QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection

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QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection

9 June 2022

QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection, published by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), is not only a catalogue for the exhibition of the same name running until Sunday 21 August 2022 in Melbourne, but also a collection of LGBTQIA+ stories and histories, edited by Ted Gott, Angela Hesson, Myles Russell-Cook, Meg Slater, and Pip Wallis.

More than 60 essays from authors with comprehensive knowledge of the historical and contemporary subjects encompassed by the NGV’s QUEER project are presented along side stunning reproductions of more than 200 works from the NGV collection, either by queer artists or engaging with queer issues. The essays in QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection explore the history of LGBTQ+ activism; the creation of queer spaces and communities; queerness as an artistic strategy; the expression of love, desire and sensuality; queer aesthetics; and the concepts of camp and the fantastic.

2022 Text Prize shortlist for unpublished manuscripts

9 June 2022

Seven middle-grade and young adult writers have been named on the 2022 Text Prize shortlist for unpublished manuscripts.

Bellamy Jones and the Lost Treeheart, by Emily Beck
How to be Normal by, Ange Crawford
One Thing You Can Feel, by Robbie Taylor Hunt
Year of the Dog, by Kate McCabe
Finding Liminas: The Sudden Tree, by Bria McCarthy
The Collector of Gifts, by Jamie Ramjan
Let’s Never Speak of this Again, by Megan Williams

The winner of the 2022 Text Prize, along with the recipient of the Steph Bowe Mentorship for Young Writers, will be named in late June.

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Australian literature, literary awards

2022 Australian Book Design Awards winners

7 June 2022

The winners in the 2022 Australian Book Design Awards (ABDA), which recognise outstanding book cover design, were announced on Friday 3 June 2022.

In Moonland (published by Scribe Publications, August 2021), by Melbourne based Australian author Miles Allinson won the Best Designed Literary Fiction Cover, while Catch Us the Foxes (published by Simon & Schuster, July 2021), by Sydney based Nicola West, took out the award for Best Designed Commercial Fiction Cover.

Cover designs in twenty categories were nominated, and all winners can be seen on the ABDA Instagram page.

Winnie Dunn, Michael Mohammed Ahmad, speak with Roanna Gonsalves

6 June 2022

Roanna Gonsalves, creative writing lecturer and author, speaks to Winnie Dunn and Dr Michael Mohammed Ahmad, at Waverley Library, in Bondi Junction, Sydney, on Saturday 11 June, from 11AM until 12PM.

Dunn is the general manager of the Sweatshop Literacy Movement, while Ahmad’s third novel The Other Half of You, was published last year. The speaking event is part of an initiative by Waverley municipal council to curb racism in the community.

Zelensky, a book by Andrew L Urban, Chris McLeod

6 June 2022

Zelensky, by Andrew L. Urban, Chris McLeod, book cover

Zelensky (published by Wilkinson Publishing, April 2022), is a portrait of Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, written by Australian author and former film critic Andrew L. Urban, and journalist and author Chris McLeod, which examines Zelensky’s resilience in the face of the Russian invasion of his country.

No one has been more surprised by Zelensky’s power to inspire and mobilise his countrymen and the world than Vladimir Putin, who expected Russia’s conquest of its beleaguered neighbour to be the work of an afternoon. Outfoxed and isolated, Putin is not the first person to have underestimated the former comedian with a spine of steel.

Literary speed dating results in potential publishing offers

2 June 2022

A recent Australian Society of Authors (ASA) literary speed dating event, whereby prospective authors pitched ideas to Australian publishers or literary agents, yielded an impressive success rate. Nearly forty-one percent of writers were “matched”, about one hundred and eighty from a field of four hundred and forty three, saw interest in their ideas.

Over two days the ASA hosted our largest event yet, with 16 publishers and 7 agents, facilitating 443 pitches from members across Australia. We are delighted to share that of these pitches, 40.41% received an expression of interest from a publisher or agent!

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Australian literature, publishing

A Kind of Magic a memoir by Anna Spargo-Ryan

31 May 2022

A Kind of Magic, by Anna Spargo-Ryan, bookcover

Speaking of Australian writer Anna Spargo-Ryan, her new book, a memoir this time, titled A Kind of Magic (published by Ultimo Press), which explores her mental health journey, arrives in bookshops in October 2022.

Anna’s always had too many feelings. Or not enough feelings – she’s never been quite sure. Debilitating panic. Extraordinary melancholy. Paranoia. Ambivalence. Fear. Despair. From anxious child to terrified parent, mental illness has been a constant. A harsh critic in the big moments – teenage pregnancy, divorce, a dream career, falling in love – and a companion in the small ones – getting to the supermarket, feeding all her cats, remembering which child is which. But between therapists’ rooms and emergency departments, there’s been a feeling even harder to explain … optimism.

Small independent publishers dominate Miles Franklin longlist

31 May 2022

Six of the titles named on the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist were published by members of the Small Press Network, a Melbourne based organisation representing more than two hundred and fifty small and independent publishers across Australia, and include one self-published title.

One Hundred Days, by Alice Pung, published by Black Inc
After Story, by Larissa Behrendt, published by University of Queensland Press
Grimmish, by Michael Winkler is self-published
Bodies of Light, by Jennifer Down, published by Text Publishing
The Magpie Wing, by Max Easton, published by Giramondo publishing

In much the same way small businesses are a vital component of the Australian economy, so too are small and independent publishers to Australian literature.

Still Alive by Safdar Ahmed wins NSW’s Book of the Year 2022

30 May 2022

Sydney based Australian artist, writer, and refugee advocate Safdar Ahmed was named winner of the Book of the Year award in the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, for his graphic novel Still Alive (published by Twelve Panels Press, April 2021), which explores the experiences of asylum seekers in Australia’s Immigration detention system.

Those seeking asylum in Australia due to war, strife and violence in their home countries face extraordinary challenges both during their journey and upon arrival. Ahmed’s book focuses on people who arrive in Australia by boat. For these people, a long, perilous journey ends with the often equally perilous obstacles they face when dealing with Australia’s legal processes, with the privations of onshore and offshore detention centres, and with inadequate health and psychological support.

2022 Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize

27 May 2022

Entries are open for the 2022 Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize until Sunday 5 June 2022, from Indigenous writers across Australia, of all ages, for unpublished poetry.

This prize is named in honour of Oodgeroo Noonuccal, the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse (with permission from the Walker family, and in close consultation with Quandamooka Festival). The Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize is open to all Indigenous poets, emerging and established, throughout Australia.

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