Books and culture
A sample of work, plus latest reviews and features
Thunderhead by Miranda Darling review – pacy Sydney thriller hits a superficial note
The Guardian, April 2024
Good knitwear, great accents and a stoic detective: Shetland is peak ‘dad television’ – and I love it
The Guardian, April 2024
The return of Nam Le: ‘As long as I’m terrifying myself a little bit, I’m on the right track’ (interview)
The Guardian, February 2024
Best of 2023 in Australian Reading
Meanjin, February 2024
The Great Undoing by Sharlene Allsopp review – field notes from the future
The Guardian, February 2024
The 25 best Australian books of 2023
The Guardian, December 2023
Paradise Estate by Max Easton review – a layered, aching portrait of millennial malaise
The Guardian, October 2023
Charlotte Wood: ‘It was like I had acid poured on my whole life … but in a good way’ (INTERVIEW)
The Guardian, October 2023
Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko review – Miles Franklin winner slices open Australia’s past and present
The Guardian, October 2023
Fast, beautiful, mates for life: why I am voting peregrine in Australia’s bird of the year 2023
The Guardian, September 2023
‘Everyone has a story about Hotel Hollywood’: art show invites Sydney upstairs at iconic pub
The Guardian, September 2023
A Votive Manifesto (The Lovers by Yumna Kassab review)
Meanjin, December 2022
‘Tonality is a ghost’ (Fugitive by Simon Tedeschi review)
Sydney Review of Books, November 2022
Readers are hungry for stories about trauma. But what happens to the authors?
The Guardian, November 2022
Against control (This Devastating Fever by Sophie Cunningham review)
Meanjin, October 2022
Limberlost by Robbie Arnott review – a sweet and moving song of man and landscape
The Guardian, October 2022
Hydra by Adriane Howell review – weird woman adrift in a big cat mystery
The Guardian, August 2022
Desire by Jessie Cole review – an author reckons with her yearning for intimacy
The Guardian, August 2022
Every Version of You by Grace Chan review – would you want to live in the metaverse?
The Guardian, August 2022
Enclave by Claire G Coleman review – why shouldn’t we make a utopia?
The Guardian, July 2022
Jennifer Down wins 2022 Miles Franklin award for Bodies of Light (interview)
The Guardian, July 2022
Big Snake Little Snake by DBC Pierre review – like a pub conversation about life, fate and the universe
The Guardian, July 2022
Our lady of the messy heart (big beautiful female theory by Eloise Grills review)
Meanjin, June 2022
An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life by Paul Dalla Rosa review – deftly executed and cringingly funny
The Guardian, May 2022
A personal exercise (Sunbathing by Isobel Beech review)
Meanjin, May 2022
Bedtime Story by Chloe Hooper review – an extraordinary treasure of hope and grief
The Guardian, May 2022
Hovering by Rhett Davis review – a very online climate collapse novel
The Guardian, March 2022
The opposite of Rachel Cusk (Sterling Karat Gold by Isabel Waidner review)
Meanjin, Autumn 2022
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au review – a graceful novella about how we pay attention
The Guardian, February 2022
Devotion by Hannah Kent review – historic queer love story overwhelmed by solemn ecstasy
The Guardian, November 2021
In Moonland by Miles Allinson review – a dreamlike requiem for 70s utopianism
The Guardian, September 2021
After Story by Larissa Behrendt review – trauma and secrets unspool on literary tour of England
The Guardian, July 2021
We Were Not Men by Campbell Mattinson review – a solemn and affectionate coming-of-age
The Guardian, June 2021
Work and feeling: A chat with half of Beach House
Broadsheet, January 2016
Pressure makes diamonds: A chat with Joey Bada$$
Broadsheet, September 2015
The worst of Lou Doillon
Broadsheet, September 2015
Christos Tsiolkas and the sport of writing
Broadsheet, November 2013
Holocaust and hangnails: Talking comics with Art Spiegelman
Broadsheet, October 2013