Australian Book Review celebrates its fiftieth birthday this year. To mark this milestone, ABR, in association with the National Library of Australia, presented a free lecture by Emeritus Professor Ian Donaldson, Past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, at the NLA on Tuesday 25 October.

Professor Donaldson's "definitive" biography of Ben Jonson, Ben Jonson: A Life, is reviewed in The Guardian. He is a General Editor, with David Bevington and Martin Butler, of the forthcoming seven-volume Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson.

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The Academy is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Taking Stock: The Humanities in Australian Life since 1968 edited by Ian Donaldson and Mark Finnane, and published by University of Western Australia Publishing.

Taking Stock forms part of a larger exploration by the Academy – generously supported by the Australian Research Council through a Learned Academies Special Projects grant – of the role the humanities have played in Australian life since 1968. The volume features papers originally presented at the Academy’s Annual Symposium in 2009, reviewing shifts and developments of the humanities in Australia over the past four decades.

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The Australian Academy of the Humanities warmly congratulates poet Les Murray AO FAHA on winning the John Bray Poetry Award at the Adelaide Festival for his book Taller When Prone (2010), published by Black Inc.

Taller When Prone was also shortlisted for the 2010 Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize and the 2010 Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Prize for Poetry. It was included in the New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books List for 2011.

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The Academy congratulates Emeritus Professor J.V.S. Megaw AM FAHA who has been elected an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (founded in 1780). The Society allows a maximum of twenty-five Honorary Fellows who are recognised for their eminence in any branch of antiquarian study.

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The Academy congratulates four of its Fellows who have been awarded honours in the Australia Day 2012 Honours List: Professor Stuart Macintyre AO, Professor Peter McPhee AM, Emeritus Professor Roslyn Pesman AM, and Emeritus Professor Brian Fletcher OAM.

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The Academy offers its warmest congratulations to past President Professor Graeme Turner FAHA for his re-appointment to the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC).

Professor Turner is one of world's foremost authorities on cultural studies and media communications. He has extensive experience across research and higher education policy settings and has been a member of PMSEIC since 2008.

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Professor Tom Griffiths, Academy Fellow and Antarctic historian from the School of History, ANU, is participating in the Australian Antarctic Division’s centennial voyage to Mawson’s Huts at Commonwealth Bay which departed Hobart on 5 January 2012. The voyage celebrates Australia’s first expedition to Antarctica and Douglas Mawson’s legendary expedition of 1911 to 1914. You can follow Professor Griffiths' expedition blog here.

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Jaynie Anderson FAHA is the Principal Advisor to the National Gallery of Australia for the magnificent new exhibition, Renaissance.

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At the 2011 Annual General Meeting of the Academy of the Humanities, 20 new Fellows and 7 Honorary Fellows were elected.

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Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson AM FAHA was elected as President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities at the Annual General Meeting of the Fellows of the Academy on 19 November 2011.

Professor Johnson is only the second female President since the formation of the Academy in 1969.

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Professor Joseph Lo Bianco FAHA talks to Phillip Adams FAHA about the Academy's recent Educating the Nation symposium, the benefits of early bilingualism, and the role of the humanities in a 'borderless' world. A link to the podcast is here.

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The Academy offers its warm congratulations to Dr Rafe de Crespigny FAHA who has been awarded the Stanislas Julien Prize of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres for 2011 for his recent book, Imperial Warlord, a biography of Cao Cao 155-210.

The Académie, is the French counter-part of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. The prize has previously been awarded to Pierre Ryckmans in 1971 and to Mark Elvin in 2005, both Fellows of the Australian Academy.

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Leading publishers, booksellers, academics and librarians discussed the future for the academic book in Australia at a forum organised by the National Scholarly Communication Forum under the auspices of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

More information about the forum, including presentations, is available on the website.

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The Australian Academy of the Humanities' 2011 Trendall Lecture in Classical Studies will be presented by Professor Han Baltussen FAHA, at the University of Adelaide, 19 October 2011 from 7.00pm-8.00pm. To attend, please RSVP by 12 October to Jennifer Payne

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The Academy offers its warmest congratulations to John Tranter for winning the poetry category of the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for 2011 for his book Starlight: 150 poems (University of Queensland Press).

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Professor Marilyn Lake FAHA talks about the shape of Australian history, funding crises in Australian universities, and how a perspective informed by ‘long’ history and comparative cultural knowledge can help us respond to current policy debates.

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The Academy congratulates John Tranter FAHA for winning the 2011 The Age Poetry Book of the Year for Starlight: 150 Poems (UQP).

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On 10 August 2011 a delegation of Australian Parliamentarians visited the Clea Salavert Library in Lalomanu, Samoa to see first-hand the facilities enabled by the generous donations of Academy Fellows and friends and colleagues of the Salavert family. The Academy is grateful to the Australian Government for their continuous encouragement and support of the Clea Salavert Library.

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The Academy offers its warm congratulations to Professor Nicholas Evans FAHA who has been elected by the British Academy as a Corresponding Fellow.

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The Academy congratulates two of its Fellows, shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards: historian Tim Bonyhady for Good Living Street: The Fortunes of My Viennese Family, and poet John Tranter for Starlight: 150 poems.

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The Academy welcomes the launch of the Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities (LCNAU) which aims to raise the profile of language educators and public awareness of the cultural, strategic and economic importance of language education for Australia.

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The Academy congratulates three of its Fellows who have been awarded honours in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list: Graeme Davison AO, John Burrows AM, Chris Wallace-Crabbe AM.

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The Australian Academy of the Humanities warmly welcomes the establishment of the Hong Kong Academy of Humanities. As the peak body representing humanities academia in Hong Kong, it aims to promote outstanding scholarly achievements of the territory through meaningful engagement and cooperation with similar institutions internationally.

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On Thursday 5 May 2011, from 5pm to 6pm, Tim Bonyhady's book Good Living Street will be officially launched at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra by the Director of the NMA, Andrew Sayers AM. This event is free, but book ahead of time.

Through the eyes of three generations of his family, renowned author and historian Tim Bonyhady FAHA will take us on a fascinating journey from the glittering salons of Vienna to the harbourside suburb of Sydney's Cremorne.

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