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 WA Senator Varun Ghosh’s essay, ‘Literary critic as democratic role model’, which discusses the relationship between literary criticism and politics. Ghosh argues that literary critique is crucial to the health of democracy. ‘A strong critical culture is protective of democracy’, he asserts. While there are limits to the comparison between literary critics and democratic representatives,’ Ghosh writes, ‘the habits that underpin good criticism … are also indispensable to good policymaking’.

Varun Ghosh is a Senator for Western Australia and previously a lawyer from Perth. He received degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Western Australia and was a Commonwealth Scholar in Law at the University of Cambridge.

‘Literary critic as democratic role model’ is published in the August issue of ABR.

This week, on The ABR Podcast, we feature WA Senator Varun Ghosh&rsquo;s essay, &lsquo;Literary critic as democratic role model&rsquo;, which discusses the relationship between literary criticism and politics. Ghosh argues that literary critique is crucial to the health of democracy. &lsquo;A strong critical culture is protective of democracy&rsquo;, he asserts. While there are limits to the comparison between literary critics and democratic representatives,&rsquo; Ghosh writes, &lsquo;the habits that underpin good criticism &hellip; are also indispensable to good policymaking&rsquo;.
Varun Ghosh is a Senator for Western Australia and previously a lawyer from Perth. He received degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Western Australia and was a Commonwealth Scholar in Law at the University of Cambridge.
&lsquo;Literary critic as democratic role model&rsquo; is published in the August issue of ABR.

This week, on The ABR Podcast, we feature WA Senator Varun Ghosh’s essay, ‘Literary critic as democratic role model’, which discusses the relationship between literary criticism and politics. Ghosh argues that literary critique is crucial to the health of democracy. ‘A strong critical culture is protective of democracy’, he asserts. While there are limits to the comparison between literary critics and democratic representatives,’ Ghosh writes, ‘the habits that underpin good criticism … are also indispensable to good policymaking’. Varun Ghosh is a Senator for Western Australia and previously a lawyer from Perth. He received degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Western Australia and was a Commonwealth Scholar in Law at the University of Cambridge. Here is Varun Ghosh with ‘Literary critic as democratic role model’, published in the August issue of ABR.

‘Literary critic as democratic role model’ by Varun Ghosh

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.

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

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