This week on The ABR Podcast, Johanna Leggatt reviews Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race by Steven Hamilton and Richard Holden. Leggatt quotes from the book: ‘There will be another pandemic. It might not happen for another century, or it might happen very soon.’ Johanna Leggatt is a Melbourne-based writer and journalist. Listen to Johanna Leggatt’s ‘We right to go?’ Heeding the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic’, published in the October issue of ABR.

This week on The ABR Podcast, Johanna Leggatt reviews Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race by Steven Hamilton and Richard Holden. Leggatt quotes from the book: ‘There will be another pandemic. It might not happen for another century, or it might happen very soon.’ Johanna Leggatt is a Melbourne-based writer and journalist. Listen to Johanna Leggatt’s ‘We right to go?’ Heeding the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic’, <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/1007-october-2024-no-469/13129-johanna-leggatt-reviews-australia-s-pandemic-exceptionalism-how-we-crushed-the-curve-but-lost-the-race-by-steven-hamilton-and-richard-holden">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.

‘We right to go?’ Heeding the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic by Johanna Leggatt

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;

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, Eleanor Spencer-Regan reflects on Melbourne poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe’s poetic career. Wallace-Crabbe made the poem ‘a space for thinking in public’, she writes. In his work, poetry is treated ‘less as statement than as real-time event: a site in which ideas are tried out rather than asserted’. His most enduring legacy, Spencer-Regan suggests, lies in the intellectual capaciousness of this approach: one that is ‘curious, plural, generous, and ever alert to contingency’. 

Eleanor Spencer-Regan is an Honorary Senior Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne and the Principal of Janet-Clarke Hall, Australia’s first residential college for women. Here is Eleanor Spencer-Regan with ‘Thinking in public: The vulpine poetry of Chris Wallace-Crabbe’, published in the March issue of ABR. 

This week, on&nbsp;The ABR Podcast, Eleanor Spencer-Regan reflects on&nbsp;Melbourne poet&nbsp;Chris&nbsp;Wallace-Crabbe&rsquo;s poetic career. Wallace-Crabbe&nbsp;made&nbsp;the poem &lsquo;a space for thinking in public&rsquo;,&nbsp;she writes.&nbsp;In&nbsp;his work,&nbsp;poetry is treated &lsquo;less as statement than as real-time event: a site in which ideas are tried out rather than asserted&rsquo;.&nbsp;His&nbsp;most enduring&nbsp;legacy,&nbsp;Spencer-Regan suggests, lies in the intellectual capaciousness of this approach: one that is &lsquo;curious, plural, generous, and ever alert to contingency&rsquo;.&nbsp;
Eleanor Spencer-Regan is an Honorary Senior Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne and the Principal of Janet-Clarke Hall, Australia&rsquo;s first residential college for women.&nbsp;Here is Eleanor Spencer-Regan with &lsquo;Thinking in public: The vulpine poetry of Chris Wallace-Crabbe&rsquo;,&nbsp;published&nbsp;in&nbsp;the March issue of&nbsp;ABR.&nbsp;

This week, on The ABR Podcast, Eleanor Spencer-Regan reflects on Melbourne poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe’s poetic career. Wallace-Crabbe made the poem ‘a space for thinking in public’, she writes. In his work, poetry is treated ‘less as statement than as real-time event: a site in which ideas are tried out rather than asserted’. His most enduring legacy, Spencer-Regan suggests, lies in the intellectual capaciousness of this approach: one that is ‘curious, plural, generous, and ever alert to contingency’.   Eleanor Spencer-Regan is an Honorary Senior Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne and the Principal of Janet-Clarke Hall, Australia’s first residential college for women. Here is Eleanor Spencer-Regan with ‘Thinking in public: The vulpine poetry of Chris Wallace-Crabbe’, published in the March issue of ABR. 

‘Thinking in public: The vulpine poetry of Chris Wallace-Crabbe’ by Eleanor Spencer-Regan

This week on The ABR Podcast, Grace Roodenrys reviews they, a novel by Danish author Helle Helle. ‘The novel is a story of illness and loss but often reads as anything but,’ Roodenrys writes. There is no predominant meaning imposed on the narrative; much of its ontological poignancy stems from its small, quiet ironies. Roodenrys observes, ‘The mother is a woman who is rapidly dying. The daughter is a girl whose mother will soon be dead. Yet neither knows how to actually be these things’. 

Grace Roodenrys is a writer and critic from Sydney. Her work has appeared in Meanjin, Cordite, Rabbit, The Saturday Paper, and elsewhere. Here is Grace Roodenrys with ‘Roads to roads: Bathos of the ordinary’, published in the March issue of ABR. 

This week on The ABR Podcast, Grace Roodenrys reviews they, a novel by Danish author Helle Helle. &lsquo;The novel is a story of illness and loss but often reads as anything but,&rsquo; Roodenrys writes. There is no predominant meaning imposed on the narrative; much of its ontological poignancy stems from its small, quiet ironies. Roodenrys observes, &lsquo;The mother is a woman who is rapidly dying. The daughter is a girl whose mother will soon be dead. Yet neither knows how to actually be these things&rsquo;.&nbsp;
Grace Roodenrys is a&nbsp;writer and critic from Sydney. Her work has appeared in Meanjin, Cordite, Rabbit, The Saturday Paper, and elsewhere. Here is Grace Roodenrys with &lsquo;Roads to roads: Bathos of the ordinary&rsquo;,&nbsp;published in the March issue of&nbsp;ABR.&nbsp;

This week on The ABR Podcast, Grace Roodenrys reviews they, a novel by Danish author Helle Helle. ‘The novel is a story of illness and loss but often reads as anything but,’ Roodenrys writes. There is no predominant meaning imposed on the narrative; much of its ontological poignancy stems from its small, quiet ironies. Roodenrys observes, ‘The mother is a woman who is rapidly dying. The daughter is a girl whose mother will soon be dead. Yet neither knows how to actually be these things’. 

‘We right to go?’ Heeding the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic by Johanna Leggatt

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