The Best Australian Humorous Writing
Edited by Andrew O’Keefe and Steve Vizard

Melbourne University Press,    RRP: AU $32.99, PB, 978-0-522-85594-4

In The Best Australian Humorous Writing, Andrew O'Keefe and Steve Vizard corral our funniest minds and canniest observers into one entertaining anthology. The writers bring a unique antipodean mirth to everything that has touched our lives in recent times-from Sir Ian McKellen disrobing on stage to busting up the Logies, from the privatisation of Telstra to the curves of Nigella Lawson, from the perils of entertaining children to the perennial outrage that modern telecommunications offers.

Whimsical, acerbic, energetic, witty, thought-provoking, absurd and downright funny, this diverse selection is not to be missed.

Contributors:
Phillip Adams * David Astle * Graeme Blundell * The Chaser * Barry Cohen * Kaz Cooke * Ian Cuthbertson * Mark Dapin * Catherine Deveny * Frank Devine * Alexander Downer * Larissa Dubecki * Suzanne Edgar * Dame Edna Everage *
Charles Firth * Germaine Greer * Gideon Haigh * Marieke Hardy * Matthew Hardy * Wendy Harmer * Clive James * Danny Katz * Malcolm Knox * Peter Lalor * John Lethlean * Mungo MacCallum * Shane Maloney * Shaun Micallef * Paul Mitchell * Les Murray * Olga Pavlinova Olenich * Rod Quantock * Guy Rundle * Roy Slaven * Steve Vizard * Garry Williams * Tony Wilson * Julia Zemiro

Andrew O'Keefe is one of Australia's most recognisable comedic creators and observers. He has written for and performed in theatre, radio and television, and is a regular host of Channel 7's Weekend Sunrise program.

Steve Vizard originated and produced some of Australia's most successful television comedies, including Fast Forward, Full Frontal, Jimeon and Big Girl's Blouse.

Transition
150 Years of the Royal Women’s Hospital
By Peter Garnick

MUP Custom,    RRP: AU $39.99, PB, 978-0-522-85591-3

Transition is a collection of photographs of the Royal Women's Hospital that chronicles the old hospital, the construction of the new hospital, and the move in 2008 to the hospital’s new site. The photographs are accompanied by text supplied by the Royal Women's Hospital, a timeline of key events in the hospital's history and quotes from clinicians who have worked at the hospital during its history.

Peter Garnick was born in Boston in 1953. He has been a photographer since the age of thirteen. While pursuing a science degree at Trinity College, he practised portraiture and photo journalism. In 2004 he made the transition from film to digital capture. His recent work focuses on man-made and natural processes of construction and decay.

Established in 1856, the Royal Women's Hospital is Australia's largest specialist hospital dedicated to improving the health of all women and newborn babies.

Meanjin
Volume 67, No.4
Edited by Sophie Cunningham

Meanjin,    RRP: AU $24.95, PB, 978-0-522-85560-9

David Astle describes the white noise in his head and how he turned that into a career constructing cryptic crosswords; James Bradley shares his considerable passion for Battlestar Galactica. Sophie Cunningham interviews Morris Gleitzman about his holocaust novels Once and Then and the dark side of writing for kids; Ciannon Cazaly writes on footy and the culture wars; Jane Gleeson-White enters the dream-like worlds of story-telling traditions in the Middle East and its incarnation on the web; Elizabeth Argall takes us behind the scenes of writing a comic; Anthony Burke ponders the relative weights of children's lives in Palestine and the west; With fiction by Caroline Lee, Stephen Orr, Jessica Au, Eleanor Whitworth, Andrew Humphries, Damon Young , Gina Flaxman and Sunil Badami.

Sophie Cunningham has been an editor and publisher for over 16 years. Working for well-known publishing companies such as McPhee Gribble/Penguin and Allen & Unwin, she has worked with prominent Australian writers including Tim Winton, Dorothy Hewett, Richard Flanagan and Luke Davies. Her first novel, Geography was published in 2004. Her second, Bird, was published in June 2008.

After the Celebration: Australian Fiction 1989-2007
By Ken Gelder and Paul Salzman

From crime fiction to the postmodern colonial novel, from Australian grunge to ‘rural apocalypse fiction’, from the Asian diasporic novel to the action blockbuster, After the Celebration captures the key themes and issues in Australian fiction: where we have been and what we have become.

Tags: melbourne university press