Politica Reviews

I try to keep all the reviews and interviews for each book in one place.

Politica was released on the 3rd of January and it’s now been out in the world for almost five months.

I have had a few events to discuss it publicly and to contextualise some of the fragments that appear in the book.

Some links that relate to Politica:

• Interview with Honi Soit by Valerie Chidiac about Politica, all the books, being the Parramatta Laureate in Literature and then some of the writers I love.
• Interview by Antoinette Luu for ARC UNSW at the Sydney Writers Festival about Politica, writing, migration, Gaza and the Parramatta Laureate in Literature.
• Liminal Mag 5 Questions about the book Politica and the background to the book. I always love this segment in Liminal.
• Review in The Conversation by Ned Curthoys that includes a mosaic from the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The structure of the book is referred to as a mosaic which I agree with.
• Jack Callil explores the human cost of war with his review of Politica for The Guardian.
• Ruth McHugh-Dillon writes about Politica for Meanjin in a piece titled Private Desires, Collective Dispossession.
• For the Sydney Morning Herald, Sonia Nair parallels Politica with what is happening in Gaza and Palestine.
• Mia Shouha reviews Politica for Aniko Press.
• Review by Celeste Liddle in The Saturday Paper.
• Politica as a constellation novel by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen in the Australian Book Review.
• I read three pieces from Politica for the Narratives Library. There is a short interview to go with the readings.
• Final Draft interview about Politica recorded in April, 2024.
• Alison Stoddart reviews Politica for Mascara Literary Review
• Politica included by Sonia Nair in Best of Australian Reading 2024 for Meanjin
• In conversation with Kate Evans at the Canberra Writers Festival, 2024, with Zoya Patel and Abbas El-Zein

It is interesting to consider the subject of reviews. All together, reviews give a sense of a work but any one review is not definitive.

I especially enjoyed the interviews around Politica. Cher Tan put together a thoughtful list of questions for the Liminal Mag interview.

I was delighted to be interview by Antoinette Luu for ARC UNSW because I taught her in Year 9 Science at one of my former schools. And I loved the interview with Valerie Chidiac for Honi Soit. It is important to consider the next generation of students coming through who are trying to figure out how to have a life on their own terms and to also pursue their creative projects in a very difficult and dark time.

Links will continue to be added as they become available.