Culture

Behrouz Boochani A Facebook message seven years ago prompted poet and activist Janet Galbraith to found a writing group that brought hope and connection to refugees. “It was formed out of the relationships between human beings, reaching through prison fences and beyond borders.”

Kate Holden On his company’s 10th anniversary, Shaun Parker – one of the stalwarts of Australian contemporary dance – looks over his shapeshifting career. “It’s weird, I didn’t like it. I loved it. You’d think I’d be more terrified, but I think, beginning to sing or dance or act, you’re becoming another role. I love that feeling of becoming someone else.”

Doug Hall Last month one of the enduring figures of the Australian art world, John Nixon, died. “From the beginning of his career, Nixon remained an artist who believed in the ideal of a perpetual avant-garde.”

Leah Jing McIntosh Catherine Văn-Davies found that her starring role in SBS’s Hungry Ghosts excavated intimate family histories. “For most of my life, Mum wouldn’t talk about the war. But with intergenerational trauma, even if they don’t tell us the experience in their own words, we’re so sensitive to our parents.”

Shaad D’Souza Ten years after their previous album, Bright Eyes’ latest release brings a new lightness to their apocalyptic imagining. “Lyrical and generous, it feels like a new beginning for Oberst and co on their own terms, despite the weight of its conception, and despite the pain that it holds.”

Christos Tsiolkas A cynical nod to Agatha Christie’s locked-room mysteries, Régis Roinsard’s The Translators fails to recognise the complexities and canniness of that storytelling tradition.

Debbie Zhou In the midst of political controversy, Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan emerges as a watered-down version of the original animation.

Jini Maxwell Set in an other-worldly Carlton cafe and filled with thoughtful musings on life, death and loss, Necrobarista is a welcome antidote to the relentless dominance of American games.

Cass Moriarty He wasn’t certain when the slow-growing bacillus had entered his body, but Mycobacterium tuberculosis had stealthily spread through his system – a silent invasion as he coughed up great wads of red-stained sputum. He imagined the …

Jinghua Qian Remember that year we sat in the stench of death, peering at lighted squares, searching for the numbers of fallen. I was conscious of my breath, conscious of too-close bodies passing in the aisles, conscious of the skin of the oranges, already …

Margo Lanagan There are dozens of them, miserable buggers, all over town. Widows and widowers, all under 30, all Grundys by name or by marriage. They never marry again. They’re no good to anyone. It was a rotten business. I never spoke up – it wasn’t …

Behrouz Boochani A Facebook message seven years ago prompted poet and activist Janet Galbraith to found a writing group that brought hope and connection to refugees. “It was formed out of the relationships between human beings, reaching through prison fences and beyond borders.”

Reviewer: Oliver Reeson The Lying Life of Adults, Elena Ferrante’s latest novel, begins with an unmooring. The teenage Giovanna starts to perform poorly in school and, one night, overhears her father, Andrea, compare her to his estranged sister, Vittoria. “Adolescence …

Reviewer: Emily Stewart Eula Biss thinks she and her husband, John, are just like everyone else in the neighbourhood, but he disagrees: “No … we’re nothing like them, I’m nothing like them.” Biss identifies as middle class, John as white trash, …