So many Australians on the list of Locus Award finalists, including @angelaslatter.bsky.social (horror), @freyamarske.bsky.social (novella), and Ann Liang (YA), @jonathanstrahan.bsky.social (editor), and *three* in the artist category: @tanaudel.bsky.social, Shaun Tan, and @rovinacai.bsky.social!
Absolutely! As we said later in the thread, libraries are vital to a happy, healthy community; support personal advancement, vulnerable populations, & community development; build social capital & literacy; increase adult literacy; & improve quality of life & independence of an ageing population.
![The word blurb was coined in 1906 by American humorist Gelett Burgess (1866–1951).[2] The October 1906 first edition of his short book Are You a Bromide? was presented in a limited edition to an annual trade association dinner. The custom at such events was to have a dust jacket promoting the work and with, as Burgess' publisher B. W. Huebsch described it, "the picture of a damsel—languishing, heroic, or coquettish—anyhow, a damsel on the jacket of every novel".
In this case, the jacket proclaimed "YES, this is a 'BLURB'!" and the picture was of a (fictitious) young woman "Miss Belinda Blurb" shown calling out, described as "in the act of blurbing." The name and term stuck for any publisher's contents on a book's back cover, even after the picture was dropped and only the text remained.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xymlowc32o3pc6g2xalek4s4/bafkreieugzwvjwchmqn4y6jhr5isznq6q4vfsnsbbafxht75qgxmumchaa)
The word blurb was coined in 1906 by American humorist Gelett Burgess (1866–1951).[2] The October 1906 first edition of his short book Are You a Bromide? was presented in a limited edition to an annual trade association dinner. The custom at such events was to have a dust jacket promoting the work and with, as Burgess' publisher B. W. Huebsch described it, "the picture of a damsel—languishing, heroic, or coquettish—anyhow, a damsel on the jacket of every novel". In this case, the jacket proclaimed "YES, this is a 'BLURB'!" and the picture was of a (fictitious) young woman "Miss Belinda Blurb" shown calling out, described as "in the act of blurbing." The name and term stuck for any publisher's contents on a book's back cover, even after the picture was dropped and only the text remained.
The original Belinda Blurb
It brings me great pleasure to inform you the word "blurb" is named after a made-up woman named Belinda Blurb whose job is to tell everyone how great a book is
Curious about what you can do on AustLit? These short (30 sec. - 1 min.) videos walk you through some of the search options: this week, it's translations. Learn how many Australian authors have been translated into the language of the Maldives! (It's one.)
This week, we celebrated the Australian Fantasy Fiction in Japanese translation dataset, so today's quick help video is on searching translations. Ever wondered who has been translated into Mongolian? Or Dhivehi? Or Estonian? This video will show you how to find out. (Video has captions, no sound.)
Banner image shows, on a bed of stars, the covers for Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest (Japanese above, English below); May Gibb's Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (English above, Japanese below), and A. Bertram Chandler's The Road to the Rim / The Hard Way Up (Japanese above, English below). Text reads: Australian Fantasy Fiction & Japan 日本語に翻訳されたオーストラリアのファンタジー小説
The dataset includes all the works of Australian fantasy fiction that the project team could identify that have already been translated into Japanese. Banner image shows, from left to right, the book covers for Jessica Townsend's Wundersmith, in both the English and Japanese editions; Sergio Bambaren's The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer, in both the English and Japanese editions; and Paul Kidd's White Plume Mountain, in both the English and Japanese editions. 作成されたデータセットは、オーストラリアの ファンタジー小説の内、すでに日本語に 翻訳されている作品が全て含まれています。
Project Leaders: Dr Lucy Fraser Sonia Broad Project Team: Samuel Round Elara Crook Christiana Palella Student Researchers: Dana Durre Andrew Millar Translator Hiroko Tan | 陳 弘子 Generously supported by: Campbell Bequest at The University of Queensland UQ Summer Research Programme
AustLit is celebrating 25 years in 2026 For this momentous anniversary, we have a year’s worth of celebrations planned, from in-person and online events to project highlights, video guides, and information trails. Celebrate with us by following, sharing our content and using #AustLit25 to share your Australian literature discoveries. Visit our website for more details! 25 years of discovering Australian stories
Today's highlighted research project is Australian Fantasy Fiction and Japan, a really fun collection of translations of Aust. fantasy fiction into Japanese, from Mary Poppins onwards. (Slides by Monica Clayton.)
Explore more at:
www.austlit.edu.au/australianfa...
#AustLit25 #readaustralianfantasy
Banner image shows, on a bed of stars, the covers for Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest (Japanese above, English below); May Gibb's Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (English above, Japanese below), and A. Bertram Chandler's The Road to the Rim / The Hard Way Up (Japanese above, English below). Text reads: Australian Fantasy Fiction & Japan 日本語に翻訳されたオーストラリアのファンタジー小説
The dataset includes all the works of Australian fantasy fiction that the project team could identify that have already been translated into Japanese. Banner image shows, from left to right, the book covers for Jessica Townsend's Wundersmith, in both the English and Japanese editions; Sergio Bambaren's The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer, in both the English and Japanese editions; and Paul Kidd's White Plume Mountain, in both the English and Japanese editions. 作成されたデータセットは、オーストラリアの ファンタジー小説の内、すでに日本語に 翻訳されている作品が全て含まれています。
Project Leaders: Dr Lucy Fraser Sonia Broad Project Team: Samuel Round Elara Crook Christiana Palella Student Researchers: Dana Durre Andrew Millar Translator Hiroko Tan | 陳 弘子 Generously supported by: Campbell Bequest at The University of Queensland UQ Summer Research Programme
AustLit is celebrating 25 years in 2026 For this momentous anniversary, we have a year’s worth of celebrations planned, from in-person and online events to project highlights, video guides, and information trails. Celebrate with us by following, sharing our content and using #AustLit25 to share your Australian literature discoveries. Visit our website for more details! 25 years of discovering Australian stories
Today's highlighted research project is Australian Fantasy Fiction and Japan, a really fun collection of translations of Aust. fantasy fiction into Japanese, from Mary Poppins onwards. (Slides by Monica Clayton.)
Explore more at:
www.austlit.edu.au/australianfa...
#AustLit25 #readaustralianfantasy
On a greenish-grey background, books fly about: they have blue and yellow and orange covers. Over them is emblazoned the logo A25 and the sentence 'Celebrating 25 Years'.
AustLit's latest newsletter went out yesterday, and what's in it?!
Celebrations for #AustLit25
Welcome to our new BlackWords Co-ordinator!
An interview with our senior indexer, who has reached 20 years with AustLit!
And much more.
Read below, or subscribe for more!
rb.gy/h1bulr
On a blue background, text reads: AustLit's 25th Anniversary special: Research Project 3 of 25. Irishness in Australian Literature. Continue to explore the project. Across the middle of the page is a banner, in which the green Irish landscape is spliced with the red Australian outback, with an Irish harp imposed over the top.
On a blue background, text reads: Close Relations: Irishness in Australian Literature Project start: 2023. A grey text box. Text reads: Close Relations aims to transform our understanding of Australian literature by combining existing traditional literary methods, bibliographical approaches and digital/computational methods to investigate the complexities of Irishness in its production, circulation and reception. A banner image shows the covers of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, Fanatic Heart, True History of the Kelly Gang, The Harp in the South, The Rides, and Such is Life. Below that, text reads: By exploring the production and reception of Irishness in Australian literature, ‘Close Relations’ will offer a new account of the contested and fissile nature of white Australian identity in relation to class, gender, race and religion.
On a grey text box, text reads: Close Relations: Irishness in Australian Literature is still under development and is projected for completion in 2027 — we welcome feedback on our definitions, our dataset and our methodologies. Explore the project on AustLit and please contact us if you would like to assist us in understanding what Irishness is, how it’s defined, how it manifests and how it is mobilised in the Australian literary field. A Celtic knot, an Irish harp, and a shamrock float above and apparently rise out of a green book. Below that, text reads: AustLit welcomes contributions from scholars and specialists in the area in order to build an authoritative and detailed resource for research and general interest.
On a pale blue background, text reads: AustLit is celebrating 25 years in 2026 For this momentous anniversary, we have a year’s worth of celebrations planned, from in-person and online events to project highlights, video guides, and information trails. Celebrate with us by following, sharing our content and using #AustLit25 to share your Australian literature discoveries. Visit our website for more details! 25 years of discovering Australian stories
For St Patrick's Day, we're highlighting the ARC-funded Close Relations: Irishness in Australian Literature, led by Prof. Ronan McDonald, Prof. Kath Bode, and Assoc. Prof. Maggie Nolan. View the tiles (by Monica Clayton) or explore the project pages for more!
www.austlit.edu.au/irishness
#AustLit25
On a blue background, text reads: AustLit's 25th Anniversary special: Research Project 3 of 25. Irishness in Australian Literature. Continue to explore the project. Across the middle of the page is a banner, in which the green Irish landscape is spliced with the red Australian outback, with an Irish harp imposed over the top.
On a blue background, text reads: Close Relations: Irishness in Australian Literature Project start: 2023. A grey text box. Text reads: Close Relations aims to transform our understanding of Australian literature by combining existing traditional literary methods, bibliographical approaches and digital/computational methods to investigate the complexities of Irishness in its production, circulation and reception. A banner image shows the covers of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, Fanatic Heart, True History of the Kelly Gang, The Harp in the South, The Rides, and Such is Life. Below that, text reads: By exploring the production and reception of Irishness in Australian literature, ‘Close Relations’ will offer a new account of the contested and fissile nature of white Australian identity in relation to class, gender, race and religion.
On a grey text box, text reads: Close Relations: Irishness in Australian Literature is still under development and is projected for completion in 2027 — we welcome feedback on our definitions, our dataset and our methodologies. Explore the project on AustLit and please contact us if you would like to assist us in understanding what Irishness is, how it’s defined, how it manifests and how it is mobilised in the Australian literary field. A Celtic knot, an Irish harp, and a shamrock float above and apparently rise out of a green book. Below that, text reads: AustLit welcomes contributions from scholars and specialists in the area in order to build an authoritative and detailed resource for research and general interest.
On a pale blue background, text reads: AustLit is celebrating 25 years in 2026 For this momentous anniversary, we have a year’s worth of celebrations planned, from in-person and online events to project highlights, video guides, and information trails. Celebrate with us by following, sharing our content and using #AustLit25 to share your Australian literature discoveries. Visit our website for more details! 25 years of discovering Australian stories
For St Patrick's Day, we're highlighting the ARC-funded Close Relations: Irishness in Australian Literature, led by Prof. Ronan McDonald, Prof. Kath Bode, and Assoc. Prof. Maggie Nolan. View the tiles (by Monica Clayton) or explore the project pages for more!
www.austlit.edu.au/irishness
#AustLit25
A red background, with a black banner and, on top of it, a red map of the world: three speech bubbles show vibrant images of a beach, a collage street scene, and a pagoda on top of a cloud-covered skyscraper. Text reads: AustLit's 25th anniversary special: Information trail 5 of 25. Migrant Voices. Continue to explore the trail
A red background, with black text: Ten Pound Pom. Autobiography, picture book. Carole Wilkinson - author, Liz Aneli - illustrator (2017). A grey text box. Text readds: I don’t want to go to Australia. I have just started grammar school. My best friend Sally goes there too. But it looks like there could be another war and Dad has convinced Mum to go. Because we’re migrants, the voyage is costing Mum and Dad only £10 each. My brother Brian and I are travelling free. It’s a long way to Australia. What if we never come back to England? 'In the 1950s and 60s Australia welcomed thousands of British immigrants as part of the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme. Ten Pound Pom is the true story of award-winning author Carole Wilkinson’s immigration to Australia.' In the bottom right hand corner of the text box is the book cover, showing a street scene opening up to a large passenger ship with, in the foreground, a family huddling under a black umbrella.
A red background: black text reads 'Donkeys Can't Fly on Planes: Stories of Survival from South Sudanese Children Living in Australia. Anthology, Autobiography, Picture book. A grey text box: text reads In Donkey's Can't Fly on Planes twenty-two refugee children from South Sudan, who now live in Australia, share their personal survival stories. In short, honest texts that are accompanied by mixed-media collage illustrations, the children talk about life in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and other African countries. They share experiences of starvation and war, of family separation and death, but they also describe African customs and traditions, everyday life and happy memories.' In the top right-hand corner is the cover of the book, showing a brown donkey against green hills.
A red background. Black text reads, Ghost Cities. Ficti9on, Fantasy Novel. Siang Lu (2024). A grey text box. Text reads: 'Inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China, Ghost Cities follows multiple narratives, including one in which a young man named Xiang is fired from his job as a translator at Sydney's Chinese Consulate after it is discovered he doesn't speak a word of Chinese and has been relying entirely on Google Translate for his work. How is his relocation to one such ghost city connected to a parallel odyssey in which an ancient Emperor creates a thousand doubles of Himself? Or where a horny mountain gains sentience? Where a chess-playing automaton hides a deadly secret? Or a tale in which every book in the known Empire is destroyed - then recreated, page by page and book by book - all in the name of love and art?' In the top right-hand corner is the cover of the book, showing a grey-toned fantastical cityscape rising vertically up the cover.
The latest 25 for 25 trail is live and, to mark Harmony Week, it's on the theme of migrant voices. Compiled by AustLit intern and CSU student Renee Mirabato, with gorgeous slides by Monica Clayton. As always, check out www.austlit.edu.au/25th-anniver... for the full trail!
#AustLit25 #diversity
A red background, with a black banner and, on top of it, a red map of the world: three speech bubbles show vibrant images of a beach, a collage street scene, and a pagoda on top of a cloud-covered skyscraper. Text reads: AustLit's 25th anniversary special: Information trail 5 of 25. Migrant Voices. Continue to explore the trail
A red background, with black text: Ten Pound Pom. Autobiography, picture book. Carole Wilkinson - author, Liz Aneli - illustrator (2017). A grey text box. Text readds: I don’t want to go to Australia. I have just started grammar school. My best friend Sally goes there too. But it looks like there could be another war and Dad has convinced Mum to go. Because we’re migrants, the voyage is costing Mum and Dad only £10 each. My brother Brian and I are travelling free. It’s a long way to Australia. What if we never come back to England? 'In the 1950s and 60s Australia welcomed thousands of British immigrants as part of the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme. Ten Pound Pom is the true story of award-winning author Carole Wilkinson’s immigration to Australia.' In the bottom right hand corner of the text box is the book cover, showing a street scene opening up to a large passenger ship with, in the foreground, a family huddling under a black umbrella.
A red background: black text reads 'Donkeys Can't Fly on Planes: Stories of Survival from South Sudanese Children Living in Australia. Anthology, Autobiography, Picture book. A grey text box: text reads In Donkey's Can't Fly on Planes twenty-two refugee children from South Sudan, who now live in Australia, share their personal survival stories. In short, honest texts that are accompanied by mixed-media collage illustrations, the children talk about life in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and other African countries. They share experiences of starvation and war, of family separation and death, but they also describe African customs and traditions, everyday life and happy memories.' In the top right-hand corner is the cover of the book, showing a brown donkey against green hills.
A red background. Black text reads, Ghost Cities. Ficti9on, Fantasy Novel. Siang Lu (2024). A grey text box. Text reads: 'Inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China, Ghost Cities follows multiple narratives, including one in which a young man named Xiang is fired from his job as a translator at Sydney's Chinese Consulate after it is discovered he doesn't speak a word of Chinese and has been relying entirely on Google Translate for his work. How is his relocation to one such ghost city connected to a parallel odyssey in which an ancient Emperor creates a thousand doubles of Himself? Or where a horny mountain gains sentience? Where a chess-playing automaton hides a deadly secret? Or a tale in which every book in the known Empire is destroyed - then recreated, page by page and book by book - all in the name of love and art?' In the top right-hand corner is the cover of the book, showing a grey-toned fantastical cityscape rising vertically up the cover.
The latest 25 for 25 trail is live and, to mark Harmony Week, it's on the theme of migrant voices. Compiled by AustLit intern and CSU student Renee Mirabato, with gorgeous slides by Monica Clayton. As always, check out www.austlit.edu.au/25th-anniver... for the full trail!
#AustLit25 #diversity
Congratulations to all the longlisted 2026 Stella Prize authors, especially my own, Tasma Walton, for her historical novel I AM NANNERTGARROOK! Published by @bundyipublishing.bsky.social
@austlit.bsky.social
![AustLit’s 25th Anniversary special:
Research Project 2 OF 25:
[Image shows a black stage with five curved rows of black seats in front of it: the image is designed as an icon, not as a representative or illustrative image. On the stage are three images from set design associated with the project. This first shows a man in a grey suit, on the left, kissing the hand of a woman in a white tutu-style skirt; the second shows a grey, two-storey street scene; the third shows a vaguely Greek-looking scene, with pillars and cyprus trees.]
AUSTRALIAN DRAMA ARCHIVE
Continue to explore the project!](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:goqdgulm22zlaw5l43rejtml/bafkreias52dv7ivxzbbt2xq3fdikysuavcz34b5iyqutigb2iho67ljeki)
AustLit’s 25th Anniversary special: Research Project 2 OF 25: [Image shows a black stage with five curved rows of black seats in front of it: the image is designed as an icon, not as a representative or illustrative image. On the stage are three images from set design associated with the project. This first shows a man in a grey suit, on the left, kissing the hand of a woman in a white tutu-style skirt; the second shows a grey, two-storey street scene; the third shows a vaguely Greek-looking scene, with pillars and cyprus trees.] AUSTRALIAN DRAMA ARCHIVE Continue to explore the project!
About the Australian Drama Archive project Project start: 2016 The Australian Drama Archive Project is a digitisation project publishing plays and research relating to writers working in the period before the 1960s. Collaborators at The University of Queensland and the University of New England set out to digitise and research a collection of Australian plays from the twentieth century up to the 1960s and bring them to life again through publication, production, and new research.
![The Australian Drama Archive’s dataset includes but is not limited to the following:
> Biographical information — playwrights and writers working in the period before the 1960s.
> Play Information — synopsis, publication details, production details and historical notes.
> Research outcomes
> Digitised transcripts of plays researched in the project.
[Banner image shows a series of pages from the plays included in the project: the pages are text-heavy and the text is illegible at this size.]
Selected plays were scanned and in most cases run through an optical character recognition (OCR) process which generated a plain text file that was subsequently corrected.
In some cases the OCR text was so bad, due to the poor quality of the original manuscript, we determined it was best to manually transcribe the text.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:goqdgulm22zlaw5l43rejtml/bafkreih5mkyeelhwvt3o56n6zpzg7bo6kufnwbocfx5grbsvvh7p2rx7tu)
The Australian Drama Archive’s dataset includes but is not limited to the following: > Biographical information — playwrights and writers working in the period before the 1960s. > Play Information — synopsis, publication details, production details and historical notes. > Research outcomes > Digitised transcripts of plays researched in the project. [Banner image shows a series of pages from the plays included in the project: the pages are text-heavy and the text is illegible at this size.] Selected plays were scanned and in most cases run through an optical character recognition (OCR) process which generated a plain text file that was subsequently corrected. In some cases the OCR text was so bad, due to the poor quality of the original manuscript, we determined it was best to manually transcribe the text.
AustLit is celebrating 25 years in 2026 For this momentous anniversary, we have a year’s worth of celebrations planned, from in-person and online events to project highlights, video guides, and information trails. Celebrate with us by following, sharing our content and using #AustLit25 to share your Australian literature discoveries. Visit our website for more details! 25 years of discovering Australian stories
Today's highlight is the Australian Drama Archive, a full-text collection of pre-1960s plays, from the claustrophobic horror of The Flail of God to the absurdity of The Ladder Game.
Explore the project in full at:
www.austlit.edu.au/australiandr...
#AustLit25
Beautiful slides by Monica Clayton!
AustLit’s 25th Anniversary special: Research Project 2 OF 25: [Image shows a black stage with five curved rows of black seats in front of it: the image is designed as an icon, not as a representative or illustrative image. On the stage are three images from set design associated with the project. This first shows a man in a grey suit, on the left, kissing the hand of a woman in a white tutu-style skirt; the second shows a grey, two-storey street scene; the third shows a vaguely Greek-looking scene, with pillars and cyprus trees.] AUSTRALIAN DRAMA ARCHIVE Continue to explore the project!
About the Australian Drama Archive project Project start: 2016 The Australian Drama Archive Project is a digitisation project publishing plays and research relating to writers working in the period before the 1960s. Collaborators at The University of Queensland and the University of New England set out to digitise and research a collection of Australian plays from the twentieth century up to the 1960s and bring them to life again through publication, production, and new research.
The Australian Drama Archive’s dataset includes but is not limited to the following: > Biographical information — playwrights and writers working in the period before the 1960s. > Play Information — synopsis, publication details, production details and historical notes. > Research outcomes > Digitised transcripts of plays researched in the project. [Banner image shows a series of pages from the plays included in the project: the pages are text-heavy and the text is illegible at this size.] Selected plays were scanned and in most cases run through an optical character recognition (OCR) process which generated a plain text file that was subsequently corrected. In some cases the OCR text was so bad, due to the poor quality of the original manuscript, we determined it was best to manually transcribe the text.
AustLit is celebrating 25 years in 2026 For this momentous anniversary, we have a year’s worth of celebrations planned, from in-person and online events to project highlights, video guides, and information trails. Celebrate with us by following, sharing our content and using #AustLit25 to share your Australian literature discoveries. Visit our website for more details! 25 years of discovering Australian stories
Today's highlight is the Australian Drama Archive, a full-text collection of pre-1960s plays, from the claustrophobic horror of The Flail of God to the absurdity of The Ladder Game.
Explore the project in full at:
www.austlit.edu.au/australiandr...
#AustLit25
Beautiful slides by Monica Clayton!
Friends, allow me to introduce you to March 9th: Fill Our Staplers Day.
I love staplers. I welcome their simple utility and aesthetic diversity. I like that they go “clonk” or “schnud” and make pages stay together.
Thanks to @stilgherrian.com for this very good news.
The AustLit record for Alexis Wright. In the right-hand top corner, an orange box is circled in red. The box reads Follow and includes a space for an email address.
AustLit's tip for the day: did you know you can follow AustLit records? You can even follow your own record! Then you'll know exactly when we add your latest works to the database. You'll only be alerted to substantial updates (i.e., if we add a new work, not if we adjust a comma in your biography).
The AustLit record for Alexis Wright. In the right-hand top corner, an orange box is circled in red. The box reads Follow and includes a space for an email address.
AustLit's tip for the day: did you know you can follow AustLit records? You can even follow your own record! Then you'll know exactly when we add your latest works to the database. You'll only be alerted to substantial updates (i.e., if we add a new work, not if we adjust a comma in your biography).
Did you explore our information trail on adaptations yesterday? Today, our quick help video shows you how to search the database for adaptations: both works that have been adapted and works that are adaptations. (Video has captions, no sound.) Happy searching!
“Reading Australia from Lanka and Lanka from Australia, MacIntyre is an artist who made new cultural and social landscapes visible.”
Suvendrini Perera remembers the playwright Ernest Thalayasingham MacIntyre, who died in December at the age of 91.
Red background, on which text reads AustLit's 25th Anniversary special: Information trail 4 of 25. Adaptations. Continue to explore the trail! Image across the middle of the tile shows three covers: Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife (left), the promotional poster for Chinese TV series Miss S (middle), and Nicki Greenberg's The Great Gatsby (right).
Red background, with a grey textbox. In the top left-hand corner of the text box is the cover of Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife. Text reads: 'In the Snowy Mountains, Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned. A searing reimagining of Leah Purcell's play and Henry Lawson's classic short story.'
On a red background, a grey textbox. In the top right-hand corner of the text box, the promotional image for the Chinese TV series Miss S. Text reads: 'An adaptation of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Miss S stars Mai Yi Li as a beautiful and witty socialite who forms an unlikely alliance with a righteous police inspector, solving numerous cases in and around Shanghai in the 1920s.'
On a red background, a grey text box. In the top right-hand corner, the cover of Nicki Greenberg's graphic novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Text reads: ‘In homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz age classic, this acclaimed graphic adaptation brings to life the glitter, the melancholy and the grand and crumpled dreams of Fitzgerald's unforgettable characters. Daisy, Nick, Tom, Jordan and Gatsby himself are rendered true to Fitzgerald's original characterisation, with a difference: they are not human.’
The fourth of our anniversary information trails is all about adaptations, in all their forms! Compiled by Charles Sturt student and AustLit intern Erin Richman, and with beautiful slides designed by Monica Clayton, this one is fun from 1885 all the way to 2020.
www.austlit.edu.au/25th-anniver...
Curious about the nuances of searching for film and television on AustLit? Do we have the video for you! (Captions, no sound.)
Remember, all these searches can be combined with any of our other parameters for very granular results.
If you saw our celebration of ScreenLit, you might be curious about how to explore AustLit for film or television. This brief video (captions: no sound) will walk you through some of those search options!
#AustLit25
Super excited about the release of Allanah Hunt's debut novel, FOREVER AND EVER!
There's a launch at Where The Wild Things Are Bookshop on March 13... I'll be there, will you?
@austlit.bsky.social @bronfredericks.bsky.social @textpublishing.bsky.social
wherethewildthingsare.com.au/pages/13996-...
Text reads: AustLit's 25th anniversary special: Research Project 1 of 25. In the centre of the page, two rows of stylised film, showing title screens from the following films and TV series: top row, left to right, Muriel's Wedding, The Sapphires, Heartbreak High (new series); bottom row, left to right, Ali's Wedding, Puberty Blues (new series), Red Dog. Text below reads: ScreenLit. Continue to explore the project!
On a blue background, a grey text box. Text above the box reads: About ScreenLit Project start: 2009 In the text box, text reads: ScreenLit provides information-rich records about Australian cinema productions (including short and feature films, documentaries, and animated films) and television programs (including made-for-TV movies, series, mini-series, serials and documentaries). A row of three images show the posters for Ned Kelly (Heath Ledger version), Bran Nue Day, and The Babadook. Below that, text reads: Chronologically, the resource begins with the emergence of Australian film production in the first decades of the twentieth century.
On a blue background, a grey text box. Text reads: ScreenLit will continue to evolve over time and is continually being updated. Explore the ScreenLit project on AustLit and please contact us if you would like to assist us in expanding information about Australian film, television and other audio-visual storytelling methods. In the middle, a banner of images shows the posters for the films and TV series Unsound, Moulin Rouge, Follow the Rabbit-proof Fence, Boy Swallows Universe, and The Dry. Below that, text reads: AustLit welcomes contributions from scholars and specialists in the area in order to build an authoritative and detailed resource for research and general interest.
On a blue background, text reads: AustLit is celebrating 25 years in 2026 For this momentous anniversary, we have a year’s worth of celebrations planned, from in-person and online events to project highlights, video guides, and information trails. Celebrate with us by following, sharing our content and using #AustLit25 to share your Australian literature discoveries. Visit our website for more details! 25 years of discovering Australian stories
Today, we're highlighting one of our bigger research datasets: ScreenLit! This is AustLit's collection of bibliographical records on film and television from the earliest days.
Find out more at www.austlit.edu.au/screenlit
Beautiful slides by Monica Clayton.
#AustLit25
Multi-coloured calendar setting out the events, projects, and other social media posts for AustLit's 25th birthday.
Updated calendar for the #AustLit25 celebrations: check out what is coming up next, including trails on adaptations and multicultural writing, as well as projects on screen, drama, and Irishness. More details on the anniversary site!
www.austlit.edu.au/25th-anniver...
You can find "The Five Lazy Sisters" and other translated stories at UQ's Corella Translates page on Austlit @austlit.bsky.social
www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page...
The Aurealis Awards ceremony is taking place THIS SATURDAY as part of GenreCon in Brisbane. With a beautiful venue, and hosted by the always engaging Eugen Bacon, it's shaping up to be a great night, and if you can make it in person, you absolutely won't regret it!
On a red background, three stylised black and white frames show a scene from The Thorn Birds, a close-up of the cover of For No Mortal Creature, and a scene from Addition. Text reads AustLit's 25th Anniversary special: Information trail 3 of 25.
On a red background, a grey text box with, in the upper right-hand corner, the cover of The Thorn Birds. Text reads: The Thorn Birds Romance, Historical Fiction - Novel & adaptations Colleen McCullough (1977) #AustLit25 The Thorn Birds is the unforgettable story of the Clearys, spanning three generations; a sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback. It is a poignant love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit. Most of all, it is the story of the Clearys' only daughter, Meggie, and the haunted priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart—and the intense joining of two hearts and souls over a lifetime, a relationship that dangerously oversteps sacred boundaries of ethics and dogma.
On a red background, a grey text box with, in the upper right-hand corner, the cover of For No Mortal Creature. Text reads: For No Mortal Creature Romance, Fantasy - Novel Keshe Chow (2025) #AustLit25 When Jia Yi finds herself alive again after being killed by an enemy’s sword, she realizes she possesses a rare power: the ability to move between life and death. With her new gift comes the discovery of a mysterious spirit realm teeming with ghosts like herself—and Lin, the boy she once loved before his betrayal tore them apart. When Jia’s beloved grandmother dies under suspicious circumstances, she is forced to follow in an attempt to save her. In the death realm, though, even ghosts have ghosts. To survive, Jia must rely on both Lin and her longtime enemy, the cold and enigmatic Prince Essien. With tensions high and new and old connections blossoming, Jia must confront the ghosts of her past . . . or risk remaining one herself.
On a red background, a grey text box with, in the upper right-hand corner, the cover of Addition. Text reads: Addition Romance, Humour - Novel & adaptations Toni Jordan (2008) #AustLit25 Grace Lisa Vandenburg counts. The letters in her name (19). The steps she takes every morning to the local cafe (920). The number of poppy seeds on her orange cake, which dictates the number of bites she'll take to eat it. Grace counts everything, because that way there are no unpleasant surprises. Seamus Joseph O'Reilly (also a 19) thinks she might be better off without the counting. If she could hold down a job, say. Or open her cupboards without conducting an inventory, or leave her flat without measuring the walls. Grace's problem is that Seamus doesn't count. Her other problem is ...he does. As Grace struggles to balance a new relationship with old habits, to find a way to change while staying true to herself, she realises that nothing is more chaotic than love.
Our third anniversary trail celebrates Australian romance, compiled by Ashleigh Lowry! As always, this is a taste not a best of. The slides, by Monica Clayton, highlight @keshewrites.bsky.social, Colleen McCullough, and Toni Jordan, but check out the full list at:
www.austlit.edu.au/25th-anniver...
