Thoughts on #PaulAuster's final novel #Baumgartner open.substack.com/pub/geoffreyga…

Looking back on some earlier book reviews. Here's something on #PaulAuster's #FourThreeTwoOne, a book I loved while also finding deeply unsettling, as I imagined Gates 4321 -- in the way that each of us have moments of forking paths. gatesyread.blogspot.com/2019/01/4321.h…

I’ve just released my new album, I’d love you to hear my stories: Willow & Rock open.spotify.com/album/1IV5EpvX…

#Question7 explores the life of a writer, the intersections of history & #RichardFlanagan's life, a near-death experience that haunts him as profoundly as his father’s suffering as a Japanese prisoner of war, and the fate of Tasmania’s Indigenous people gatesyread.blogspot.com/2024/06/questi…

If you are into Substack, I've posted my thoughts on #RichardFlanagan's latest novel #Question7 here: open.substack.com/pub/geoffreyga…

A little video clip for ‘Ballad of Charlie’ — second song on my new album. Goes out to all the troubled youth, and their teachers. #folk #singersongwriter #musicvideo youtu.be/fDeckKoGPLc?si… via YouTube

#TheFortunesofRichardMahoney has been sitting on my bookshelf for years. #HenryHandelRichardson’s first novel Maurice Guest (1908) I read once a decade. But it seemed overly long; the image on the cover looked too colonial. gatesyread.blogspot.com/2024/07/fortun…

The fact that #JavierMarías died in September 2022 has no doubt impacted on how I responded to his last novel. #BertaIsla may not to be everyone’s taste, but he was a writer at the height of his powers, with (one suspects) much more to say. gatesyread.blogspot.com/2024/07/berta-…

Taking some long service leave— that great Australian invention. First some time in the north of Europe and then walking the #CaminoDeSantiago. Travelling light with a light to heavy heart depending on the time of day ;) Currently in Hamburg where I spent 5 years in another life.

Drawing your attention to my just-released single, ‘This Goodbye’, which speaks about loss, and in another way, making the most of every day we have together. #singersongwriter #NewMusic #folksong #thisgoodbye open.spotify.com/album/71Z4RSFy…

Australia has become too great. So I’m starting a new movement: MAMA. Make Australia Mediocre Again. What colour for the hat? #makeaustraliamediocreagain #MAMA

Pretty thrilled to see my essay on two apocryphal modernists — #ernmalley and #juseptorrescampalans published in Australian Literary Studies just a few days before Christmas australianliterarystudies.com.au/articles/malle…

It takes skill to write a historical novel that feels present. It takes heart to make the story of one man’s life feel important so that the reader experiences vicariously the trials, tribulations and triumphs of one human being. #Limberlost review: gatesyread.blogspot.com/2024/...

80 years and counting since the publication of the incredible #ErnMalley poems. Here’s my essay in the latest edition of Australian Literary Studies, comparing to another #LiteraryHoax from Spain, #JusepTorresCampalans: australianliterarystudies.com.au/articles/malle…

My thoughts on #PaulAuster's 1990 novel #TheMusicofChance: something absurd in contemporary American life must have been foreseen in Auster’s terrible fables like this one. gatesyread.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-mu…

Today I visited the OECD in Paris as part of my NSW Premier's Teacher Scholarship exploring 'Creativity Across the Curriculum'. Thanks to Chris Minns. You can read about my visit here: open.substack.com/pub/creativity……

Visit to Learnlife: Positively changing education worldwide Barcelona as part of my NSW Premier's Teacher Scholarship investigating '#creativity across the curriculum: open.substack.com/pub/creativity…

There is quite a bit to explore here but a key takeaway from my visit to Thomas Tallis School is the development of both a whole school pedagogy and discipline-based threshold concepts. #creativity #progressiveschools open.substack.com/pub/creativity…

Visit to The BRIT School, Croydon. Stuart Worden, Headteacher: ‘The BRIT school believes that they [BRIT students] will change the world. And that we will create social change, that art is not just about commerce.’ open.substack.com/pub/creativity…

#ThePlains was once described by Ben Lerner as a ‘strange Australian masterpiece’, a novel that ‘can feel less like something you’ve read than something you’ve dreamed’ (The New Yorker, 29 March 2017). Here’s my thoughts on #geraldmurbane’s 1982 novel. gatesyread.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-pl…