Literature and writing | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Literature and writing

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To the Reader Shakespeare

Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1612, (detail), nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2403507

Shakespeare the Reader: An Illustrated Lecture with ANU and Bell Shakespeare

See Dr Kate Flaherty and actors from Bell Shakespeare explore the link between the books that inspired Shakespeare and Shakespeare's own work.

Event
Video
Emma Smith Sitting
Shakespeare’s First Folio: From London to Australia and many points in between

Hear Oxford academic Professor Emma Smith, the world’s leading Shakespeare scholar, discuss Shakespeare’s First Folio as part of its 400 year anniversary.

Event
Video
Collection guide
Simon Collection

3,300 books and serial issues in a range of languages relating to Asian and European literature, politics, history, religion and more. 

Collection guide
Collection guide
Stead Collection

Papers of Christina Stead including diaries, manuscripts of her works, correspondence, personal documents, cuttings and photographs as well as papers of her biographers.

Collection guide
Troops stationed at the base of the Egyptian pyramids.

AG Stephens, Will Donald, Returned Soldiers Association of New South Wales and Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia, Anzac memorial , 1916, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-37362638

Stephens Collection

Manuscripts of poems and stories and letters from over 70 writers that Stephens assembled in the years in which he was editing the ‘Red Page’ of the Bulletin and later the Bookfellow.

Collection guide
Cover of the book 'Telling Lives'
Telling Lives: The Seymour Biography Lecture 2005-2023

Edited by Chris Wallace

Book
NLA Publishing book
Two men, one on a ladder, looking at books on large bookshelf at the State Library of Victoria

Mark Strizic, Searching for books at the State Library of Victoria, January 1967, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-140508667

The art of literary investigation

Learn how to uncover facts and colour from historical documents, manuscripts, newspapers and more.

Learning activity for adults
Video
Book cover for 'The Colt from Old Regret' which features illustrations of a brown horse and a white horse in the Australian bush
The Colt from Old Regret

Dianne Wolfer, illustrated by Erica Wagner

Book
In the foreground, spiky lizards climbing a broken computer, and in the background a large imposing red structure in front of a pink sky

Detail from cover of Aurealis Magazine, Issue 7, nla.cat-vn427048

The end of the world at the Library: Sci-Fi, dystopia, and Australian fiction

Explore some of the speculative fiction reads in the collection and how they can help future generations understand society in the time they were written.

Blog
Portrait of Judith Wright

Terry Milligan, Portrait of Judith Wright, c. 1998, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1891350

The environmental vision of Judith Wright with Prof John Morrissey

Join Prof John Morrissey for a discussion about his recent Fellowship research focused on the environmental writing of renowned Australian poet and author Judith Wright.

Event
Woman, Dr Christina Thompson, standing in the Special Collections Reading Room, leaning on a table with a large portrait on it and smiling

Dr Christina Thompson with Willaim Hodges, Otoo, King of Otaheite [i.e. Tahiti], 1773, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-134429610

The introduction of writing in Polynesia

Learn about Dr Christina Thompson's experience as a Creative Arts Fellow researching the introduction of writing in Polynesia.

Blog
bronze cast of Henry Lawson's hand

Nelson Illingworth, Cast of Henry Lawson's hand, ca. 1922 [realia], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-139632985

The poet of Australia

Topic

Henry Lawson is celebrated as one of Australia’s greatest poets. The Library’s collection of Henry Lawson realia helps contemporary Australians understand Lawson’s popularity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

Digital Classroom

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