READING LIKE A CRITIC with Beejay Silcox
THREE DECADES OF WRITING, REIMAGINED FOR TODAY
10am - 4pm, Saturday 27 September
Harry Hartog ANU Campus
COST Members: $90, Non-members: $110
About Reading Like a Critic:
A critic is more than an incisive reader; they are a bridge-builder, connecting text, history, author, and audience. In this day-long workshop, you’ll step inside a new Australian novel with a trusted critic as your guide. Together, you’ll uncover how a work reflects its moment, speaks across time, and reveals the author’s practice – the choices and risks that shape their storytelling. You’ll also learn to move beyond taste into the language of craft, to balance subjectivity with objectivity, and to unlock a text for other readers. Whether you want to begin your own critical practice, or deepen your reading, this immersive day of book-talk will connect you to the larger conversation that literature makes possible.
Beejay Silcox is a book critic. Her work appears in high-profile publications across three continents, and is celebrated for its resolute – some might say foolhardy – honesty. She has been described as “the most significant new Australian critic in decades". Beyond the page, she is a literary polymath: interviewer, prize judge, manuscript doctor, festival programmer, and award-winning creative writing educator. Beejay has stories to tell; she eloped to Las Vegas, escaped quicksand, and was once rescued from a picnic at Hanging Rock.
For this program, participants will be asked to read Arborescence by Rhett Davis (Hachette). The book is available to purchase through Harry Hartog ANU or to borrow from your local library. You can also hear Rhett discuss his work on ABC Radio National’s The Bookshelf (7 August) — listen here
Rhett Davis is from the Wadawurrung Country of Geelong and its nearby coastal towns. His debut novel, Hovering, won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2020, and was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction. Rhett lives in Geelong with his partner and two talkative cats.