MELBOURNE
Melbourne Writers Festival
Sat 4 Sep, 11-12pm: In Conversation (Turkish)
Sat 4 Sep, 2.30-3.30pm: In Conversation with Arnold Zable
Sun 5 Sep, 2.30-3.30pm: On the Ground: Treating Conflict and Trauma with Integrity
Sun 5 Sep, 5.30-8pm: Poetry of Rebellion
Bookings: www.mwf.com.au

Other
Wed 8 Sep, 4-5pm: Victorian Women's Trust @ Queen Victoria Building, 4th Floor 210 Lonsdale Street, $10/$5, rsvp: janya@vwt.org.au or 9642 0422
Sun 12 Sep, 6.30-8.30pm: Melbourne PEN @ The Wheeler Centre - Dialogues conversation, bookings: admin@melbournepen.com.au

SYDNEY
Thur 9 Sep, 12-2pm: Centre for Peace Studies & Conflict, Rm 107 Mackie Bldg, Univ Sydney, 9351 7686 or arts_cpacs@sydney.edu.au
Fri 10 Sep, 6 for 6.30pm: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe, $10/$7

A number of music industry figures, such as Kate Ceberano and Kylie Minogue's former producer Mike Stock, have come out against the increasingly sexualised nature of music clips. Getting Real editor Melinda Tankard Reist and contributor Julie Gale also have their say in this Herald Sun story.

A great review of Gail Dines' Pornland in The Boston Globe. Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality is out Oct 6 in Australia.

A great opinion piece by Jo Case in response to an article on "whingeing mums" by Jacinta Tynan in last weekend's Sunday Life.

Melinda Tankard Reist on comments by Alannah Hill on the DJs sexual harassment lawsuit in our latest blogpost.

Sandy Jeffs has been shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year Award (non-fiction) for her autobiography, Flying with Paper Wings: Reflections on Living with Madness. Spinifex has published three collections of poetry by Sandy beginning in 1993 with the best-selling Poems from the Madhouse (now in its third printing). Blood Relations (2000)  and The Wings of Angels: A Memoir of Madness (2004) followed. All of us at Spinifex congratulate Sandy Jeffs for this wonderful achievement.

Cordite Poetry Review's latest issue is about Creative Commons. Spinifex director Susan Hawthorne has posted an essay on her take, "Poetic Commons", that talks about Suniti Namjoshi's Building Babylon, among other things.

There are plenty of other essays up exploring this fascinating (and contentious) topic. Click over to the Cordite site to explore some of the other perspectives.

Judy Horacek currently posts cartoons to her website each month according to a theme. This month's theme is 'Families' and contains plenty of cartoons selected from Life on the Edge, as well as her other books.

Sandy Jeffs is featured in this year's New Voices, sponsored by the Eltham Bookshop.

Sandy will be in conversation with Autistic writer, musician, playwright Donna
Williams in the session 'Weirdos like Me' at 2pm on Saturday 31st July.

New Voices 2010
Location: St Margaret’s Anglican Church Hall, Pitt Street, Eltham
Entry: $7 per session. Full festival $30, lunch: $10

Bookings are essential for each session: 9439 8700
ELTHAMbookshop@bigpond.com or 970 Main Road, Eltham

Spinifex Press congratulates Lesley Thomson for winning the 2009 People's Book Prize for her book A Kind of Vanishing. You can find out more about the prize at the People's Book Prize website.