Literary critic and poet Sarah Holland-Batt reviews the anticipated second novels from two award-winning Australian authors.

Australian poet and writer Philip Salom shares the works that inspire him for Top Shelf.

The Owl and the Pussy Cat by Edward Lear was voted Britain's favourite poem in 2014. British author Jenny Uglow speaks about her new biography of the poet and artist, Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense.

Lubaina Himid is the the oldest and the first black woman to win the famous visual arts prize.

Jonathan Holloway, Melbourne Festival's artistic director, is obsessed with American cabaret star Taylor Mac

The golden sandstone of Sydney, reimagined in the early days of white settlement.

Find out what's on children's author and illustrator Sally Rippin's Top Shelf.

Mark Johnston is pushing to establish a Veterans' Art Museum, an art gallery where we see not the official story of war but the stories and the struggles of the men and women who put on the uniform and who have paid a price for their service.

It's snowing outside, and three people are telling each other their life stories in Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende's latest novel In the Midst of Winter.

RN Science Friction presenter Natasha Mitchell with her best read for the year: Oliver Sack's posthumous collection of essays The River of Consciousness.