on The ABR Podcast, we feature Sahar Rabah’s winning essay from the 2026 Calibre Essay Prize, ‘Beyond reality and dreams’. The Calibre Essay Prize, now in its twentieth year, is one of the world’s leading prizes for an original essay in English.

Rabah, who grew up in Gaza and left late last year, takes us behind the livestreamed mass destruction in Gaza to the ‘small, undeclared wars’ that are ‘not shown on television’. Moving between the speaker’s broken dreams, her nightmares, and her intimate, lived trauma, ‘Between reality and dreams’ bears powerful witness to the human cost of conflict in Gaza.

Sahar Rabah writes poetry, essays, and short fiction in Arabic and English. Her poems have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, World Literature Today, LitHub, and The Markaz Review. Here is Sahar Rabah with ‘Beyond reality and dreams’, published in the May issue of ABR.

 

This week, on The ABR Podcast, we feature Sahar Rabah&rsquo;s winning essay from the 2026 Calibre Essay Prize, &lsquo;Beyond reality and dreams&rsquo;. The Calibre Essay Prize, now in its twentieth year, is one of the world&rsquo;s leading prizes for an original essay in English.
Rabah, who grew up in Gaza and left late last year, takes us behind the livestreamed mass destruction in Gaza to the &lsquo;small, undeclared wars&rsquo; that are &lsquo;not shown on television&rsquo;. Moving between the speaker&rsquo;s broken dreams, her nightmares, and her intimate, lived trauma, &lsquo;Between reality and dreams&rsquo; bears powerful witness to the human cost of conflict in Gaza.
Sahar Rabah writes poetry, essays, and short fiction in Arabic and English. Her poems have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, World Literature Today, LitHub, and The Markaz Review. Here is Sahar Rabah with &lsquo;Beyond reality and dreams&rsquo;, published in the May issue of ABR.
&nbsp;

This week, on The ABR Podcast, we feature Sahar Rabah’s winning essay from the 2026 Calibre Essay Prize, ‘Beyond reality and dreams’. The Calibre Essay Prize, now in its twentieth year, is one of the world’s leading prizes for an original essay in English.   Rabah, who grew up in Gaza and left late last year, takes us behind the livestreamed mass destruction in Gaza to the ‘small, undeclared wars’ that are ‘not shown on television’. Moving between the speaker’s broken dreams, her nightmares, and her intimate, lived trauma, ‘Between reality and dreams’ bears powerful witness to the human cost of conflict in Gaza.   Sahar Rabah writes poetry, essays, and short fiction in Arabic and English. Her poems have appeared in The Massachussetts Review, World Literature Today, LitHub, and The Markaz Review. Here is Sahar Rabah with ‘Beyond reality and dreams’, published in the May issue of ABR.

‘Between reality and dreams’ by Sahar Rabah

This week, on The ABR Podcast, Jane Gleeson-White reviews Erin Vincent’s memoir Fourteen Ways of Looking. Vincent’s parents were killed suddenly in an accident when she was fourteen, and the number would go on to shape and govern the narrative of her new memoir. Commenting on the strikingly poetic form of Fourteen Ways of Looking, Gleeson-White notes that ‘the structure and arrangement of the text are key’, reflecting the fragmented nature of trauma. ‘This is narrative stripped to its barest bones,’ she writes, ‘more poem than memoir.’ 

Jane Gleeson-White is the author of four books, including Double Entry: How the merchants of Venice created modern finance, published in 2011, and its sequel, Six Capitals: Capitalism, climate change and accounting, published in 2014. Here is Jane Gleeson-White with ‘Again and again: More poem than memoir’, published in the May issue of ABR. 

This week, on&nbsp;The ABR Podcast, Jane Gleeson-White reviews Erin Vincent&rsquo;s memoir&nbsp;Fourteen Ways of Looking.&nbsp;Vincent&rsquo;s&nbsp;parents were killed suddenly in an accident when she was fourteen, and&nbsp;the number&nbsp;would&nbsp;go on to&nbsp;shape and govern the narrative&nbsp;of her new&nbsp;memoir.&nbsp;Commenting on the&nbsp;strikingly poetic form of&nbsp;Fourteen Ways of Looking, Gleeson-White notes that &lsquo;the structure and arrangement of the text are key&rsquo;,&nbsp;reflecting the fragmented nature of trauma.&nbsp;&lsquo;This is narrative stripped to its barest bones,&rsquo; she writes, &lsquo;more poem than memoir.&rsquo;&nbsp;
Jane Gleeson-White is the author of four books, including&nbsp;Double Entry: How the merchants of Venice created modern finance, published in 2011, and its sequel,&nbsp;Six Capitals: Capitalism, climate change and accounting, published in 2014. Here is Jane Gleeson-White with &lsquo;Again and again: More poem than memoir&rsquo;,&nbsp;published in the <a href="index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=32510:jane-gleeson-white-reviews-fourteen-ways-of-looking-by-erin-vincent&amp;catid=1637:may-2026-no-486&amp;Itemid=416">May issue of&nbsp;ABR</a>.&nbsp;

‘Again and again: More poem than memoir’ by Jane Gleeson-White

This week on The ABR Podcast, Tony Hughes-d’Aeth reviews On Alexis Wright by Geordie Williamson. Hughes-d’Aeth notes that Williamson mounts a spirited defence of Alexis Wright against what he terms ‘Australian philistinism’, in which the reader expects literature to ‘tell us stuff, neatly and efficiently’. Instead, Williamson suggests, Wright compels readers to ‘suspend their assumptions around what literature is or should be’. Hughes-d’Aeth commends Williamson for opening up Wright’s work: ‘More than anything,’ he observes, ‘Williamson writes in a way that makes you want to read Alexis Wright’. 

Tony Hughes-d’Aeth is the Chair of Australian Literature at the University of Western Australia and the Director of the Westerly Centre. He is the author of Like Nothing on this Earth: A literary history of the wheatbelt, published by the University of Western Australia Publishing, which won the Walter McRae Russell Prize for best work of Australian literary criticism in 2019. Here is Tony Hughes-d’Aeth with ‘Rethinking “on”: Sitting and listening to Wright’, published in the April issue of ABR. 

This week on&nbsp;The&nbsp;ABR&nbsp;Podcast, Tony Hughes-d&rsquo;Aeth reviews On Alexis Wright by Geordie Williamson. Hughes-d&rsquo;Aeth notes that Williamson mounts a spirited defence of Alexis Wright against what he terms &lsquo;Australian philistinism&rsquo;, in which the reader expects literature to &lsquo;tell us stuff, neatly and efficiently&rsquo;. Instead, Williamson suggests, Wright compels readers to &lsquo;suspend their assumptions around what literature is or should be&rsquo;. Hughes-d&rsquo;Aeth commends Williamson for opening up Wright&rsquo;s work: &lsquo;More than anything,&rsquo; he observes, &lsquo;Williamson writes in a way that makes you want to read Alexis Wright&rsquo;.&nbsp;
Tony&nbsp;Hughes-d&rsquo;Aeth&nbsp;is the Chair of Australian Literature at the University of Western Australia&nbsp;and the Director of the Westerly Centre.&nbsp;He is the author of Like Nothing on this Earth: A literary history of the wheatbelt, published by&nbsp;the&nbsp;University of&nbsp;Western&nbsp;Australia Publishing,&nbsp;which&nbsp;won the Walter McRae Russell Prize for best work of Australian literary criticism in 2019. Here is Tony&nbsp;Hughes-d&rsquo;Aeth&nbsp;with &lsquo;Rethinking &ldquo;on&rdquo;: Sitting and listening to Wright&rsquo;,&nbsp;published in the April issue of&nbsp;ABR.&nbsp;

This week on The ABR Podcast, Tony Hughes-d’Aeth reviews ‘On Alexis Wright’ by Geordie Williamson. Hughes-d’Aeth notes that Williamson mounts a spirited defence of Alexis Wright against what he terms ‘Australian philistinism’, in which the reader expects literature to ‘tell us stuff, neatly and efficiently’. Instead, Williamson suggests, Wright compels readers to ‘suspend their assumptions around what literature is or should be’. Hughes-d’Aeth commends Williamson for opening up Wright’s work: ‘More than anything,’ he observes, ‘Williamson writes in a way that makes you want to read Alexis Wright’.   Tony Hughes-d’Aeth is the Chair of Australian Literature at the University of Western Australia and the Director of the Westerly Centre. He is the author of Like Nothing on this Earth: A literary history of the wheatbelt, published by the University of Western Australia Publishing, which won the Walter McRae Russell Prize for best work of Australian literary criticism in 2019. Here is Tony Hughes-d’Aeth with ‘Rethinking “on”: Sitting and listening to Wright’, published in the April issue of ABR. 

‘“Suppose I am wrong?”: On writers’ festivals, reassurance, calibration, and risk’ by Simon Tedeschi

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