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Stories to explore

State Library is a home for readers and writers, literature and storytelling. Want to search the latest issue of a journal or magazine? Desperate to find your next favourite book or essay? Need a podcast to listen to while you write? Here, staff from Stories and Ideas and black&write! share the stories they love each month. You’ll also find our latest interviews with local writers and creatives.

The cover of CLEAR by Carys Davies. A painting shows a figure on a beach with a small boat and storm clouds in the sky.

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All hail the short book – Welsh author Carys Davies gave us the very slender West in 2018 and now she's delivered this masterpiece. Set predominantly on a beautiful but hostile remote Scottish island in 1843, Clear reveals the lives of an unusual trio: Ivar, John, and Mary. This book about ordinary people caught up in bigger national issues is also a testament to love and how powerful language can be. 

Still stuck for time? More short novel inspiration via LitHub  

Read it here
Portrait of Shakespeare for Pope's edition of Shakespeare's works. Inscription on the monument: 'Ingenio Pylium, Genio Socrates, arte Maronem, Terra Tegit, Populus Maeret, Olympus Habet

Listen

What did Shakespeare think about race? What did he think about horror and comedy? How did he radically challenge gender norms more than 400 years ago? And why does it matter? This entertaining 6-parter podcast includes actors, directors, writers, and academics talking passionately about all things Shakespeare.

via ABC Radio: Wherefore, Shakespeare?

Listen here

Read

What are Stories and Ideas staff reading now?

The cover of THE BELBURD by Nardi Simpson which shows the sky and the ocean and a feather on the air
Cover of "Reaching Through Time Finding my family's stories" by Shauna Bostock; the cover shows the naked torso of a young Aboriginal person also wearing a headdress and a white necklace
The cover of Question 7 by Richard Flanagan; it shows a large letter Q and the large number 7 in pale brown, red and black
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Blog posts

Explore your favourite journals

Griffith Review
Griffith Review
Griffith Review is a literary and current affairs journal that offers fresh takes on big ideas.
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Meanjin Quarterly
Meanjin Quarterly
Meanjin was founded in Brisbane by Clem Christesen (the name, pronounced Mee-an-jin, is the word in the Turrbal language for the finger of land on which central Brisbane sits) in 1940.
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Overland
Overland
Overland – Australia’s premier radical literary magazine – has been showcasing brilliant and progressive fiction, poetry, nonfiction and art since 1954.
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Australian Book Review
Australian Book Review
Australian Book Review (ABR), one of Australia’s major cultural magazines, presents high-quality journalism and new writing for the widest possible audience.
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