Martin Shaw
Literary agent @shawliterary.bsky.social, formerly head book buyer at Readings Books, Melbourne. Kafka, Sebald, the Antipodes.
- Fantastic @audioculturenz.bsky.social piece this by novelist Damien Wilkins on 7 terrific Kiwi artists/bands www.audioculture.co.nz/articles/dam...
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- Reposted by Martin ShawClearly it’s time to appoint a permanent officer in the government to look over all the festival programs. Some fellow in a centralised office where all the art can be submitted beforehand, to make sure it’s socially cohesive. Some kind of Chief Approver, if you like www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
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- Just been merrily drinking a wine at a restaurant that was setting me back 20 euros a glass (as I said "yes absolutely!" to a 0,2 L glass, which seemingly costs double!). Though is cause for me to discover the German phrase "ausgenommen wie eine Weihnachtsgans" = taken to the cleaners!
- Reposted by Martin ShawBezos has killed the Washington Post's books pages. John Williams is a mensch, and a good and loyal friend, to me, to @backlisted.bsky.social and to anyone who loves literature and reading. Now more than ever, you know where not to buy your books, or anything else for that matter.
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- Reposted by Martin ShawConstellations first programming announcements are out! www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
- A glorious expression of literary people power: onya Adelaide! www.theage.com.au/culture/book...
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- The Auflauf is here! A new literary soufflé/gathering/riot (take your pick!) from some fine young littérateurs in Berlin (refugees too of the Berliner magazine's ethical implosion last year). Do subscribe! theauflauf.substack.com/p/february-b...
- Delighted to share that @minon.bsky.social has been shortlisted for this year's MUD Literary Prize! Judges: "...is the novel with the most audacious premise: Stephen Bolin, pronounced dead, escapes from the hospital morgue and sets out to walk back to his birthplace" www.uqp.com.au/blog/first-n...
- "A literary culture disaggregated from the contemporary world consigns itself to utter irrelevance – and yet in Albanese's Australia, the fantasy of an apolitical cultural sector seems to have been installed as de facto cultural policy." @catrionamp.bsky.social infra-dig.ghost.io/hard-surface...
- Dude who's written 8 novels in 15 years for Diogenes - a highly regarded, big Swiss indie press - has decided now he's turned 60 that he will no longer write, and drive trams instead (Germany once had that idea that writing could be your job, but that has changed I think) www.fr.de/kultur/gesel...
- First they came for Randa, now Aviva it seems... www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/com...
- Nice to see Laura & Sam in as regulars at the book reviews desk @kydmagazine.bsky.social www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/intr...
- Marvellous to see @augustasupple.com’s latest project - after last year’s splendid inaugural “Parramatta’s Lit!” festival - just around the corner: the “Parramatta Play Project” parramattaplayproject.com?utm_source=i...
- "the State Library’s LinkedIn profile would have to concede ‘a proven track record of abysmal relationships with commercial partners as well as staff, and a highly-developed capacity for trashing their brand name and alienating the public." Gideon Haigh on Mr Tulk www.cricketetal.com/p/whats-stil...
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- How bizarre: Epstein offered to fund a proposed book by Brian Boyd on Lolita newsroom.co.nz/2026/02/01/a...
- “Mount Maunganui landslides: Locals and visitors speak of loss, grief and coming together.” Very touching reportage this…I too found myself really nourished by Mauao when I was there last
- Reposted by Martin Shawwunderbares neues Verb für zahllose Hausarbeiten über die strukturelle Integration von Anglizismen
- Reposted by Martin ShawOh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice Singing through the bloody mist We’ll take our stand for this land And the stranger in our midst Directed by Thom Zimny Edited by Thom Zimny and Samuel Shapiro Production Footage: Pam Springsteen and Thom Zimny
- This makes @minon.bsky.social's forthcoming "Make Them Say Poo" feel particularly timely! www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Make-T...
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- And out this May, I should have said!
- "In the last 200 years, Australia has lost more biodiversity than any other developed nation..." Lovely to spot @justinehausheer.bsky.social's non-fiction debut, The Vanishing Wild: Australian Wildlife and the Fight Against Extinction @newsouthpublishing.bsky.social! unsw.press/books/the-va...
- Reposted by Martin ShawI wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free
- Delighted to have 2 books on the l/list for NZ's top fic award, the Ockham's! @catherinechidgey.bsky.social's Book of Guilt (in OZ via PRH) and @ingridhorrocks.bsky.social's All Her Lives (in April via UQP; isn't it nice the Kiwis allow story collections to qualify?!) newsroom.co.nz/2026/01/29/p...
- "In the last 200 years, Australia has lost more biodiversity than any other developed nation..." Lovely to spot @justinehausheer.bsky.social's non-fiction debut, The Vanishing Wild: Australian Wildlife and the Fight Against Extinction @newsouthpublishing.bsky.social! unsw.press/books/the-va...
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- Announced today: the "The Oz Publishing and Promotion Fund" to "support publishers who take creative risks in discovering, developing & promoting Oz writers" + "payments to authors of niche titles with limited commercial potential despite high cultural or lit value" creative.gov.au/investments-...
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- Reposted by Martin ShawFor all you beautiful folks ordering books from us.
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- Jen Craig in 2016 on "The sometimes pride of your invisible writing" (thanks to Reuben Mackey for the heads-up!) absurdenticements.blogspot.com/2016/09/invi...
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- “…the sensitivity is so extreme that representatives from Melbourne and Sydney Writers’ Festivals declined to be interviewed for this story”. Certainly going to be a litmus test for Oz culture come May… www.theage.com.au/culture/book...
- The way things are going you wouldn’t half mind being beamed up, I reckon! Delighted to receive agent copies today of Brendan Colley’s divine second novel, out in April from @transitlounge.bsky.social
- Wonder how this one will get on with OZ's new hate speech laws?😂 (from Ultimo in May...)
- From @genesegrill.bsky.social: "It is astonishing to experience Musil experiencing and trying to describe the new phenomena of Robert Walser and Franz Kafka here, fresh, unprepared, astonished." genesegrill.substack.com/p/musils-191...
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- Also spotted: first mention of Wayne Marshall’s glorious Henry Goes Bush, in May from Picador! www.theaustralian.com.au/culture/from...
- Excited to see the first mention of Linda’s debut in the OZ’s 2026 wrap! Official announcement still to come, but one of the biggest discoveries of my agenting career I reckon - Linda is the real deal! www.theaustralian.com.au/culture/from...
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- Reposted by Martin ShawWE WANT YOUR PROSE—submit now to read at our Feb 21 Lettrétage event about Christa Wolf (and her post-Wall writing e.g. One Day A Year). Send us some short prose in any language about the day, the daily, the recurring date, everyday politics. We will print a zine! sites.google.com/view/mayroec...
- Reposted by Martin ShawSome sad news
- "Peter Malinauskas now holds the dubious position in Australian history as the man who attempted to uphold social cohesion and his own moral reputation while simultaneously destroying both" @ronnisalt.bsky.social theshot.net.au/uncategorize...
- Congrats to amongst others @jeffsparrow1.bsky.social, nominated for the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship for his biography of Lesbia Harford! (Also, @lancerichardson.bsky.social in Melbourne town in March!) hazelrowley.com/news/
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- “It’s not everyone you’re not lonely with”. Magic little para in Eimear McBride’s Lesser Bohemians…
- That's cute: there's a book of letters to the editor by, and about, Thomas Bernhard
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- Reposted by Martin ShawItalian voice actor Carlo Bononi was the voice of all of the characters on Pingu. A trained clown by trade, he used a theater technique called grammelot, which consists of "speaking" in a mix of babbled gibberish noises. He improvised all the voices live and unscripted.
- Reposted by Martin ShawWhether it's illegal to say it or not (?), Israel is quite clearly committing genocide in Palestine. The Australian government (but not the Australian people) is quite clearly supporting it. And our farce of a democracy is being further eroded so people don't speak this truth.
- Have been finding this book a fascinating read (eyewitness accounts, edited by Tim Flannery), particularly in terms of early British interactions with the local indigenous tribes. This sort of thing too:
- "I do love the way you talk about your books. Your pitch for this one is characteristically excellent" Not often you get a "good job" in agenting, outside of the simple selling aspect. And I do try hard to write a good letter! So this in reply to a submission today - I really appreciate! #agentlife
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- Reposted by Martin ShawWe are shattered and grieving the loss of our brother Rob. For now there are no words but there will always be songs. Love Always from Jim, Martin & Pete.
- Reposted by Martin ShawI like that the same day a guy was like “this place will never be Twitter” this thread gave us the most 2015 Twitter experience (complimentary) imaginable.
- "As we have seen, defending the right of people to speak, even when we deeply disagree with them, is very, very difficult. Nor is it sensible to expect it of everyone. But we must demand it of the custodians of our culture. This is the way forward". V good this... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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- Submitter who links to their on-average 2-star Goodreads reviews is quite the flex!
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- The Australia & New Zealand Film Festival on in London at the end of the month (tempting!) www.fanza.org/events/austr...
- This sounds very unfun!
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- Reposted by Martin Shaw"Wenn man die Lage Polens auf dem Globus anschaut, sind die vom Deutschen Reich gestellten Fragen übrigens nachvollziehbar." Was für ein wahnsinnig gefährlicher Trottel!
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- Raymond Carver came to Sydney in ‘85? I don’t think I knew this. From Helen Garner’s diaries.
- Lovely to see @magistrabeck.bsky.social now here!
- Reposted by Martin ShawFam, I may have just achieved my final form. I just handsold Close Reading in the 21st Century to... ... ... JAMES FUCKING WOOD!!!!
