Ramona Koval writing | Ramona Koval

A Letter to Layla: Travels to our deep past and near future.

Text Publishing, 2020

“Ramona Koval’s latest book is really a quest story: in it she sets out to find how humanity got to where we are now, and where we are going.”

“Throughout the book run conversations the author has with her grandchildren, particularly her youngest granddaughter, the eponymous and charming Layla, whose presence serves as a reminder of the generation that will inherit all our problems, and hopefully produce solutions to them.”

Books+Publishing

For What Has Been and What will Be – essay in Grandmothers: Essays by 21st-Century Grandmothers ,

Edited by Helen Elliott, Text Publishing, 2020

Goodbye and Good Luck – essay in Split: True Stories of Leaving, Loss and New Beginnings,

Edited by Lee Kofman, Ventura Press, 2019

Bloodhound: Searching for my Father

Text Publishing 2015.

“An intriguing and emotional journey, at times the memoir reads like a highly acclaimed literary mystery as Koval enlightens us in a very warm congenial tone. Identity and belonging and eventually the truth. Unputdownable, I savoured every page. A truly evocative read.” Clare Calvet, Nightlife, ABC Local Radio

Playing with Fire – Foreword to The Catherine Wheel by Elizabeth Harrower.

Text Classics, 2014

The Individual, the State, Mr Manne and Me essay in State of the Nation: Essays for Robert Manne,

Edited by Gwenda Tavan, Black Inc, 2013.

“In early 2013 La Trobe University held a conference in honour of Professor Robert Manne, at which papers were presented by thinkers Manne has worked or argued with, and whom he most admires. State of the Nation compiles these original essays. They include innovative explorations of multiculturalism, social democracy, the future for Labor and the challenge of climate change. This is a book that shows how Australia is faring, good and bad, as it enters a new era of politics.”

Sad as it was to lose her, if Ramona Koval had remained at ABC Radio National she would never had had the time to write By the Book: A Reader’s Guide to Life (Text Publishing), an irresistible study of the symbiotic relationship, for the bookish, between life and books. The subject matter ranges from the simplicities of childhood reading to the complexities of interviewing great writers. The voice is easily recognisable as the one we know from her decades in radio: generous, warm, and fearless.

Kerryn Goldsworthy

By the Book: A Reader’s Guide to Life,

Text Publishing, 2012

‘She’s a shining presence in the world of literature, here in Australia and right across the globe.’ ‘The book reads smoothly, it flows along from mood to mood, full of wit and beauty and grace.”Her voice is always recognisable, invigorating, familiar to us and greatly loved: the voice of [a] highly literate woman.’

Helen Garner

There are meditations on "reading the right book at the right time", on "reading while travelling" and "reading for money, reading for love". The excitement with which Koval still approaches each new book, plunging in "head first, heart deep", furnishes the last words of this urbane and enlightening work of her own.

Peter Pierce

Review from Reading Matters : ‘…this is a lovely book that entwines Ramona’s memories of growing up in Australia, heading to university, getting married, becoming a mother and pursuing a scientific, then literary career, with the books that have had an influence on her life.…I could keep on quoting endless chunks of this book, because I identified with so much of it — how we grow and change as readers over time, how we pursue certain themes and topics in our reading, how we learn and grow from what we discover and how literature expands our horizons. But I won’t, because you really need to read this book to see for yourself how brilliantly Ramona nails the relationship between a person’s life (and experiences) and the books that they read.'

The Best Australian Essays 2012

Edited by Ramona Koval, Black Inc., 2012

The Terrible Strength of Angels

Foreword to Cosmo Cosmolino by Helen Garner, Text Classics, 2012

This is a fascinating book, with flashes of brilliance and scenes of piercing truth. Helen Garner is never boring; she is always an artist. And this gorgeous Text Classics edition is well worth buying not just for its striking cover, but for Ramona Koval’s illuminating introduction, which includes insights from Garner herself and a reflection on Cosmo Cosmolino’s place within her body of work.