Arts editor HELEN MUSA reckons the Super Rats will be in full swing for a couple of shows later this month… here’s this week’s “Arts in the City” column…

CANBERRA’S lively Romanian-style band Super Rats is promising a concert of hard-luck music, prison songs, flower-sellers with roving eyes and dances from the backstreets of Bucharest, played on the cimbalom, along with “blistering accordion, sinuous violin, and rumbling double bass”. At Smith’s Alternative, Civic, Saturday, October 24, 7pm and 8.30pm. Book at smithsalternative.com

THREE Canberra-produced shows have been nominated for the 53rd “AWGIE” (Australian Writers’ Guild) awards, to be announced in December: Alana Valentine’s libretto for composer Sandra France’s “Flight Memory”, commissioned and produced by The Street; former Canberran Katie Pollock for “Normal”, to be staged by Canberra Youth Theatre this month; and Grace De Morgan’s play “Collapse”, commissioned and presented last year by Youth Theatre.

“HEAD to Head” is an exhibition of ceramics by Steve Roper, revolving around the imagination, the subconscious, and personal expression, showing alongside “Lost and Found”, vessels by Robert Linigen following the loss of his home and studio in the 2013 bushfires, which explore the human experience of loss, rebuilding and regrowth. At Canberra Potters, Watson, until November 1.

SARA Dowse’s first novel, “West Block”, is set in 1977, two years after “The Dismissal”, sees five bureaucrats in West Block recovering from the shock of Gough Whitlam’s dismissal while grappling with the mechanics of power. Originally published by Penguin in 1983, it saw Dowse draw on her experience in government as inaugural head of the first women’s office in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Now, as the real building is slated to become a boutique hotel, a new edition of “West Block” has been released by For Pity Sake Publishing in hard back and audio. More at forpitysake.com.au/store

CASSETTE Connection is a new podcast featuring an in-depth artist profile and the first episodes have seen, among other Canberra music identities, musical star Kirrah Amosa, bassist and composer Brendan Keller-Tuberg and Benjamin Drury, who has performed for the Canberra International Music Festival and You Are Here. Follow the podcasts at cassetteconnection.podbean.com