AustLit

'Members of the general public are likely to recognise the names of some of the pioneering female aviators. There is of course Amelia Earhart, the American who became the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Here in Australia, many would recognise the name Nancy Bird Walton, who is known for gaining her pilot’s licence at the age of nineteen, as well as for helping to establish a flying medical service in regional New South Wales. But what of the Australian female aviator who is the subject of James Vicars’s début, Beyond the Sky: The passions of Millicent Bryant, aviator? Millicent Bryant (1878–1927) has largely passed into obscurity, but in her day she was a sensation. Vicars would like his great-grandmother to become once again a household name, celebrated for her achievement as the first woman in Australia – indeed, the first in the Commonwealth outside Britain – to gain a pilot’s licence.' (Introduction)

'In order to better understand and appreciate Alexis Wright's publishing history, it is important to first place it in the context of the publishing history of Australian Aboriginal literature. Only then can one properly situate it in the larger context of Australian literature. Finally, for full effect, Wright's publishing history should be placed in the context of the international literary marketplace.' (Introduction)

'In the introduction to Gularabulu: Stories from the West Kimberley, Stephen Muecke writes,

Presenting the stories as narrative art is a way of justifying a writing which tries to imitate the spoken word. When language is read as poetic, it is the form of the language itself, as well as its underlying content, which is important. Just as it would be unjustifiable to rewrite a poet’s work into ‘correct’ English (in other words to take away the poet’s ‘license’), so it would be unjustifiable to rewrite the words of Paddy Roe’s stories.

Muecke’s assertion that the ‘form’ of Paddy Roe’s words matter, and furthermore that it would be ‘unjustifiable’ to rewrite Roe’s stories, takes on a special significance in this particular edition of Gularabulu. After all, the UWA Publishing edition of Gularabulu, published in 2016, follows in the wake of the original 1983 edition as well as a 1993 edition, both published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press. The existence of three editions of this particular book is a testament to its enduring value, but it also presents an opportunity for interrogation.' (Introduction)

'Drawing upon theories and methodologies associated with the field of textual criticism and scholarly editing, as well as those associated with the field of book history, this chapter examines the editing and publishing of Winton's books in the United States. All aspects of the publication process are surveyed, but his chapter devotes its greatest critical attention to the editorial process. In particular, it examines the sorts of editorial accommodations that occur while translating the work of a regional writer from the south-west corner of Western Australia for an American audience, which is to say the largest identifiable market segment in the English-language book-publishing industry.' (123-124)

'This article examines the role of book publishing outside the cultural centres, where the lack of access to the gatekeepers of cultural production, such as literary agents, editors and publishers, has inhibited both the publishers' and region's reach into the public imagination.

It takes Western Australia as a case study, analysing the impact of geographical regionalism on the processes of book production and publication. Western Australia is infrequently represented in the cultura record, much less in those aspects of the cultural record that are transmitted overseas.

This imbalance in 'cultural currency' arises because regions are at least in part defined by their ability to participate in what Pierre Bourdieu has deemed the 'field of cultural production'. In the case of print culture, this field includes writers, literary agents, editors, publishers, government arts organisations, the media, schools, and book retailers, just to name a few.

This article pays particular attention to Western Australia's three major publishing houses (Fremantle Press, University of Western Australia Press, and the publisher of Indigenous literature, Magabala Books), as well as those Western Australian writers who have achieved the greatest international success, such as Tim Winton and Elizabeth Jolley. It demonstrates that the awareness of geographically and culturally diverse regions within the framework of the nation is derived from representations of these regions and their associated regional characteristics in the movies, television and books.' (Author's abstract)

Henningsgaard discusses the emergence of regionalism as a concept in Australian literary studies and its development as a cultural framework for critical engagement. He particularly notes the upswing in attention to regionalism in the late 1970s and the 1980s (fostered in part by the work of Bruce Bennett), followed by a corresponding downturn during the 1990s.

Having focussed on this emergence and decline, Henningsgaard turns his attention to Australia's positioning of itself in the global context in the early twenty-first century. He argues that: 'Until Australia resumes constantly fostering its regional diversity - or recognizes its already existing achievements in regional diversity - it will always be viewed (both from within and without) as secondary and inferior, as homogeneous'.