AustLit

'As a co-creator of the new ABC series Stateless, Cate Blanchett hopes to challenge Australian attitudes towards asylum seekers, particularly as the climate crisis threatens to displace many more people. “The rhetoric of protection and the language has separated Australians from their humanity, and encouraged the public through a lack of transparency in information to tolerate or ignore human rights abuses that are going on offshore.” By Steve Dow.' (Introduction)

'Despite some shaky moments, Benjamin Law’s Torch the Place is filled with humour and heart, and breathes new life into the Australian tradition of naturalism. By Alison Croggon.' 

'Seven years ago, Harvard professor and resurrection biologist George Church made headlines around the world when he announced that we already have the technical know-how to bring back Neanderthals, and that nothing wanted but an “extremely adventurous female human” to act as surrogate mother. Donna Mazza’s second novel takes us into the mind of just such a female, although the woman at the heart of Mazza’s story seems less motivated by the adventure of science than an impossible craving to sacrifice her humanity.' (Introduction)

'The unnamed narrator of Madeleine Watts’ debut novel is an emergency dispatch phone operator. She’s spending her last year in Sydney making bad decisions: drinking too much, sleeping with the wrong men, wanting to escape overseas but seduced by the hourly rate of shift work and bearing witness to a national climate emergency. Her life is a freight train hurtling towards panic stations.' (Introduction)