(Imported from Blogger; formatting glitches need to be fixed)

What contribution has the AWW challenge made to the reviewing books of literary merit published recently by women writers in Australia?

2012 releases(links to reviews/reviewers posted between January and June on second line)

Tally: 8 books reviewed, 17 reviewers, 23 reviews, 6 publishers

Publishers: Random House: 2 books, 7 reviews; HarperCollins: 1 book, 6 reviews; Pan Macmillan: 1 book, 3 reviews; Allen & Unwin: 1 book, 2 reviews; Text: 1 book, 1 review; UQP: 1 book, 1 review; Spinifex Press: 1 book, 1 review.

The above books were defined as “literary”, either by their reviewers or the publishers.

How do you define the term “literary”? Should nonfiction books of literary merit be included, such as Jane Gleeson-White‘s creative nonfiction history, Double Entry: How the merchants of Venice created modern finance?

Published by Allen & Unwin; reviewed for AWW by historian Yvonne Perkins.

Or True North, by Brenda Niall (Text 2012), the story of Mary and Elizabeth Durack, also reviewed by Yvonne Perkins?

How about Speculative Fiction books like Margo Lanagan’s Seahearts and Kate Forsyth’s Historical Speculative Fiction novel for adults, Bittergreens – should these be included under the label of “literary”? (If the latter are included, the tally of reviews increases considerably: Lanagan: 9 reviews; Forsyth: 7.)

Are there other – broadened defined – “literary” books by Australian women published in 2012 that aren’t on the above list?

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