AustLit

'Copyright law has been constantly evolving in response to economic demands, in an attempt to balance utilitarian principles with the changing times and technological advances. However, unprecedented advances in technology have challenged legislature globally and are having a disruptive effect on traditional publishing models and the copyright provisions that underpin them. It is in this uncharted terrain that authors and publishers find themselves, with the legislature adopting a reactive position, trying to deal with copyright infringement problems as they present themselves on the one hand, and accommodating public demand for access to creative works on the other. This article focuses on the challenges presented by such a transitional environment from Australian authors' perspectives and considers how the development of a digital publishing arena has impacted on authors' copyright expectations. These findings are based on responses obtained from 156 published Australian authors in a national online survey and 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with authors and publishers. In gathering and interpreting the views, opinions and impressions of those most affected by copyright, copyright structures and the changing publishing industry, the research aimed to provide new insights into Australian copyright in written works. Significantly, the findings provide a snapshot of Australian authors' perspectives on copyright issues at a pivotal point in history when authors find themselves between the old and the new, grappling with the realities of traditional expectations and digital advances in publishing.' (Author's abstract)

'A fiction writer will often begin writing a manuscript in a rough and fragmentary manner, and over time transform these early attempts into what is hoped will be a publishable manuscript. Yet there is little in the creative writing literature on the practical aspects of writing process as utilised by writers, and/or on how writing process might be taught. Using writing process theoretical research, and accounts by writers of their processes, I look at how process, and in particular revision, can be taught in the undergraduate fiction writing workshop. I argue that effective student learning about revision occurs in response to assignments which ask students to re-enter the fictional world they have created, and make substantive changes.' (Author's abstract)

'This paper reflects on a literary journalist's practice-led approach to migrating from nonfiction to fiction and the decision to situate a narrative about the challenges and achievements of women in Victoria's mid-19th century goldfields in a novel in the subgenre of historiographic metafiction. It addresses the lacuna in the traditionally masculinised history of the gold rush era, opening a window onto the 'herstory' of the period, describing the courage of women who overcame poverty, isolation and the limited gender-based expectations of the time in which they lived to set the pattern for the social infrastructure we take for granted today. The first author's doctoral novel 'A Respectable Married Woman' embodies this migration and is informed methodologically by both journalistic and creative strategies. The study focuses on the role of site visits in practice-led research as it applies to literary journalism to create a sense of 'being there'. The interlocutory reader (Widdowson 1979) is drawn into a narrative construct which hangs evidence-based 'fictionised truths' in a factual framework in order to facilitate a greater understanding of a critical period in the growth of Victoria and, in particular, the contribution of women. Drawing on literary theorists including Hutcheon (1998) and Kundera (2000) and referencing writers Ricketson (2006), Sedgwick (2004) and Quindlen (2004) among others, this paper aims to encourage other nonfiction writers to make use of the literary journalist's notional 'tool-box' to take an imaginative leap into the world of credible historiographic metafiction.' (Author's abstract)

'In his recent review of Joan Didion's Blue Nights (2011), critic and writer Andrew Riemer admitted to feeling uneasy. While acknowledging that many readers would respond differently, he noted that reading about Didion's grief over the loss of her daughter made him feel 'like an intruder into very private sorrow'. Riemer questioned the ethics of writing about the death of a child for publication. Asserting that grief was essentially mute, he argued that Didion should have stayed silent in the face of her extraordinary losses. At a time when memoirs about bereavement and loss are enjoying unprecedented popularity, Riemer's suggestions raise important issues for writers and readers of memoir. In this article I offer close readings of two recent memoirs of bereavement, Virginia Lloyd's The Young Widow's Book of Home Improvement (2008a) and Maggie MacKellar's When it Rains (2010), in order to explore some of the narrative strategies at work and to suggest that it is the very act of writing, specifically of crafting and shaping a narrative for publication, that enacts healing. ' (Author's abstract)

'Michael Rosen and Jen Webb met in London on 21 June 2011 to talk about the relationship between poetry and knowing. Michael's poetry is written for young readers, and his understanding of what he is doing, and why, and with what underlying ontological and axiological premises, is explicated in this discussion. Central to the conversation is Michael's perspective on how poetry can be put to work as a generative and genuinely educative domain for school children. Whether we invite them to write poems, read poems or discuss poems, Michael shows, we can use approaches, attitudes and techniques that open up a space in which young people can find their lives, their experiences and their thoughts validated. This can be a way to intervene in the established ways of understanding individuals and groups, in schools and in society more generally, and to open up new ways of knowing. We began the conversation with a brief tangent on technology and mythology, motivated by the Livescribe Smartpen being used - a product put out by the Echo group.' (Editor's abstract)