AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'It begins with a woman barely able to speak. The woman is me, and I am choking in my sleep. My partner mentioned it to me last spring – you know you stop breathing during the night, right? – and I shrugged, feigning disinterest in my body and its nocturnal patterns while thinking about a strange sensation that started a few years ago: visceral, physical dreams where my mouth would fill with peanut butter, the concrete-like spread sticking my molars and vocal cords together. More recently these dreams of choking have been tinged with COVID anxiety – I am sick, my dream self thinks, so I must stay away from others. I looked up the interpretation of these dreams and learnt that they signalled swallowing an unpleasant part of your life until it can no longer be seen, spoken of, or heard.' (Introduction)
Notes
-
Epigraph:
Whatever you describe to another person is also a revelation of who you are and who you think you are. You cannot describe anything without betraying your point of view, your aspirations, your fears, your hopes. Everything.
James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Awards
- 2023 highly commended ASAL Awards — Rosemary Van den Berg Prize for First Nations Criticism