Literary critic Susan Lever is general editor of the Cambria Australian Literature Series. She is writing a biography of the poet A.D. Hope.
 Books & arts
      
        
      A kind of elegy
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      27 June 2025    
    
      An award-winning memoir honours cultures old and new
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      A kind of elegy
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      27 June 2025    
    
      An award-winning memoir honours cultures old and new
    
  
                
                       Books & arts
      
        
      Don’t turn your back on the play
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      15 January 2025    
    
      Helen Garner reminds us that there are beginnings as well as ends
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Don’t turn your back on the play
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      15 January 2025    
    
      Helen Garner reminds us that there are beginnings as well as ends
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Epistolary lives
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      16 May 2024    
    
      Forty years of correspondence illuminates the careers of two important Australian writers
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Epistolary lives
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      16 May 2024    
    
      Forty years of correspondence illuminates the careers of two important Australian writers
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      A fragment of a life
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      28 March 2024    
    
      Charmian Clift’s most ambitious but unfinished work illuminates her childhood in coastal New South Wales
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      A fragment of a life
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      28 March 2024    
    
      Charmian Clift’s most ambitious but unfinished work illuminates her childhood in coastal New South Wales
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Writing life
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      3 January 2024    
    
      A new biography of Frank Moorhouse approaches its subject differently
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Writing life
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      3 January 2024    
    
      A new biography of Frank Moorhouse approaches its subject differently
    
  
                   Books & arts
      
        
      Grand days
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      1 September 2023    
    
      Frank Moorhouse’s first biographer captures a life in motion
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Grand days
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      1 September 2023    
    
      Frank Moorhouse’s first biographer captures a life in motion
    
  
                
                       Books & arts
      
        
      With sojourns in Italy
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      20 December 2022    
    
      How Shirley Hazzard resisted provincialism
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      With sojourns in Italy
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      20 December 2022    
    
      How Shirley Hazzard resisted provincialism
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      When Betty took over the Pram Factory
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      11 October 2022    
    
      Kath Kenny’s intergenerational account of a key moment in Australian theatre
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      When Betty took over the Pram Factory
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      11 October 2022    
    
      Kath Kenny’s intergenerational account of a key moment in Australian theatre
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Good-natured revenge
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      1 December 2021    
    
      Despite his critics, David Williamson created a remarkable body of popular work
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Good-natured revenge
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      1 December 2021    
    
      Despite his critics, David Williamson created a remarkable body of popular work
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Feeding the machine
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      11 October 2021    
    
      In what ways did the typewriter affect how — and how much — writers wrote?
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Feeding the machine
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      11 October 2021    
    
      In what ways did the typewriter affect how — and how much — writers wrote?
    
  
                   Books & arts
      
        
      A hard nut in the centre
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      18 December 2020    
    
      Books | A writer’s complex life emerges in Helen Garner’s diaries
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      A hard nut in the centre
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      18 December 2020    
    
      Books | A writer’s complex life emerges in Helen Garner’s diaries
    
  
                
                       Books & arts
      
        
      On the offensive
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      5 November 2020    
    
      Books | Are Australians unusually prone to bad language?
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      On the offensive
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      5 November 2020    
    
      Books | Are Australians unusually prone to bad language?
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Imaginative affinities
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      10 September 2020    
    
      Books | Australian modernist literature looks a little different through an international lens
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Imaginative affinities
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      10 September 2020    
    
      Books | Australian modernist literature looks a little different through an international lens
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         From the archive
      
        
      What more can we expect?
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      21 July 2020    
    
      Elizabeth Harrower’s fiction vividly evokes mid-twentieth-century Australia
      
    
  
  
          
        From the archive
      
        
      What more can we expect?
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      21 July 2020    
    
      Elizabeth Harrower’s fiction vividly evokes mid-twentieth-century Australia
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Farmer-poet among friends
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      14 July 2020    
    
      Books | A new biography traces the works and days of poet David Campbell
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Farmer-poet among friends
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      14 July 2020    
    
      Books | A new biography traces the works and days of poet David Campbell
    
  
                   Books & arts
      
        
      TV drama and the revival of Australian theatre and film
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      2 June 2020    
    
      Did Australian drama really go missing during the 1960s, as the standard accounts of theatre history assume?
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      TV drama and the revival of Australian theatre and film
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      2 June 2020    
    
      Did Australian drama really go missing during the 1960s, as the standard accounts of theatre history assume?
    
  
                
                       Books & arts
      
        
      The conditions of art
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      22 April 2020    
    
      Books | Award-winning biographer Brenda Niall throws fresh light on four intriguing women writers
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The conditions of art
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      22 April 2020    
    
      Books | Award-winning biographer Brenda Niall throws fresh light on four intriguing women writers
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Deeper truths
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      6 April 2020    
    
      Books | What can novels tell us about how political ideas circulate?
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Deeper truths
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      6 April 2020    
    
      Books | What can novels tell us about how political ideas circulate?
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Rich world’s folly
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      19 November 2019    
    
      Books | Andrew McGahan was a talented writer with a strong ethical sense who never took himself too seriously
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Rich world’s folly
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      19 November 2019    
    
      Books | Andrew McGahan was a talented writer with a strong ethical sense who never took himself too seriously
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Whatever happened to Australian literature?
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      29 October 2019    
    
      The scrapping of Sydney University’s professorship has great symbolic importance
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Whatever happened to Australian literature?
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      29 October 2019    
    
      The scrapping of Sydney University’s professorship has great symbolic importance
    
  
                   Books & arts
      
        
      Ghosted
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      13 August 2019    
    
      Books | Two women’s experience of deafness, a century apart
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Ghosted
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      13 August 2019    
    
      Books | Two women’s experience of deafness, a century apart
    
  
                
                       Books & arts
      
        
      The decade of thinking dangerously
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      8 March 2019    
    
      The 1970s saw the rise of women as a political constituency in Australia
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The decade of thinking dangerously
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      8 March 2019    
    
      The 1970s saw the rise of women as a political constituency in Australia
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Saint Germaine
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      7 December 2018    
    
      Elizabeth Kleinhenz explores the contradictions of Australia’s most famous feminist
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Saint Germaine
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      7 December 2018    
    
      Elizabeth Kleinhenz explores the contradictions of Australia’s most famous feminist
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Going back to where we came from
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      5 October 2018    
    
      Do Sydney’s theatre audiences yearn for the city of old?
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Going back to where we came from
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      5 October 2018    
    
      Do Sydney’s theatre audiences yearn for the city of old?
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Writers over America
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      25 September 2018    
    
      Books | Critics and readers in the United States played a little-known role in the history of Australian fiction
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Writers over America
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      25 September 2018    
    
      Books | Critics and readers in the United States played a little-known role in the history of Australian fiction
    
  
                   Books & arts
      
        
      Her mother’s secrets
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      13 July 2018    
    
      Books | Nadia Wheatley discovers her mother’s two great loves
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Her mother’s secrets
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      13 July 2018    
    
      Books | Nadia Wheatley discovers her mother’s two great loves
    
  
                
                       Essays & reportage
      
        
      Royal drama, with variations
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      6 June 2018    
    
      A wedding, four plays and a TV series — do the British have something to teach us about scrutinising power?
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      Royal drama, with variations
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      6 June 2018    
    
      A wedding, four plays and a TV series — do the British have something to teach us about scrutinising power?
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Writers writing about writers and writing
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      18 December 2017    
    
      Books | Publishers seem to prefer other writers — rather than critics — to write about writers
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Writers writing about writers and writing
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      18 December 2017    
    
      Books | Publishers seem to prefer other writers — rather than critics — to write about writers
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Knocked sideways by luck
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      31 July 2017    
    
      Three writers explore the mixed inheritances that helped fuel their work
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Knocked sideways by luck
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      31 July 2017    
    
      Three writers explore the mixed inheritances that helped fuel their work
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
         Books & arts
      
        
      Reaping what was sown
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      4 May 2017    
    
      An unconventional history shows us personal and emotional engagements with the history of the WA wheatbelt
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Reaping what was sown
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      4 May 2017    
    
      An unconventional history shows us personal and emotional engagements with the history of the WA wheatbelt    
  
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