Three compelling talks presented by the Sydney Writers’ Festival not to be missed this November: Literary powerhouse couple Micahel Chabon and Ayelet Waldman interview each other on family and creativity; Pulitzer Prize-winning Geraldine Brooks talks about her new book The Secret Chord and Australian of the Year Rosie Batty chats about her new memoir, A Mother’s Story. Michael Chabo... Read more

A group of American critics have named Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a take on the life of an overweight Dominican-American nerd, as the best novel of the 21st century to date. BBC Culture, the arts section of the international BBC site, polled several dozen US critics to find the greatest novels written so far this century, with 156 novels in all named by experts from pape... Read more