The Rose Scott Women Writers’ Festival is happening this weekend and we're excited to be part of the action! Library editor Cathy Perkins will introduce 'Send for Nellie', a captivating cabaret performance on Sat 6 Sept at 8pm. See full RSWWF program: ow.ly/Bbg050PKVCy

“These objects are ancient, and can tell a really expansive history of this nation." – Noeleen Timbery Wadgayawa Nhay Dhadjan Wari (they made them a long time ago) opens tomorrow, Sat 7 Oct. Read the story via The Sydney Morning Herald: ow.ly/irCc50PTJZV 📸 Image courtesy Brook Mitchell

People working out of Marrickville library today: a well-known feminist historian, a well-known cartoonist, a well-known journalist/novelist. It's like a silent version of Les Deux Magots

This morning I was wondering why so many women in the 1940s were called Norma, and realised it must be after the silent film star Norma Talmadge (1894-1957), who reportedly told fans after she had retired: 'Get away, dears, I don't need you any more and you don't need me.'

I appreciate that the Australian writer Oriel Gray's friends Norma Andresen and Moira McAuliffe gave SLNSW and SLV the letters they received from her over three decades – the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. I wonder if other correspondents, or their families, have saved her letters.

My short essay on a portrait of Solomon Wiseman from the beautiful book Reading the Rooms, edited by Dr Rachel Franks (she, her) and Richard Neville goodreadingmagazine.com.au/article/readin…

'Strange Paths is as much about changes in Australian print culture and sexual attitudes as it is about Moorhouse’s life.' Susan Lever in Inside Story on vol 1 of Matthew Lamb's biography of Frank Moorhouse: insidestory.org.au/writing-life/

This brilliant book well deserves a reissue! If you didn't read it the first time, read it this time.

Researching feminism in the 1980s. A good way to start the year

Our new releases for February 2024. The Shelf Life of Zora Cross by Cathy Perkins (new edition/format) Winning for Women: A Personal Story by Iola Mathews (new format) For Social Betterment: Social Work Education in Australia by Jane Miller Available in bookstores now.

A few things that caught my eye in the Dale Spender papers State Library of NSW yesterday

To mark the reissue of The Shelf Life of Zora Cross, Monash University Publishing has posted Vanessa Berry's launch speech: 'writing can be a way of speaking to the future' publishing.monash.edu/2024/02/22/a-r…

'This image of ... Zora, her dress stained with ink, was so startling it was as if I was meeting her in person... a testament to Perkins’s skill in drawing from her research the resonant moments of Zora’s life that give the reader a sense of intimacy and direct connection.'

Discover the new edition of The Shelf Life of Zora Cross by Cathy Perkins this #IWD2024. Order another book, enter the coupon code INTWD24 at the checkout, and you'll save 20% discount AND receive free shipping. Celebrate IWD with a good read or two ... publishing.monash.edu

Flexing a book signing bicep in the Library Shop

I was interviewed by Gabriella Kelly-Davies for her podcast Biographers in Conversation about writing The Shelf Life of Zora Cross Monash University Publishing - I appreciate Gabriella's love of biography as a genre and recommend her other interviews, on podcast platforms: biographersinconversation.com/s01e14-cathy-p…

Delighted to see three Inside Story contributors shortlisted for the #NSWPHA Australian History Prize…

Upcoming Friends of the Library talk at Sydney Uni Library by Cathy Perkins on Australian writer Zora Cross, who caused a sensation in 1917 with her poetry. Registration is free! usyd.libcal.com/event/5736626 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences SACE | School of Art, Communication and English

Sorting out footnotes is a kind of reverse striptease: 'She comes on stripped and dresses on stage' (Wireless Weekly, 13 December 1941, p6) nla.gov.au/nla.obj-718748…