Undercover

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday March 29, 2008

Susan Wyndham

IN THE RUNNING FOR 'SEXIST' PRIZE

The Australian novelist Gail Jones (pictured) is on the longlist of the 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction for her timely book Sorry, which is partly about the friendship between an English anthropologist's daughter and an Aboriginal girl in outback Western Australia. Among the other 19 authors listed for the prize, which recognises international fiction by women, are three who were at Adelaide Writers' Week this month - Iranian-American Anita Amirrezvani for The Blood Of Flowers, and Britain's Linda Grant for The Clothes On Their Back and Deborah Moggach for In The Dark - and last year's Man Booker Prize winner, Ireland's Anne Enright for The Gathering. Argument continues over whether a prize exclusively for women should even exist. Among other critics, A. S. Byatt told The Times she refused to enter her books for the "sexist" prize. "Such a prize was never needed."

Rhyll McMaster's novel Feather Man was announced last night as the winner of Australia's new Barbara Jefferis Award for fiction that portrays women positively. She is speaking at Saturday's Contemporary Fiction Festival at the NSW Writers' Centre at Rozelle, with others including Kate Forsyth, Gabrielle Carey and Sophie Lee. The festival will be opened by Arts Minister Peter Garrett.

SITE FOR MORRY'S 'LEADING MINDS'

Melbourne publisher and property developer Morry Schwartz has extended his media empire with the launch of SlowTV, an online video site showing interviews, conversations and lectures by authors, academics, politicians and others. It's no surprise that many of the "leading minds" on show also happen to be published by Schwartz in his successfully symbiotic stable of The Monthly magazine, Quarterly Essay and Black Inc books. First up are Martin Krygier, Robert Manne (pictured), Clive Hamilton and others discussing material from a new Black Inc anthology, Dear Mr Rudd. To be fair, SlowTV (slowtv.com.au) also preserves sessions from events such as Adelaide Writers' Week, including David Malouf reading from his work and talking to J. M. Coetzee.

SlowTV's chief executive, Nick Feik (brother of Chris Feik, a Schwartz group editor), says: "It's a concept that Morry and I have been working up for a good few months, and it seems to have struck a chord, because everyone we've approached seems to agree that it's a great idea and has then agreed to participate."

AN AUSTEN OPPORTUNITY

Susannah Fullerton (pictured), the president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, has been nominated for "outstanding Jane Austen contribution" in Jane Austen's Regency World Awards, run by Britain's Austen Centre in Bath. The winner will be chosen according to the number of public votes received by May 10, so if you know Fullerton's work, or simply want to be patriotic, see www.janeausten.co.uk, where you can also support your favourite Austen books, films and actors.H

ARSH LESSON IN TEXTBOOKS

The quality of textbooks used by Australian students could take a dive, according to a survey by the Australian Society of Authors that shows conditions for educational writers have deteriorated. Easy availability of digital material is the main threat to print textbook publishers, who have revenue of about $500 million a year - a third of the publishing industry - but have been slow to respond to new technology. Educational book sales have declined over the past five years and the business has consolidated under foreign owners.

As a result, authors' incomes have been reduced dramatically and contracts have eaten away their royalties, copyright and moral rights. With income from educational writing down for 43 per cent of authors, many are leaving the field. "That's not business, that's called exploitation," concludes the report, which recommends ways for authors to receive a decent royalty and information about their rights.

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