Bronte Coates
Bronte Coates is the former digital content manager and Readings prize manager.
Review — 25 Jun 2014
Upstairs at the Party by Linda Grant
The new book from the Orange Prize-winning, and Man Booker Prize-shortlisted, novelist Linda Grant is joyously bold. Our narrator Adele opens with: ‘If you go back and look at your…
Blog post — 14 Apr 2014
What books would Hermione Granger read as an adult?
She’d indulge in literary snobbery.
For the most part, I see Hermione’s taste as being rather high-brow and - dare I say - she’d probably be a huge snob when…
Review — 9 Apr 2014
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Here, Meg Wolitzer has given us a delicious, utterly absorbing novel of epic scope, concerning six characters who meet as teenagers in 1974 at an exclusive summer arts camp. They…
Review — 22 Feb 2014
Stories We Tell by Sarah Polley
Canadian writer and director Sarah Polley has created a tender and unforgettable love letter to her parents with this documentary, a pastiche of dramatised retellings and ‘home videos’, genuine archive…
Blog post — 11 Feb 2014
Attempting handmade loafs with Dan Lepard
I first learnt how to make a very basic bread a few years ago while living in a rickety Queenslander where if you kneaded the dough with too much vigour…
Blog post — 17 Feb 2014
A beginner’s guide to reading graphic novels
If you’re interested in reading a graphic novel but not sure where to start, here are some recommendations depending on what kind of books you usually gravitate towards.
If you…
Review — 17 Dec 2013
Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing
Shot over just twelve days at Joss Whedon’s own home, Shakespeare’s classic comedy of sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick (and sappy lovers Claudio and Hero) is given a modern twist…
Blog post — 16 Dec 2013
Five books that unsettled me in 2013
Elena Ferrante is my favourite literary discovery of 2013 and the first book of hers I read, The Days of Abandonment, has permanently lodged itself under my skin. Even…
Review — 24 Nov 2013
Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes by Per Petterson
Norwegian novelist Per Petterson writes beautifully – his prose slicing across the page in swift, clean strokes – and now English readers can take pleasure in his literary debut. First…
Blog post — 8 Oct 2013
Why my literary journal exists
Recently, Robyn Annear wrote an article for The Monthly which queried the purpose of Australian literary journals. In her opening remark she asked whether these publications were the hallmarks of…