AustLit

'This is a collection of some of the finest pieces of one of Australia’s most important and respected poets. It is a generous and ambitious project; reflective and joyful in equal measure, profound and playful, Finishing Stroke is rare in offering a deceptively joyful immediacy which reveals more and more of its intellectual antecedents on reflection and re-reading.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Howard Firkin's eclectic play which features appearances by Martin Heidegger, Anne Hathaway (both of them), and Pish, the spirit of our age.

'A story of love triumphant, even as it fails...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Ben Gibson is living the dream. Married to his high school sweetheart and with two beautiful young children, he's also achieved his ultimate goal of becoming a member of the elite Victoria Police Dog Squad. For Ben life just couldn't be better!

'But then a series of personal disasters leaves Ben questioning his future. How can he continue in the job he loves when so much has been taken from him? As he struggles to overcome his own feelings of devastation, his boss presents him with the opportunity to make a fresh start.

'He reluctantly accepts the challenge to become the first Victoria Police dog handler to relocate to country Victoria leaving his family in the care of his father and mother-in-law while he completes a six month trial in the rural town of Clarkdale.

'Overcoming the initial doubters amongst the locals that a city-boy can cope in the country, Ben and his police dog Sabre set about showing their worth.

'From detecting drug stashes concealed in cars to tracking down violent criminals and apprehending armed and dangerous offenders, Ben and Sabre quickly become an invaluable asset to the local police and prove that, even with the many technological advances in crime detection, nothing matches the skill and tenacity of a well-trained police dog team.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Blue Justice is an Australian crime novel with a difference: this is cops on the beat. This is a book about real policing. There are no tortured detectives puzzling over motive or building a case on fragments of lucky finds of evidence. There are no glamorous pathologists offering connections between unrelated cases and solving crime in their spare time. Forget the bizarre clues, the mastermind criminals. This is blood-on-the-floor police work.

'Sergeant Tony Signorotto has good friends, plenty of enemies, and the sort of family connections that just might get him killed. An old-school cop in a rapidly changing world he may be, but even fashionable Carlton still has a few old-fashioned problems to sort out, and Tony Signorotto is just the man to have on hand to solve them.

'Blue Justice is a confronting novel. It places its main character in the middle of the hard choices all police officers face: how to do a difficult job without the time, resources, or support to do it. And how to stay sane while you're doing it.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The question was simple: if you knew only one of your stories would survive you, which would you choose?

'Twenty-eight authors have submitted their best-loved stories to create a fascinating collection of short stories about a diverse range of people trying to make sense of a world where goodness is not always apparent.

'Remarkably, for all the difficulties, sadness, uncertainty, and confusion facing the people in these stories, this collection is one of triumph, of hope, and of love for the wild variety that defines everyday humanity.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The classic ‘Death in Venice’ reimagined by award winning writer Sofia Chapman, with Thomas Mann’s innocent Tadzio now the gay boy Todd, rampaging around Venice and getting up to mischief. Agnes, in Venice to collect gaudy masks and glassware, yearns after Todd, but is in the process of transitioning. Michael, in Venice to write a musical, also finds Todd irresistible. Will Agnes lose her chance with Todd by becoming female? Or will she lose him anyway to her friend Michael? On top of all this, the water levels in Venice are rising and threatening to sweep them all away on a tide of emotion. Featuring original music, miniature gondolas and a masked disco.'

Source: Publisher's blurb,

'Reginald Wells' explosive tales of life in rural Australia.

'Previously only circulated in ragged samizdat manuscript, this collection of short stories is now available in an authoritative version. Destined to become an Australian classic. Horrifyingly vulgar, disgustingly honest, and only believable if you discount the possibility that humans can be in any way admirable.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The Mudgee Valley Writers, an active and committed band of local writers, have collected and edited the life stories of some of Mudgee's most interesting and celebrated citizens. Intriguingly diverse and always unexpected, these stories capture the joy, surprise, hardship, and triumph of life in rural Australia.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Macaulay Station is a lament and a celebration. Frank Munro has lost his close friend Charlie, dead just one year, his career is a mundane casualty of the technological revolution, his youth is a memory, another casualty of the tyranny of time.Frank Munro has had change thrust upon him. He’s trying to adapt.

'Once an award winning journalist, Frank has been put out to pasture, but he is fighting to renew his purpose, renew his life, and save the woman he loves from her disastrous infatuation.

'Can a conversation with a dead man on Macaulay Station point the way?

'A novel for anyone who has glimpsed the future and didn't like what they saw.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Anthony Riddelll's [sic] remarkable novella, Animalcule, poses the question, "Should humans have tails?"

'Join Dr Bingbang, Ichabod Snell, Strawberrie, Pablo Tater and a host of others as they avoid answering this and many, many other questions.

'You will learn, however, the singular of BANANA.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The question was simple: if you knew only one of your poems would survive you, which would you choose?

'The forty-two poets selected for this anthology responded with some surprising choices.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Christopher Ringrose's elegant and sophisticated verse explores mysteries, joys, experiences as they unfurl over decades. These are gentle, explorative, contemplative, but always surprising poems which repay reading and re-reading. Palmistry is the record of life which no one ever predicts.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Howard Firkin's novel explores the journals of Thomas Furphy to chart his extraordinary journey to discover meaning in the male role, reform the Australian political system, and regain sexual function.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Presenting these intensely personal but always outward-looking poems, Lika Posamari explores the pain, strength, and wisdom that women draw from the complexity of their relationships across generations. These poems invite the reader to share Lika's startling, uncompromising, but ultimately triumphant conclusions.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'What does queerness have to do with climate change?

'Would you leave your Mother’s bedside if she were dying?

'Is it sexier just to give up hope?

'There is no such thing as an answer. Only
Poetry.

'Lightly, on the Skin wrestles big questions from a bent perspective.

'Dive in - the water is boiling.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Stephen House’s collection is startling, sensual and fiercely honest. With a strong Queer edge he looks at sexuality in all its shades, and explores usually unexplored territory.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.