Further south, in a major new venture for the magazine, Peter Porter – one of the finest poets writing in English, and another regular contributor to ABR – will inaugurate the La Trobe University/ABR Annual Lecture, his topic being ‘The Survival of Poetry’. Full details appear on page 13. ABR subscribers are entitled to attend gratis (the cost for non-subscribers is $10), but bookings are essential, as this event will almost certainly sell out. We will publish Peter Porter’s lecture in the October issue.

Early last month, ABR attended, and greatly enjoyed, the Mildura–Wentworth Writers’ Festival, which attracted writers such as Peter Goldsworthy, Les Murray and David Malouf. La Trobe University, a sponsor of the Mildura–Wentworth Arts Festival, was represented, too. Professor Michael Osborne, the Vice-Chancellor, conferred an honorary doctorate on the Spanish writer Alfredo Condé, who then delivered a lecture in the salubrious Mildura Club. In October, the celebrated Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa (pictured above in 1993, during his previous visit to the university) will deliver lectures at two La Trobe campuses: Bundoora and Mildura.

Traffic is bound to be congested on 5 September, when Professor Peter Doherty launches the first issue of this twice-yearly interdisciplinary postgraduate journal in the Gryphon Gallery, Graduate House, at the University of Melbourne. Contributors include Denise Harrison, Susan Hawthorne and Alison Lilley. All of them are in the running for the Traffic Prize, worth $1000, to be presented by Professor Peter McPhee.

Wagga Wagga Writers Writers invite everyone to the launch of Take It As Red: A Collection of Stories and Poems from Young Regional Writers, which will happen at the Wagga Wagga City Library on 7 September. There is one condition: guests are asked to wear something red.

Our September 11 Symposium has attracted many lively contributions, none more so than Richard Neville’s (page 43). Neville will discuss his latest book, Amerika Psycho: Behind Uncle Sam’s Mask of Sanity, at Readings on 17 September. John Martinkus, another contributor to this issue, will appear at Readings on 20 September, when he will discuss his Quarterly Essay, Paradise Betrayed, with Tim Flannery.

Brenda Niall will discuss her book on the Boyds at the Sydney Institute (41 Phillip Street) at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, 17 September.

Barrett Reid (1926–95) – poet, librarian, editor and critic – a substantial collection of modern art to Heide, where he lived for many years. (He is photographed above, left, with Sunday Reed and Laurence Hope, in 1946.) The current exhibition, ‘Making It New: The Barrett Reid Bequest to Heide’, runs until the end of November. On 8 September, Peter Burns, artist and architect, will give a talk entitled ‘Meeting and Working with Barrett Reid’.

Canberrans may be interested in ‘International Perspectives on Reconciliation’, a seminar organised by the Freilich Foundation, Reconciliation Australia and the National Library of Australia. This all-day seminar will take place at the Library on 21 September. Five days later, Fred Chaney will deliver this year’s Kenneth Myer Lecture at the National Library of Australia, at 6 p.m. His subject will be ‘Achieving a Fairer Australia’.