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AustLit

Southern Cross University
NSW

Works Taught at This Institution

y separately published work icon All My Mob Ruby Langford Ginibi , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2007 Z1381114 2007 selected work autobiography (taught in 3 units)

'This ... collection of stories features a foreword by Dr Pam Johnston that places Ruby’s anecdotes in the context of a country which seems incapable of healing its past or of creating a better future for Indigenous people. Featuring the best stories from Ruby’s Real Deadly, plus many unpublished gems dating as far back as 1992, All My Mob’s portrayal of family life, ‘home’, and life as an Aborigine in today’s Australia is fascinating, often confronting and unforgettable.' (Source: UQP website: www.uqp.uq.edu.au)
y separately published work icon The Amazing True Story of How Babies Are Made Fiona Katauskas , Fiona Katauskas (illustrator), Sydney South : HarperCollins Australia , 2015 9115482 2015 single work picture book children's (taught in 1 units)

'The new Australian go-to book for parents wanting help with THAT talk ...

'It's one of the most amazing stories ever told - and it's true!

Funny, frank and embarrassment-free, THE AMAZING TRUE STORY OF HOW BABIES ARE MADE gives a fresh take on the incredible tale of where we all come from.' (Publication summary)
y separately published work icon And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda Eric Bogle , Bruce Whatley (illustrator), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2015 8283492 2015 single work picture book (taught in 1 units)

'But the band played 'Waltzing Matilda' when we stopped to bury our slain. We buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs; then we started all over again.

'Eric Bogle's famous and familiar Australian song about the Battle of Gallipoli explores the futility of war with haunting power. Now Bruce Whatley's evocative illustrations bring a heart-rending sense of reality to the tale.

'A timely story for every generation to share.' (Publication summary)
y separately published work icon Before You Met Me Alan Close , North Sydney : Random House Australia , 2008 Z1468173 2008 single work autobiography (taught in 1 units) 'No matter how hard he tried, Alan Close couldn't stay in a relationship. Then, at the age of 43, after yet another breakup, he decided he was going to find out what was going wrong and make a change. What followed was a painful yet ultimately revelatory process of looking back into the past - where memories of his childhood and early relationships where darkened by a long-forgotten secret he had failed to admit even to himself. Beautifully written, in a narrative that is utterly compelling, this is a non-fiction first - a male memoir about relationships that is impossible to put down, sure to hold up a mirror to male readers and provide a rare insight to women.' (Publisher's blurb)
y separately published work icon Books in the Life of a Child : Bridges to Literature and Learning H. M. Saxby , South Melbourne : Macmillan , 1997 Z937263 1997 single work criticism (taught in 1 units)
y separately published work icon Carpentaria Alexis Wright , Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2006 Z1184902 2006 single work novel (taught in 47 units) Carpentaria's portrait of life in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance centres on the powerful Phantom family, whose members are the leaders of the Pricklebush people, and their battles with old Joseph Midnight's tearaway Eastend mob on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other. Wright's storytelling is operatic and surreal: a blend of myth and scripture, politics and farce. The novel is populated by extraordinary characters - Elias Smith the outcast saviour, the religious zealot Mozzie Fishman, leader of the holy Aboriginal pilgrimage, the murderous mayor Stan Bruiser, the ever-vigilant Captain Nicoli Finn, the activist and prodigal son Will Phantom, and above all, Angel Day the queen of the rubbish-dump, and her sea-faring husband Normal Phantom, the fish-embalming king of time - figures that stand like giants in this storm-swept world. (Backcover)
y separately published work icon The Cleo Stories : A Friend and a Pet Libby Gleeson , Freya Blackwood (illustrator), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2015 9003244 2015 selected work picture book children's (taught in 1 units)

'In this delightful companion to The Cleo Stories: The Necklace and the Present, Cleo comes up with ingenious ways to make a new friend and find a pet.

'Cleo's best friend is away, her parents are busy, and there's nothing to do but count raindrops - or tidy her room. Just when she thinks she'll never cheer up, Cleo has an idea. In the next story, Cleo longs for a pet but her mum and dad say no. Perhaps the answer is hidden somewhere unexpected.

'Two more endearing stories about Cleo, the little girl with a big imagination who always finds a way to have fun, from the creators of The Cleo Stories: The Necklace and the Present.' (Publication summary)
y separately published work icon Cloudwish Fiona Wood , Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2015 8775290 2015 single work novel young adult (taught in 1 units)

'For Vân Uoc Phan, fantasies fell into two categories: nourishing, or pointless. Daydreaming about Billy Gardiner, for example? Pointless. It always left her feeling sick, as though she'd eaten too much sugar.

'Vân Uoc doesn't believe in fairies, zombies, vampires, Father Christmas - or magic wishes. She believes in keeping a low profile: real life will start when school finishes.

'But when she attracts the attention of Billy Gardiner, she finds herself in an unwelcome spotlight.

'Not even Jane Eyre can help her now.

'Wishes were not a thing.

'They were not.

'Correction.

'Wishes were a thing.

'Wishes that came true were sometimes a thing.

'Wishes that came true because of magic were not a thing!

'Were they?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.
y separately published work icon The Cow Tripped Over the Moon Tony Wilson , Laura Wood (illustrator), Lindfield : Scholastic Australia , 2015 8755893 2015 single work picture book children's humour (taught in 1 units)

''Hey diddle diddle, You all know the riddle, A cow jumps over the moon...' But the moon is very high in the sky. How many attempts will it take before Cow makes her famous high-flying leap? ' (Publication summary)
y separately published work icon Dead Europe Christos Tsiolkas , Milsons Point : Vintage Australia , 2005 Z1186455 2005 single work novel (taught in 14 units) 'The novel comprises two separate narratives. The first, told in the style of a fairytale, is set in a traditional Greek peasant village during and after World War II. Its world is still magical. ... The second narrative is set in the present time. The narrator is a 36-year-old gay, Greek-Australian photographic artist named Isaac. We meet Isaac at a time when he has travelled to Greece for what turns out to be a rather dismal officially funded exhibition of his works.'

Source: Manne, Robert. 'Dead Disturbing'. The Monthly. (June, 2005)
y separately published work icon Delinquent Angel Diana Georgeff , North Sydney : Random House , 2007 Z1404941 2007 single work biography (taught in 1 units)

'Shelton Lea was born secretly, and adopted in the most bizarre circumstances into a high profile family. Growing up he was told he would never inherit the family fortune; that he had been adopted as a playmate for the natural children. Here began a life of extremes and excesses.

'Family dynamics produced disastrous outcomes and his adoptive mother placed him in a psychiatric institution at the age of three. He escaped from boys' homes, lived with gypsies, Aborigines, in doorways, in parks and went to prisons along the east coast of Australia. But genetics propelled his ascendance. He was born with tremendous gifts and when, as a teenager in a putrid lock-up, he discovered the writings of Ezra Pound, he knew the path his life would take.

'Reports of the legendary Shelton Lea spread. He was a romantic, bohemian outlaw - charming, insolent and contemptuous of authority. He stepped far beyond the bounds of propriety, encouraging comparisons to Rimbaud and Villon.

'When he died he took his wizard words, his mesmerising performance, his rabble rousing, and he was hailed as a seer of our age.' (Publisher's blurb)
y separately published work icon Elders : Wisdom from Australia's Indigenous Leaders Peter McConchie , Melbourne : Cambridge University Press , 2003 Z1583053 2003 anthology (taught in 3 units)
y separately published work icon The Empire Writes Back : Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures Bill Ashcroft , Gareth Griffiths , Helen Tiffin , Terence Hawkes (editor), London : Routledge , 1989 Z132291 1989 single work criticism (taught in 7 units)

'The experience of colonization and the challenges of the post-colonial world have produced an explosion of new writing in English. This diverse and powerful body of literature has established a specific practice of colonial writing in cultures as diverse as India, Australia, the West Indies, Africa and Canada. This comprehensive study opens debates about the interrelationships of these literatures, investigates the powerful forces acting on language in the post-colonial text and shows how these texts constitute a radical critique of the assumptions underlying Eurocentric notions of literature and language.' (Publication summary) 
y separately published work icon The Fig Tree Arnold Zable , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2002 Z959940 2002 selected work autobiography prose extract travel (taught in 3 units) The Fig Tree is a book of true stories with an extraordinary scope. It is about family, about home about the journeys that reveal to us who we are, and the ways in which contemporary tales reflect ancient myths. Arnold Zable begins with his own family. (Libraries Australia)
y separately published work icon Flight Nadia Wheatley , Armin Greder (illustrator), Kew East : Windy Hollow , 2015 8300096 2015 single work picture book children's (taught in 1 units)

'Tonight is the night.

'The family has to flee.

'They've been tipped off that the authorities are after their blood.

'Set in biblical times, a small family sets off across a desert in search of refuge from persecution in their own country, and an ancient story becomes a fable for our times. Their journey is beset by heat and thirst, threatening tanks and the loss of their donkey, but eventually they reach a refugee camp where they can wait in safety for asylum in another country.

'In this first-time collaboration between multi-award-winning author, Nadia Wheatley, and internationally-renowned illustrator, Armin Greder, words and images blend seamlessly to take readers on a journey they will never forget. ' (Publication summary)
y separately published work icon Freedom Ride Sue Lawson , Newtown : Walker Books Australia , 2015 8220769 2015 single work novel young adult (taught in 1 units)

'Robbie knows bad things happen in Walgaree. But it's nothing to do with him. That's just the way the Aborigines have always been treated. In the summer of 1965 racial tensions in the town are at boiling point, and something headed Walgaree's way will blow things apart. It's time for Robbie to take a stand. Nothing will ever be the same.' (Publication summary)
y separately published work icon Joe Cinque's Consolation Helen Garner , Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2004 Z1132428 2004 single work prose (taught in 26 units)

'In October 1997 a clever young law student at ANU made a bizarre plan to murder her devoted boyfriend after a dinner party at their house. Some of the dinner guests - most of them university students - had heard rumours of the plan. Nobody warned Joe Cinque. He died one Sunday, in his own bed, of a massive dose of rohypnol and heroin. His girlfriend and her best friend were charged with murder. Helen Garner followed the trials in the ACT Supreme Court. Compassionate but unflinching, this is a book about how and why Joe Cinque died. It probes the gap between ethics and the law; examines the helplessness of the courts in the face of what we think of as 'evil'; and explores conscience, culpability, and the battered ideal of duty of care.' (Source: Pan Macmillan website)

Garner takes 'a deliberately subjective and "literary" approach' to her material with an 'emphasis on a sympatheitic authorial persona as the source of the reader's perspective' (Susan Lever 'The Crimes of the Past: Anna Funder's Stasiland and Helen Garner's Joe Cinque's Consolation'. Paper delivered at the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) conference 2006).
y separately published work icon Lennie the Legend : Solo to Sydney by Pony Stephanie Owen Reeder , Canberra : National Library of Australia , 2015 8290043 2015 single work children's fiction children's historical fiction (taught in 1 units)

'This is the inspiring true story of nine-year-old Lennie Gwyther who, at the height of the Great Depression in 1932, rode his pony from his home town of Leongatha in rural Victoria to Sydney to witness the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Lennie’s 1,000-kilometre solo journey captured the imagination of the nation, and his determination and courage provided hope to many at a difficult time in Australia’s history.

'Lennie the Legend begins with a terrible accident on the family farm, when Lennie, remarkably at such a young age, takes on the responsibility for the ploughing. Lennie is obsessed with the marvel of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and, as a reward for saving the farm from missing the planting season, his parents grant him his wish to ride on his own to Sydney for the opening of the bridge. Lennie has all sorts of adventures along the way—a thief lurking in the bush in the dead of night, a raging bushfire, surprise appearances, celebrations in his honour, being the star of a newsreel, and meeting the Prime Minister.' (Publication summary)
y separately published work icon Mr Huff Anna Walker , Melbourne : Penguin Books , 2015 6781709 2015 single work picture book children's (taught in 1 units)

'Award-winning and much-loved author and illustrator Anna Walker gives us a gentle, poignant, affirming and wise picture book sure to delight all ages. Mr. Huff is a story about the clouds and the sunshine in each of our lives.

'Bill is having a bad day.

'Mr Huff is following him around and making everything seem difficult.

'Bill tries to get rid of him, but Mr Huff just gets bigger and bigger!

'Then they both stop, and a surprising thing happens . . . ' (Publication summary)
y separately published work icon Murder in Utopia Utopia Philip McLaren , ( trans. Phillippe Boisserand with title Utopia ) France : Traversees Noumea , 2007 Z1702843 2007 single work novel crime (taught in 1 units) 'A reformed alcoholic, New York doctor Jack Nugent, takes on the challenge of running the medical centre at utopia in remote Central Australia. After two and a half years of advertising the position, there were no other applicants for the job. Nugent becomes engrossed in the exotic Aboriginal people and culture and is outraged by the government neglect he sees everywhere. Unexpectedly, he is swept up in a bizarre ritual murder investigation, in such a remote place he must assist the state coroner by gathering evidence and provide police with his forensic findings. Vital evidence goes missing and every avenue Nugent takes is blocked. He falls in love with Carla, a black lawyer, who helps him overcome the obstacles police and the Aboriginal community place in his path, a better social outcome for this ancient desert community depends largely on them.' (From the publisher's website.)
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