CategoryAudio interviews

Denotes website entries with audio interviews

Andrew Vukosav – Longitude, Latitude, Solitude +

Yering Station, Yarra Valley, Victoria
15 January – 20 February 2022

Andrew Vukosav’s sublime aerial images of the Australian landscape would improve any public building or corporate foyer. They are large works appropriate to the vast country they capture, and were shown in Canberra at Humble House Gallery, Fyshwick from June 2 – 27 2021.

Shot from his single-engine Cessna 182, using a professional digital camera mounted over an inspection port, the photographs are mostly of pristine, if not untouched, places in Western Australia and South Australia. The images are inland and coastal, though his preference is for inland.

Andrew Vuikosav spoke to Barbie about Longitude, Latitude, Solitude + during its Canberra exhibition in 2021
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Storytorch Press grows wings

Canberra publisher launches new books in 2022
First event at Book Cow in Kingston, ACT, on Saturday 29 January 2022 at 3pm

Author Samantha Tidy was inspired by the positive community reaction to her book Our Bush Capital (2020), She decided to re-invest her author royalties from this and her other published books and to open her boutique publishing house Storytorch Press to public submissions.

Samantha Tidy talks to Barbie about Storytorch Press
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Lucy Neave – Believe in Me

UQP, Australia, 2021
Cover design by Sandy Cull, gogoGingko; cover artwork by Sarah Jarrett

Professor Gail Jones’ front cover endorsement of Lucy Neave’s Believe in Me describes it as ‘astute, tender and wise’. Spot on.

Lucy Neave demonstrates a finely tuned capacity to draw us into not merely the story but also the inner worlds and societal atmospheres of the times and places of her telling. We feel acutely the stifling confinement, the sense of loss and abandonment of the lives of the three women whose story this is.

Barbie spoke to Lucy Neave about Believe in Me
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The Furphy Anthology 2021

Hardie Grant, Australia, 2021
Cover design and illustrations Design by Committee

The Furphy Literary Award was established in 1992 for writers of all ages in the greater Shepparton region. It was inspired by the Furphy family’s interest in story-telling. In 2020 the award was expanded and entries were welcomed from across Australia. The topic for 2021 was Australian Life in all Its Diversity.

Furphy Anthology winner Thomas Alan talks about his work
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Steven Miller – The Exhibitionists

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, 2021
Design Dominic Hofstede (Mucho)

No-one could be better placed to produce a history of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, celebrating its 150th year, than long serving Chief Archivist Steven Miller.

Catchily titled, The Exhibitionists is at once a social history of those years and an examination of the changes in the nature and purpose of the gallery – this one and, by association, others in Australia.

Barbie spoke to Steven Miller about The Exhibitionists
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Colin Campbell – Poems

Stringybark Publishing, Australia, 2021

Poems is an intimate and affecting collection of work by a poet with an assured mastery of the English word and phrase. Many of the poems speak of his love for his mother and for the Suffolk countryside of his boyhood, often felt to be one and the same.

There are constant echoes of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Dylan Thomas in Colin Campbell’s beautiful language, along with the lilt and fall of the Suffolk dialect he sometimes employs in his story telling. For this is what these poems are, the stories of his life and loves, from the sadness and shame of his unmarried mother to the cruelty of the cane-wielding school master.

Colin Campbell talks to Barbie and reads some of his poems. Music is from Dubussy’s Clair de Lune
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Ausdance ACT – Youth Dance Festival download available

Following the successful Digital Dystopia Utopia Youth Dance Festival in November 2021, Ausdance ACT has announced that the festival download is now available for purchase.

Barbie speaks to Ausdance ACT’s Cathy Adamek about the downloads
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Barry Maitland – The Russian Wife

Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2021
Cover design Nada Backovic

I’m coming late to the David Brock and Kathy Kolla party, a fact I deeply regret. I hope to make amends by getting my hands on as much of Barry Maitland’s back catalogue as possible.

The Russian Wife is a cracking crime read, a suave amalgam of elegant writing, fast flowing action and pleasingly complex characters. I was immediately wedded to the welfare of our leads, despite only just now meeting them, 27 years into their on-page careers.

Barbie talks to Barry Maitland about The Russian Wife
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Fiona Palmer – The Long Weekend

Hachette, Australia, 2021
Cover design Christabella Designs

In her real life, Fiona Palmer has her feet firmly on the ground – or more accurately on the floor of large agricultural machinery or the pedals of a racing car, but in her fictional world she does love a good romance and at the same time takes a look at contemporary concerns, many of them urban.

Barbie talks to Fiona Palmer about The Long Weekend
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Stephanie Parkyn – The Freedom of Birds

Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2021
Cover design Lisa White

Stephanie Parkyn has chosen the failing years of the Napoleonic Empire as the period for this historical fiction, a sweeping tale of cultural theft, love and betrayal, abandonment and refuge.

The story follows the fortunes of storytellers Rémi and Pascal, whom we first meet as orphans working in the comedia dell’arte theatre of Gianni. They are soon joined by Saskia, a Russian travelling circus performer who had been kidnapped and mistreated by a mysterious religious Father.

Barbie spoke to Stephanie Parkyn about The Freedom of Birds
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Angela Taylor – The Machinery Shed

Self-published, Australia, 2021
Artwork by theillustrators.com.au

On one level this is a picture book made for country kids, especially those who live on working farms. It presents the day to day lives of such children in a way that mainstream picture books and other children’s literature do not, thus acknowledging and valuing their real world experiences.

Barbie talks to Angela Taylor about The Machinery Shed
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Best Sellers – film review

Palace Electric Cinema, Canberra
To 8 December 2021 as part of the British Film Festival
Comedy, 100 min
Reviewed by Barbie Robinson

I must be honest and say that I would happily watch Michael Caine in almost anything on screen – oh that voice!. This film was classic Caine in the role of crotchety, cantankerous alcoholic writer Harris Shaw, whose novel (decades before the start of the film) put the Stanbridge family publishing house on the map.

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House Planet: A Discovery of Recovery – the Musical

An original musical created by Mr Tim Enterprises
Tuggeranong Arts Centre
Friday 10 December at 7pm and Saturday 11 December at 2pm
90 minutes, Tickets $15

This original musical was devised by program participants (aged 7-13 years) with Tim & Nathalie Bevitt from Mr. Tim Enterprises.

It has provided an artistic platform for young people to express their concerns and find solutions, confirming the directors’ strong belief that young people have important things to say, whilst realising Tim and Nathalie’s  passion for giving children a voice.

Tim and Nathalie Bevitt talk about the production
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Exhibition on Screen – The Danish Collector, Delacroix to Gauguin

Palace Electric Cinema, Canberra, ACT
Friday 3 December 2021 at 1pm and Sunday 5 December at 1.30pm
Nationally from 2 December 2021

Directed by award-winning Australian-born filmmaker and artist, David Bickerstaff, this documentary showcases a treasure trove of Impressionist artworks, currently held at Denmark’s acclaimed Ordrupgaard museum.

Barbie spoke to executive producer Phil Grabsky about the latest Exhibition on Screen
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