What caught my literary eye this week.....

• This new (or perhaps I should say latest) illustrated edition of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. It looks gorgeous, and to be honest, I'm really a fan of anything or any edition that keeps pushing Peake's books into the limelight. When I first discovered this trilogy, and Peake's writing, in my first year of university, I felt like my mind had been blown open by the most intense amount of creativity and ideas and just plain gorgeous, amazing writing. How had I never heard of this man and his books before? These books, to me, are genius. I would even say illuminating. Cannot talk them up highly enough.
• Australian fantasy writer Sara Douglass passed away today, age 54. She was the author of the Axis trilogy and more than a dozen other books that have sold millions of copies worldwide. She twice won the Aurelius Award for Best Fantasy novel. Douglass was something of a queen in fantasy literature, but also an academic, and what I always loved the most, a woman who was more than willing to share with others her thoughts and advice on writing. She was one of the first authors I latched onto in my teens when I went through my fantasy-book stage (I still occassionally get resurges every now and then - but never as strong as I did then - the awesomeness of the LOTR movies has got something to answer for). Loved Douglass' characters, loved her attitude, loved her books, and love what she did for the Aussie fantasy genre.
• ABC radio station's plans to change the format of the The Book Show program, on Radio National. I hope they don't mess with it too much - Aussie radio needs that focus and coverage on books and literature. The Book Show helped make many early-morning work days that much more bearable and I would hate to see it messed around with.