Actor Claudia Karvan will explore the stories that have shaped our nation's identity in Books That Made Us, a three-part documentary premiering on Tuesday, November 23 at 8.30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview. She will meet Richard Flanagan, Alexis Wright, Helen Garner, Tim Winton, David Malouf, Kate Grenville, Christos Tsiolkas, Thomas Keneally, Liane Moriarty, Trent Dalton, Kim Scott, and Melissa Lucashenko.

The National Library of Australia is reopening its locations and events in stages. Reopening on Monday, November 15 will be the exhibition galleries (with a new, free exhibition, Illustrating the Antipodes: George French Angas in Australia and New Zealand 1844-1845) and the bookshop. From Monday, November 29, the Library's Main Reading Room and Special Collections Reading Room will be open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm. The Main Reading Room will open on Sunday from 1.30pm to 5pm. The Friends of the National Library Lounge will be open seven days from 10am to 5pm. Normal operating hours will resume early in 2022. For more information and updates, visit nla.gov.au.

Created by Red Room Poetry in partnership with The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan, Poem Forest recognises that young people want climate action and to have their voices heard. In this, its first year, the prize received more than 5000 entries, and as a result more than 5000 seedlings have been planted in the critically endangered Western Sydney Dry Rainforest and Cumberland Plain Woodland. From the entries, 108 poets have been shortlisted across seven prize categories spanning teachers and students from years K-12 from each state and territory across Australia. On the shortlist are Remember by Sophie N, Year 8, Daramalan College (ACT), Everywhere by Seb A, Year 8, Daramalan College (ACT) and A spell to grow a tree by Cooper L, Year 12, Gungahlin College (ACT). redroompoetry.org.

Finally, the Lifeline Book Fairs are returning (with COVID restrictions, of course). The next one is scheduled for December 17-19 at Thoroughbred Park; then comes the 50th birthday celebration Lifeline Book Fair on February 11-13, 2022. lifelinecanberra.org.au.

More competitions are listed on the ACT Writers Centre's website. The Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing (NPCW) is awarded every two years in the following categories: fiction; changing genre (this year it's poetry); and the Alan Marshall Short Story Award for the best short story in the open fiction category. Entries close November 7. The Blake Poetry Prize for works exploring the spiritual and religious (100 lines maximum) is open until November 15. More information: actwriters.org.

For consideration for Litbits, email litbits@canberratimes.com.au by 5pm Monday.

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