Saturday 14 July 2012

Literary works 2012 - what's being reviewed?

What contribution has the AWW challenge made to the reviewing books of literary merit published recently by women writers in Australia?

2012 releases(links to reviews/reviewers posted between January and June on second line)
Tally: 8 books reviewed, 17 reviewers, 23 reviews, 6 publishers

Publishers: Random House: 2 books, 7 reviews; HarperCollins: 1 book, 6 reviews; Pan Macmillan: 1 book, 3 reviews; Allen & Unwin: 1 book, 2 reviews; Text: 1 book, 1 review; UQP: 1 book, 1 review; Spinifex Press: 1 book, 1 review.

The above books were defined as "literary", either by their reviewers or the publishers.

How do you define the term "literary"? Should nonfiction books of literary merit be included, such as Jane Gleeson-White's creative nonfiction history, Double Entry: How the merchants of Venice created modern finance?

Published by Allen & Unwin; reviewed for AWW by historian Yvonne Perkins.

Or True North, by Brenda Niall (Text 2012), the story of Mary and Elizabeth Durack, also reviewed by Yvonne Perkins?

How about Speculative Fiction books like Margo Lanagan's Seahearts and Kate Forsyth's Historical Speculative Fiction novel for adults, Bittergreens - should these be included under the label of "literary"? (If the latter are included, the tally of reviews increases considerably: Lanagan: 9 reviews; Forsyth: 7.)
Are there other - broadened defined - "literary" books by Australian women published in 2012 that aren't on the above list?

Added suggestions via comments and Twitter:

6 comments:

  1. What about Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett and Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears or any of the others nominated for the Miles Franklin? I would class them as 'literary'.

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    1. Hi Denise

      Thanks for stopping by.

      Foal's Bread (Allen & Unwin Nov. 2011) and Past the Shallows (Hachette May 2011) will certainly be included in the tally of "literary" books published in 2011. For the above I examined only 2012 releases.

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  2. The Memory Tree by Tess Evans is literary

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  3. I have just added my review of The Hum of Concrete by Anna Solding (MidnightSun Publishing) to the Challenge page. I would consider it 'literary' also.

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    1. Thanks for the suggestions, Lara. I'll add it here.

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