AustLit

'Barbara Hanrahan (1939-1991), who lived between Adelaide, London and Melbourne, was one of Australia's most distinctive artists. Characterised by playfully complex narratives that draw on both personal experience and fantasy, her works are fearlessly direct and unashamedly decorative.

'Bee-stung Lips reproduces more than 100 of Hanrahan's works on paper, while new essays by Nic Brown, Jacqueline Millner and Elspeth Pitt delve into the artist's themes, motivations and motifs, affirming the singularity of Hanrahan's vision and its relevance to our times thirty years after the artist's death in her prime.' (Publication summary)

''In Sweet River's wash of water and words, there's an implicit message. Humanity might be the great polluter, the river's enemy, but it will all live on, preserved in language - language that seems to lighten Hibberd's usual dismal subjects - decay and death. We get the full gloomy monty in this collection, ending with a joyless Ode To Joy. But there's always the sweet river, pristine and beautiful, memorably mirrored by a master wordsmith. The title poem is pure lyric.' - Barry Oakley' (Publication summary)

'Black Tom Birch was the most feared and hated man in Van Diemen's Land. For four years he kept the colony in a state of terror. He was responsible for the deaths of dozens of settlers. He burnt their buildings and destroyed their livestock and crops. Newspapers raged against him. One demanded he be lynched on capture.

'Although he was three times in British custody, Black Tom Birch was never tried or punished. Instead, he defected, and history tells us that for the rest of his life he helped the British round up his own people for incarceration on a Bass Strait island.

'But history is wrong.

'Now, for the first time, the epic truth is told about this charismatic Aboriginal patriot and his unending fight against invasion. It is a heroic story - and a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.' (Publication summary)

'Flying with Cranes (and other stories) is the third collection of short stories by world traveller and environmentalist Heather Caddick showcasing the human condition and the perilous future for animals fighting to survive in the wild.

'Avoiding the path trodden by most tourists, Heather shares her adventures in Romania, Czech Republic and Iran, Africa and the Ukraine, as well as her encounters with endangered wildlife in wild habitats. Her message is clear. We must all work towards a balance between human life and wildlife, because only then can we guarantee a better world for our children and grandchildren.'

Source : publication summary

'This book celebrates the extraordinary life of artist Elaine Haxton and illustrates with beautiful reproductions the range and quality of her work, asserting her rightful place as a significant twentieth century Australian artist.

'From the time Haxton entered East Sydney Technical College aged 14, art became her passion and her livelihood, and she was always searching and learning. Although based in Sydney, at various times she studied in London, New York, Paris and Kyoto, and experiences in many countries continually expanded her approaches to art.

'Through hard work, flair and endless energy, she produced fine work in many spheres, always seriously reviewed and respectfully acclaimed. At the same time, she lived in a social whirl, a darling of the press, but loved and rewarded in the top echelons of the Australian art world.'

Source : publication summary

'Jelena Dinic came to Australia during the collapse of the war-torn former Yugoslavia and her poems are created from fractured landscapes. Winner of the 2019 Adelaide Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award, this collection beautifully charts the territory where cultures, languages and family life intersect. Dinic publishes in both Serbian and English.'

Source : publication summary

'One bite of an apple from a family shrine unearths hungry ghosts. A poison garden unfurls a polite boy’s deepest, darkest desires. Interfering with an Indigenous burial site unleashes ancestral revenge, to a metal soundtrack. An underground dance party during Covid threatens to turn lethal. And on the edge of a coastal rainforest, a grieving sister waits to witness a mysterious ‘unravelling’.

'This #LoveOzYA anthology – the first to focus entirely on horror – unites a stellar cast of Australia’s finest YA authors with talented new and emerging voices, including two graphic artists.

'Contributors are Wai Chim, Sarah Epstein, Alison Evans, Lisa Fuller, Margot McGovern, Poppy Nwosu, Michelle O’Connell, Emma Osborne, Emma Preston, Marianna Shek, Holden Sheppard, Jared Thomas, Vikki Wakefield and Felix Wilkins.

'The stories in this wide-ranging collection dig deep and go hard. While some are straight-up terrifying rollercoaster rides, others are psychologically rooted in our society’s deepest fears and concerns: acceptance and fitting in, love and loss, desire and temptation, and the terror of a world threatened by catastrophic change … and even collapse.' (Publication summary)

'The summer is finally here, and Pearl Nash is on a mission to save her slowly disintegrating friendship with a whirlwind end-of-year road trip that is definitely, absolutely, most positively going to solve all her problems.

'Except, instead of her best friend Daisy's feet on her dash, suddenly Pearl ends up stuck in the middle of the desert beside Obi Okocha, a boy with a mega-watt smile and an endlessly irritating attitude. Tasked with delivering him to the most epic end-of-year party ever, located in a beach shack in literal middle-of-nowhere woop woop, Pearl Nash is certain that nothing could be worse than this.

'She's wrong.

'Add in a breakdown, multiple arguments, an AWOL nana and a kiss that was most definitely a huge mistake, and suddenly Pearl has the perfect ingredients for the perfect disaster.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Award-winning poet Geoff Goodfellow is back with another vivid, affecting, laconically dark-witted collection that pulls no punches as it masterfully chronicles Australian life.

'Filtered through Geoff's uniquely powerful perspective, these poems capture growing up with a charismatic but damaged father, the aftermath of broken marriages - and parenting amidst the rubble, the working life of a poet (including prank calls from entitled students), and dealing with cancer - again.

'As always, Geoff delivers a series of brilliantly captured portraits of working-class life, from the street scenes of formerly industrial Port Adelaide and his home suburb of Semaphore, with its heightened blend of affluence and poverty, to his fearless inhabitations of teenagers beset by home lives that feature domestic violence and addiction.

'And as a treat, there's 'Don't Look So Glum', a female-voiced version of his iconic masculine poem 'Don't Call me Lad'. (Publication summary)
 

'Who was responsible for the 1928 Coniston Massacre in Central Australia where a police party killed 100 Aboriginal people? Not those who pulled the trigger, according to the Enquiry. Instead it was 'a woman missionary living amongst naked blacks'. This was Annie Lock, the 'whistle-blower' who caused the Enquiry.

'She believed Aboriginal lives mattered, with controversial results. This biography dives into massacres, stolen generations and the thorny problem of Aboriginal missions.

'A faith missionary, Annie Lock fought with Daisy Bates, met the Duke of Gloucester and inspired R.M. Williams. She was shipwrecked in a pearling lugger, drove a buggy 200 miles across desert to escape drought, produced Christmas puddings in 40-degree heat, nursed sore-ridden children, hit headlines for supposedly being 'Happy to Marry a Black', and pronounced on Aboriginal culture and policy with erratic spelling but genuine conviction.

'More problematically, she 'saved' souls, 'rescued' children, eroded culture and condoned Aboriginal men beating their wives.

'A strident and divisive figure, Annie Lock was appealingly eccentric but horrifyingly complicit in Australia's worst policies. Indigenous people variously called her 'lovely' and the provider of 'too much cabbage and Jesus Christ'. (Publication summary)

'The life and work of Australian historian Austin Gough (1926-1997) reflect the paradoxes and contradictions of Australia's intellectual and political life during the 20th century. After a difficult childhood and dispiriting early careers, he had a meteoric rise in the academy, in the UK (Warwick University) and Australia (Monash and Adelaide), with writings on the Catholic Church and a reputation as an inspirational teacher.

'An erudite conservative with a matchless flair for polemics and a taste for controversy, Gough became a harsh critic of a left-leaning academy and the radicalism of the post-1968 generation in the Labor governments from 1975 to 1996. More broadly, his critiques articulate a cultural crisis in the West as new ideological perspectives contested Australia's traditional certainties, the legacies of British colonialism and the post-War social and political compact.

'His life and work shed light on what it means to be an Australian public intellectual and academic. They also contain important lessons in personal fortitude and public audacity.' (Publication summary)

'Olivia Grace, recently retired teen PI, has her priorities sorted. Pass first-year law, look after her little sister, and persuade her parents to come back from a Nepali monastery to resume ... well, parenting. But after Olivia's friend Abbey goes missing in Byron Bay, a short drive from Olivia's Gold Coast home, she can't sit back and study Torts. It's time to go undercover as hippie-chick Nansea, in hippie-chic Byron Bay, hub of influencers and international tourism, and home of yoga, surfing and wellness culture.

'Olivia's looking for answers, with the help of her stash of disguises, the PI skills her irresistible ex-boss Rosco taught her - and a nose for trouble. Her suspects include a hardcore surfer who often argued with Abbey in the surf, a charismatic cult leader and an acrobatic botany student.

'And then there's Rosco, officially assigned to the case, and proving impossible to avoid.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'South Australian broadcaster, columnist, theatre guru and critic Peter Goers has been known and loved for his sardonic wit and laconic flair for decades. This collection - which borrows its title from a review Goers once gave a Fringe show in the 80s, and now happily turns on himself - gathers the best of his Fringe shows, columns ('the very few I've taken a little pride in'), and a modicum of memoir. 'Like a bride's dress, these shows and this tome are something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Plus the nostalgic and the poignant,' he says.

'This deliciously witty book features cameos from a who's who of the theatre and entertainment worlds, including anecdotes about Glenn Gould and Ethel Merman, friendships with Barry Humphries, Anne 'Willsy' Wills and Max Harris, close encounters with Angela Lansbury and Adriana Xenides, and fleeting moments with Tennesse Williams and Bette Davis.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Brian Medlin (1927-2004) - philosopher, activist, socialist, bushman, environmentalist, poet and author of short stories - wrote much more than he published during his lifetime.

'This collection includes five of his essays, dealing with how to stay sane and constructive in the face of environmental crisis, with the nature of philosophy and the contemporary university, and with the very meaning of life and death. They are as relevant and urgent now as when he wrote them 30 years ago.

'The essays are complemented by a selection of his poetry and by four of the short stories he wrote under the pseudonym Timothy Tregonning, only two of which have been previously published. Set in the early 20th century, the stories draw us into the mixed fortunes of a working class family in South Australia's mid north. Medlin's unique voice, humane, witty and vigorous, leaps off every page.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Age has not wearied this coterie of bon vivants, gambolling in the rolling hills, vineyards and wineries of the romantic Clare Valley. But the Valley's dark secrets are revealed when firebrand Milton Manning's half-undressed body is discovered in the mud by the dam. Accident? Murder? Or simply a weak heart that gave up?

'When DI Louis Buckingham and his offsider DS Sally Seymour investigate they uncover more than they bargained for - and Sally is astounded by tales of what people her mother's age get up to.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'It's February 1942 and the Second World War is raging.

'Japanese planes are bombing Darwin, Australia fears an invasion, and the train track leads straight through the desert to Adelaide. Fourteen-year-old Rosemary Lister begins a diary to share the upheavals and tensions of her new life in the country, storing memories for her father, missing in Singapore.

'Nearly four years later, after war's end, she has learnt of love and grief and her book is full - but one troop train has yet to arrive.

'This moving and uplifting family saga was inspired by the stories of those who lived through the war in the Adelaide Hills. It is based on well-known author Elizabeth Hutchins' careful research studying newspaper articles, books, memoirs and historical collections - and talking to those who were there.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'This gonzo biography of iconic wine writer, arts lover and eccentric Philip White - or, 'Whitey' - tells the story of an unconventional life, lived large. Son of an Old Testament manic street preacher, he filled the family pot with rabbits when money was scarce, left home and dove headlong into bohemia when he was 17, and was in Paul Kelly's first band, The Debutantes, among other adventures.

'Those who were sucked into his orbit include Kelly, Leonard Cohen, Don Dunstan, David Gulpilil, Max Schubert and Peter Lehmann. But while he flirted with poetry, music and painting, earning varying degrees of success and acclaim, it was writing where he truly excelled. One of his peers, the Australian's Nick Ryan, told Brechin that all Australian wine scribes agree on one thing: 'Whitey is better than any of us.'

'In this spiky, gossipy, loving and richly insightful book, crackling with wit and bravado, Robbie Brechin chronicles an extraordinary Australian life - and a singular talent.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'In the darkest days of World War II, Ethel Malley lives a quiet life on Dalmar Street, Croydon. One day she finds a collection of poems written by her late (and secretive) brother, Ern. She sends them to Max Harris, co-editor of modernist magazine Angry Penguins. He reads them and declares Ern an undiscovered genius. Determined to help publish the poems, Ethel moves in with Max and soon becomes a presence he can't understand, or control. He gets the feeling something's not quite right. About Ethel. About Ern. Then two poets come forward claiming they wrote Ern's poems.

'What follows is part-truth, part-hoax, a dark mystery as surreal as any of Ern's poems. Max wants to believe in Ern, but to do this he has to believe in Ethel, and attempt to understand her increasingly unpredictable behaviour. Then he's charged with publishing Ern's 'pornographic' poems. The questions of truth and lies, freedom of speech, and tradition versus modernism play out in a stifling Adelaide courtroom, around the nation's wirelesses, and in Max's head.

'Based on Australia's greatest literary hoax, Sincerely, Ethel Malley explores the nature of creativity, and human frailty. It drips with the anaemic blood of Australian literature, the gristle of a culture we've never really trusted.'

Source : publisher's blurb