Writers SA, Adelaide Review announce literary criticism program

Writers SA and the Adelaide Review have partnered to produce a year-long series of book reviews, with a focus on titles published during the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘The social and economic shock of Covid-19 has been felt keenly by the literary industry,’ said Writers SA director Jessica Alice. ‘This project will fund the book reviews that stimulate book sales and the royalty income that authors need to survive; it will pay writers to create the critical responses that authors need to continue their work; and it will support a strong culture of literary criticism in Australia.’

The project, ‘A Year In Review’, is supported by the Australia Council of the Arts as part of its Covid-19 Resilience Fund. Reviews will appear in print and online in the Adelaide Review from August 2020, beginning with Manal Younus reviewing Jessie Tu’s A Lonely Girl Is A Dangerous Thing and Sasha Smith reviewing Rita Therese’s Come: A memoir (both A&U).

‘This is an opportunity to express an opinion through and about literature, and adding to the conversation about Australian writing at a time when it is evolving and there are more writers of colour,’ said Younus. ‘It’s so valuable to be introduced to more works, and to think critically about them while also honing skills to express that and having a platform to do that.’

Category: Local news