AustLit logo

AustLit

Black Inc. Black Inc. i(A51512 works by) (Organisation) assertion
Born: Established: 2000 Melbourne, Victoria, ;
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 y separately published work icon Continuous Creation : Last Poems by Les Murray Les Murray , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2022 23435512 2022 selected work poetry

'The final, posthumous collection of poems from Australia's unofficial poet laureate

'In a poetic gift from beyond the grave, Les Murray left a trove of last poems. These are poems he was working on up to his death, as well as work uncovered from his scrapbooks and files.

'Various, intriguing and moving, this is a wonderful final collection from Australia's greatest poet - including a title poem that calls up the spirit of continuous creation, 'out of all that vanishes and all that will outlast us'.

'Continuous Creation is the perfect gift for long-time fans of Murray and new readers alike.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon We've Got This : Stories by Disabled Parents Eliza Hull (editor), Carlton : Black Inc. , 2022 23435302 2022 anthology prose autobiography

'The first major anthology by parents with disabilities

'How do two parents who are blind take their children to the park? How is a mother with dwarfism treated when she walks her child down the street? How do Deaf parents know when their baby cries in the night?

'When writer and musician Eliza Hull was pregnant with her first child, like most parents-to-be she was a mix of excited and nervous. But as a person with a physical disability, there were added complexities. She wondered- Will the pregnancy be too hard? Will people judge me? Will I cope with the demands of parenting? More than 15 per cent of Australian households have a parent with a disability, yet their stories are rarely shared, their experiences almost never reflected in parenting literature.

'In We've Got This, twenty-five parents who identify as Deaf, disabled or chronically ill discuss the highs and lows of their parenting journeys and reveal that the greatest obstacles lie in other people's attitudes. The result is a moving, revelatory and empowering anthology. As Rebekah Taussig writes, 'Parenthood can tangle with grief and loss. Disability can include joy and abundance. And goddammit - disabled parents exist.'

'Contributors include Jacinta Parsons, Kristy Forbes, Graeme Innes, Jessica Smith, Jax Jacki Brown, Nicole Lee, Elly May Barnes, Neangok Chair, Renay Barker-Mulholland, Micheline Lee and Shakira Hussein.

'We've Got This will appeal to readers of Growing Up Disabled in Australia and other titles in the Growing Up series.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Sean O'Beirne on Helen Garner On Helen Garner Sean O'Bierne , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2022 21936494 2022 single work essay

'What I love in Helen Garner’s writing is a particular kind of closeness to self, the good, greedy, mistaken, emotional, fierce, sceptical, changing and disrupting self. Garner makes so much from what seems to be just her individual sense, individual observation – rather than anything made by and for the group. But I also love the beautiful strong contradiction in her work: she’s always fighting to come back enough, as well, to find enough that can stop the self; enough of a good order, a rule, a law, a family, a home.

'In a brilliantly argued and very personal essay, Sean O’Beirne looks at the whole of Helen Garner’s writing life so far – from Monkey Grip to the recently published Diaries – while trying to come to terms with the demands, and the rewards, of Garner’s extraordinary, radical individualism and honesty.

'In the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on an Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work.

'Published by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 y separately published work icon True North : A Memoir Catherine Deveny , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2022 21143501 2022 single work autobiography

'An uplifting, heartfelt memoir about surviving life’s upheavals – and how to live authentically

'Breaking up isn’t a conscious decision, it’s more of a revelation … In the first few moments after waking each day I needed to remind myself who I was and what had happened. It was like pulling a compass out of a drawer and watching it adjust, the needle swinging around to find true north and quivering before staying there.

'When writer Catherine Deveny faced the end of a seventeen-year relationship with the father of her children, she had no idea what lay on the other side of the months of tumult: she just knew she had to create space for a new life.

'But this wasn’t the first time she’d taken a plunge into the unknown or let go of conventional assumptions. In this heartfelt and moving memoir, Deveny shares how she learnt to live life on her own terms. From her oppressive Catholic upbringing in Melbourne’s working-class inner-north, through growing independence in her teenage years and university sharehouses to life in Melbourne’s thriving cultural scene, Deveny’s life is at once highly relatable and utterly unique.

'True North is a cathartic and uplifting read that will resonate with anyone who has gone through – or is currently living through – a major life change.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 y separately published work icon Australia's #MeToo Moment Jess Hill , Melbourne : Black Inc. , 2021 22593141 2021 single work essay

'Tracing the impact of Australia's #MeToo moment

'This year, Australia's #MeToo moment erupted in the national parliament. In this electrifying essay, Jess Hill, the acclaimed author of See What You Made Me Do, traces the meaning of those events and what could happen next.

''What are the politics of rage? What couldn't Scott Morrison see? And what hope is there of real progress and accountability? Hill examines how the law, the media and politics can bring about - or stall - change. She shows how when #MeToo meets patriarchy, the results are unpredictable - from lasting reform to backlash. And she asks whether a conservative prime minister can do what is required to meet the moment.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Seeking Asylum : Our Stories Asylum Seekers and Refugees from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Melbourne (editor), Melbourne : Black Inc. , 2021 22593080 2021 anthology autobiography

'The voices Australia should hear

'This beautifully illustrated hardback captures the stories of those who have lived the experience of seeking asylum.

'In their own voices, contributors share how they came to be in Australia, and explore diverse aspects of their lives- growing up in a refugee camp, studying for a PhD, changing attitudes through soccer, being a Muslim in a small country town, campaigning against racism, surviving detention, holding onto culture, dreaming of being reunited with family.

'There are stories of love, pain, injustice, achievement and everything in between. Accompanied by beautiful portrait photographs, they show the depth and diversity of people's experience and trace the impact of Australia's immigration policies.

'Seeking Asylum also includes a foreword by Liliana Maria and an essay by Abdul Karim Hekmat on the human, social and political impact of Australia's treatment of people seeking asylum over the last fifty years. With an afterword by Kon Karapanagiotidis and supporting material demystifying Australia's current policies from Julian Burnside, Seeking Asylum redefines assumptions about people who have sought asylum and inspires readers to take action to create a more welcoming Australia.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Built for Ballet Leanne Benjamin , Sarah Crompton , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021 21963115 2021 single work autobiography

'This autobiography by Leanne Benjamin with Sarah Crompton reveals the extraordinary life and career of one of the worlds most important ballet dancers of the past fifty years. The book takes you behind the scenes to find a real understanding of the pleasure and the pain, the demands and the intense commitment it requires to become a ballet dancer. It is a book for ballet-lovers which will explain from Benjamin's personal point of view, how ballet has changed and is changing. It is a book of history: she was first taught by the people who created ballet in its modern form and now she works with the dancers of today, handing on all she has known and learnt. But it is also a book for people who are just interested in the psychology of achievement, how you go from being a child in small-town Rockhampton in the centre of Australia to being a power on the worlds biggest stages -- and how an individual copes with the ups and downs of that kind of career. It is a story full of big names and big personalities -- Margot Fonteyn, Kenneth MacMillan, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Darcey Bussell, Carlos Acosta to name a few. President Clinton, Michelle Obama, Diana Princess of Wales and David Beckham all make an appearance. But it is also a book of small moments of insight: what makes a performance special, how you recover from injury, illness and childbirth; how you combine athletic and artistic prowess with motherhood, how a different partner can alter everything, what it is like to fall over in front of thousands of people and what it is like to triumph. Above all, it seeks to explain, in warm and human terms, why women get the reputation for being difficult in a world where being a good girl is too much prized. And what they can do about it.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Growing Up in Australia Black Inc. (editor), Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021 21936408 2021 anthology autobiography

'This special collection is the perfect introduction to Black Inc.’s definitive 'Growing Up' series. Featuring pieces from Growing Up AsianGrowing Up AboriginalGrowing Up AfricanGrowing Up Queer and Growing Up Disabled in Australia, it captures the diversity of our nation in moving and revelatory ways.

'Growing Up in Australia also features gems from essential Australian memoirs such as Maxine Beneba Clarke’s The Hate Race, Rick Morton’s 100 Years of Dirtand Stan Grant’s Talking to My Country.

'Contributors include Tim Winton, Benjamin Law, Melissa Lucashenko, Magda Szubanski, Christos Tsiolkas and many more.

'With a foreword by Alice Pung, this anthology is a wonderful gift for adult and adolescent readers alike.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 1 y separately published work icon Mission : Essays, Speeches and Ideas Noel Pearson , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021 21936218 2021 selected work essay

'Mission traces a life of politics, ideas and inspiring words. Whether he is evoking his early life among the Guugu Yimithirr Aboriginal people at Hope Vale, Queensland, or making an eloquent case for Indigenous recognition, or outlining his vision of a reconciled, multicultural Australia, Noel Pearson confirms he is one of Australia’s most powerful and influential thinkers – and an extraordinary writer.

'Mission selects the best of Pearson’s work to date. There are indelible portraits of political leaders seen close up – Keating, Rudd, Whitlam, Turnbull and more. There is Pearson’s brilliant vision of a Voice to Parliament that led eventually to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. And there are acute analyses – of passive welfare; of the fate of the Labor Party; of identity politics good and bad; and of education and the role of an inspiring teacher.

'Mission is honest, powerful, provocative and utterly original.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 1 y separately published work icon Girt Nation : The Unauthorised History of Australia Vol. 3 David Hunt , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021 21936151 2021 single work non-fiction

'The saga of Australia continues with… GIRT NATION

'David Hunt tramples the tall poppies of the past in charting Australia’s transformation from aspiration to nation – an epic tale of charlatans and costermongers, of bush bards and bushier beards, of workers and women who weren’t going to take it anymore.

'Girt Nation introduces Alfred Deakin, the Liberal necromancer whose dead advisors made Australia a better place to live, and Banjo Paterson, the jihadist who called on God and the Prophet to drive the Australian infidels from the Sudan ‘like sand before the gale’. And meet Catherine Helen Spence, the feminist polymath who envisaged a utopian future of free contraceptives, easy divorce and immigration restrictions to prevent the ‘Chinese coming to destroy all we have struggled for!’

'Thrill as Jandamarra leads the Bunuba against Western Australia, and Valentine Keating leads the Crutchy Push, an all-amputee street gang, against the conventionally limbed. Gasp as Essendon Football Club trainer Carl von Ledebur injects his charges with crushed dog and goat testicles. Weep as Scott Morrison’s communist great-great-aunt Mary Gilmore holds a hose in New Australia. And marvel at how Labor, a political party that spent a quarter of a century infighting over how to spell its own name, ever rose to power.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 1 y separately published work icon The Game : A Portrait of Scott Morrison Sean Kelly , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021 21936040 2021 single work biography

'Australia wanted Scott Morrison. In a time of uncertainty, the country chose in 2019 to turn to a man with no obvious beliefs, no clear purpose and no famous talents. That we wanted Scott Morrison was the secret we did not know about ourselves. What precisely that secret is forms the subject of this book.

'In The Game, Sean Kelly gives us a portrait of a man, the shallow political culture that allowed him to succeed and the country that crowned him.

'Morrison understands – in a way that no other recent politician has – how politics has become a game. He also understands something essential about Australia – something many of us are unwilling to admit, even to ourselves.

'But there are things Scott Morrison does not understand. This is the story of those failures, too – and the way that, as his prime ministership continues, Morrison’s failure to think about politics as anything other than a game has become a dangerous liability, both to him and to us.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 3 y separately published work icon Currowan : A Story of Fire and a Community During Australia's Worst Summer Bronwyn Adcock , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021 21935954 2021 single work autobiography

'Currowan is the gripping account of the massive fire that engulfed the south coast of New South Wales in 2019–20. Ignited by a lightning strike near the Currowan state forest and burning for seventy-four days across nearly 500,000 hectares, it was among the largest and most ferocious infernos of Australia’s Black Summer.

'Journalist Bronwyn Adcock fled the fire with her children. Her husband, fighting at the front, rang with a plea for help before his phone went dead, leaving her to fear: will he make it out alive? In Currowan, Bronwyn tells her story, and those of many others: what they experienced, saw, thought and felt. The pacy, immersive reportage is braided with much larger themes – what we know about how fire behaves, how that is changing due to climate change, and how communities can cope with natural disaster and prepare themselves for an increasingly dangerous future.

'Currowan is about tragedy, survival and the power of community. It is the story of a fire, and of a nation in the grip of an intensifying crisis we must all work together to solve.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 6 y separately published work icon One Hundred Days Alice Pung , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021 20866648 2021 single work novel

'One hundred days. It’s no time at all, she tells me. But she’s not the one waiting.

'In a heady whirlwind of independence, lust and defiance, sixteen-year-old Karuna falls pregnant. Not on purpose, but not entirely by accident, either. Incensed, Karuna’s mother, already over-protective, confines her to their fourteenth-storey housing-commission flat, to keep her safe from the outside world – and make sure she can’t get into any more trouble.

'Stuck inside for endless hours, Karuna battles her mother and herself for a sense of power in her own life, as a new life forms and grows within her. As the due date draws ever closer, the question of who will get to raise the baby – who it will call Mum – festers between them.

'One Hundred Days is a fractured fairytale exploring the fault lines between love and control. At times tense and claustrophobic, it is nevertheless brimming with humour, warmth and character. It is a magnificent new work from one of Australia’s most celebrated writers.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Stan Grant on Thomas Keneally On Thomas Keneally Stan Grant , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021 20866567 2021 single work essay

'Stan Grant is drawn to Thomas Keneally ‘for many reasons: we share an Irish heritage and a complicated relationship with religion. I am especially interested in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, which was a formative novel for me. My family shares a connection with the real Jimmy Governor as well. [The book] raises questions about non-Indigenous writers tackling Indigenous issues and characters.’

'In this eloquent, clear-eyed essay, acclaimed journalist Stan Grant sheds light on one of Australia’s most controversial yet enduringly relevant novels.

'In the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on an Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon The Life of a Spy : An Education in Truth, Lies and Power Rod Barton , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021 20866465 2021 single work autobiography

'I was no James Bond with a licence to kill, but I did work with the British intelligence services and for the CIA. I had guns pointed at me, death threats issued, a price placed on my head.

'In 1971, Rod Barton applied for a junior scientist role in the Australian Department of Defence. Little did he know what it entailed: as the Cold War intensified, Barton was inducted into the murky world of espionage.

'For the next few decades, Barton lived a life straight from an adventure novel. In war-torn Mogashidu, he disarmed militia, while sleeping in rat-infested barracks. As a UN weapons inspector, he flew to Baghdad on special missions, interviewing top scientists to uncover an illegal weapons program, and raced to chemical firms across Europe, tracking materials sold to the Iraqis. 

'After 9/11, Barton became senior advisor to Hans Blix, seeking the truth on Iraq’s WMDs. His clashes with the CIA over what he saw – and what he didn’t find – reveal the terrible politicisation of the War on Terror. It prompted him to step from the shadows and share a truth about Iraqi prisoners – and to tussle with the Australian government.

'This is an extraordinary behind-the-scenes account of a world marked by risk, secrecy and individual acts of courage. The Life of a Spy will introduce you to a man of principle in a time of chaos, and take you to the frontlines of politics and war.' (Publication summary)

1 2 y separately published work icon I Said the Sea Was Folded : Love Poems Erik Jensen , Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021 20866412 2021 selected work poetry ‘These poems were intended first as gifts. They are the story of falling in love with a person who lives outside the gender binary and realising that is not one thing but everything.’ —Erik Jensen

'Erik Jensen is an award-winning journalist, biographer and screenwriter. These poems announce a new phase in his work. They are startling in their simplicity and their honesty – reminiscent of Mary Oliver, Emily Dickinson and Seamus Heaney. The poems chart the first three years of Jensen’s relationship with his partner, a non-binary composer and musician. They are love poems, written against the complexity of understanding another person. Together they form a fragmentary memoir of hope, disagreement and love.' (Publication summary)

1 3 y separately published work icon Muddy People Sara El Sayed , Melbourne : Black Inc. , 2021 20454913 2021 single work autobiography

'A hilarious and heartwarming memoir of growing up and becoming oneself in an Egyptian Muslim family.

'Soos’ family is muddy. Their skin is brown – kids say Soos is mud-coloured. Their culture and religion are puzzling to those around them. In their white majority neighbourhood, Soos, Mohamed and Aisha are bullied by racists. Their parents are discriminated against at work.

'Soos, the baby of the family – her name means ‘little tooth’ – is working out how to balance her parents’ strict rules with having friendships, crushes and a normal teenage life. As her dad is diagnosed with leukemia, the cancer cells clouding his blood, she comes to see her parents as fallible, with morals based on a muddy logic. But they are also her strongest defenders.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon The Story of Australia Don Watson , Melbourne : Black Inc. , 2021 19555926 2021 single work information book children's

'History told so well it gives us a better idea of who we are – and who we are likely to become.

'Don Watson’s The Story of Australia is a modern history of our nation that integrates new understandings about Indigenous Australia and looks to the future, asking: where will we go from here?

'In clear, succinct language that both children and adults will appreciate, Watson guides readers from the ancient lands of Gondwana, through human settlement, colonisation and waves of migration, to the challenges facing our diverse nation today.

'Each era is brought to life in a series of beautifully illustrated spreads that capture a particular event or development – or give a snapshot of ordinary Australians at the time. He covers the familiar and iconic – Burke and Wills, Ned Kelly and the Eureka Stockade – but also the lesser known, such as Daisy Bates and the Coniston massacres. Each chapter ends with a profile of a person, from the oldest Australian ever discovered, Mungo Woman, to pop icon Kylie Minogue.

'The Story of Australia will be treasured by children and families for years to come.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 y separately published work icon Shanghai Acrobat Jingjing Xue , Melbourne : Black Inc. , 2021 18776859 2021 single work autobiography

'For readers of Mao’s Last Dancer comes the inspiring true story of a world-famous acrobat who escaped communist China to begin a new life in Australia.

'Jingjing Xue was born in China in the 1950s, during one of the worst times in the reign of communist leader Mao Zedong, or Chairman Mao. Mao’s extreme five-year industrialisation plan – the Great Leap Forward – left much of the population starving, destitute and gripped with fear. Jingjing, abandoned to an orphanage as a young boy, was destined to a life of hardship before officials singled him out and enlisted him to train with the Shanghai Acrobatics School.

'This autobiography tells the moving story of his rise from poverty to become an admired performer in China and beyond – and of his extraordinary escape from Mao’s repressive regime to secure his freedom. Set in China from the early years of the communist era, through the turbulent period of the Cultural Revolution, and to a new life in Australia, this is a story of hope and perseverance, of overcoming adversity and of finding a place to belong.' (Publication summary)

1 4 y separately published work icon Car Crash : A Memoir Lech Blaine , Melbourne : Black Inc. , 2021 18776306 2021 single work autobiography

'Lech Blaine was just seventeen when he was in a crash that killed his best friends and changed his life.

'On an evening in 2009, seven teenage boys piled into a car to go to a party. They never arrived. The driver - who was not drunk or high - made a routine error and then overcorrected. The vehicle flew off the road. One passenger died on impact. Others were flung from the car. Lech walked away uninjured. In the aftermath, two more died in hospital and one was left disabled, in an incident that convulsed their rural community.

'Crippled by guilt, Lech turned to social media, cultivating a persona as the ultimate 'grateful survivor'. Over time, he spiralled into risk-taking and depression. His public bravado fell away as he tried to accept how an accident - one wretched error of youth and inexperience - had changed the trajectory of so many lives.

'How do we grieve in an age of social media? How does tragedy shape a community? And how does a boy on the cusp of manhood develop a sense of self when his world has exploded?

'This stunning memoir pulls no punches. It marks Lech Blaine as a writer to watch.' (Publication summary)

X