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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'The island continent has created an archipelago of incarceration spanning from South East Asia, Micronesia and Melanesia in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and across mainland Australia. This issue of Southerly, titled Writing Through Fences, is devoted entirely to the work of past and present refugees in these detention centres.
'The records of their experiences are devastating; their creative responses, across genres and media, are astounding. The issue also includes responses from Australian writers, activists, essayists and students, who engage with refugee writing as well as the practices and consequences of refugee incarceration.
'Writing Through Fences is guest edited by the writer-activists Hani Abdile, Behrouz Boochani, Janet Galbraith and Omid Tofighian. Two of these editors have direct experience of Australian refugee detention. Three have been displaced and exiled. All four have worked for years with refugees as translators, enablers and publishers to bring the creative voices of refugees into public view and circulation. This issue presents the greatest range of new refugee writing assembled to date in Australia.' (Publication summary)
Notes
-
Only literary material by Australian authors individually indexed. Other material in this issue includes:
Erfan Dana/Shams Hussaini, Narrative of the Displaced!
Mohammad (full name withheld), The Ocean a Nation of People (Surabaya, Indonesia 2018)
Abdul Samad Haidari, A Silenced Massacre, 7:30pm Dahmardah
Contents
- Flower Love, single work prose
-
Genevieve Lloyd, No Friend but the Mountains : An “Australian” Reading,
single work
review
— Review of No Friend but the Mountains : Writing From Manus Prison Omid Tofighian (translator), 2018 selected work prose ;'Behrouz Boochani's No Friend but the Mountains is a work which defies exclusive categorisation as "refugee writing." Its translator Omid Tofighian has pointed out, in the interpretive essay which accompanies the narrative, that it can also be appropriately described as "prison narrative," "philosophical fiction," "dissident writing"—along with other categories more directly associated with its author's cultural background. That resistance to easy categorisation enriches the book. However, it can also give rise to some issues which bear, more generally, on the reception of "refugee writing." ' (Introduction)
- Bridging Visa, single work prose
-
Pokun the Little Black King,
Omid Tofighian
(translator),
single work
short story
'I look over at the children of all ages laying out on their long thin wooden planks and riding the waves. They look like kings riding their horses. I smile at those little Black kings who are enjoying life away from the outside world. No television, no smart phones, and not even board games like chess. It may seem strange but they are cheerful. Pokun, this cheerful boy, wearing just long white shorts down past his knees. He runs towards me as soon as he sees me. He is excited to see me. He asks me to ride the waves with them. I resist, I did not want to go and tell him I cannot swim very well. But he keeps insisting to go wave riding and so I follow him.'
(Introduction)
- Salute, single work prose
- Gloves Off : Step Up to Power, single work prose
- A Lesson for Australia on Love and Community : Can the Town of Biloela Help Free Their Tamil Friends from Australia’s Border Regime?, single work essay
- Dancei"Music vibrates through my heart-", single work poetry
- Fists of the Worldi"The harbour that holds the boats", single work poetry
- Thanking ASIOi"ASIO found me", single work poetry
- Spring Is Comingi"Spring is just a dream", single work poetry
- Milk and Tearsi"On summer days", single work poetry
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Related Works
-
y
Southerly
Writing Through Fences – Archipelago of Letters
vol.
79
no.
2
2021
23374465
2021
periodical issue
'The island continent has created an archipelago of incarceration spanning from South East Asia, Micronesia and Melanesia in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and across mainland Australia. This issue of Southerly, titled Writing Through Fences, is devoted entirely to the work of past and present refugees in these detention centres.
'The records of their experiences are devastating; their creative responses, across genres and media, are astounding. The issue also includes responses from Australian writers, activists, essayists and students, who engage with refugee writing as well as the practices and consequences of refugee incarceration.
'Writing Through Fences is guest edited by the writer-activists Hani Abdile, Behrouz Boochani, Janet Galbraith and Omid Tofighian. Two of these editors have direct experience of Australian refugee detention. Three have been displaced and exiled. All four have worked for years with refugees as translators, enablers and publishers to bring the creative voices of refugees into public view and circulation. This issue presents the greatest range of new refugee writing assembled to date in Australia.' (Publication summary)
