Tasmanian Subset Continues to Grow
The Literature of Tasmania subset continues to expand as AustLit team members based at the University of Tasmania determinedly pick their way, as they say, 'through the deepest recesses of our local libraries and archives in search of undiscovered literary gems'. Recent highlights of their work include:

• An exhaustive bibliography of the works of prolific author Clive Sansom (along with extensive biographical notes)
• Additions to the entries of early Tasmanian authors such as William Atkinson Gardner and John Anthony Moore. (There are now over 1,000 AustLit agents with a Tasmanian affiliation.)

and

• Indexing of the contemporary Tasmanian poetry journal Blue Giraffe

As research progresses, the Tasmanian team is discovering new and unexpected representations of Australia's island state. The range of works includes:

• Candice Proctor's convict romance Whispers of Heaven
• Graham Parker's rock and roll fantasy The Other Life of Brian
• Kate Mulholland's historical novel The King's Shilling: A Novel of Colne and Tasmania

The present focus on works published before 1850 continues to make a substantial contribution to AustLit's body of information about colonial works, particularly through an ongoing project of systematically entering details of literary items from early newspapers and magazines. This work provides an invaluable and often surprising insight into colonial perceptions of Tasmania as 'home' and the early emergence of a local literary culture.

Central to the recording of that culture was E. Morris Miller, a seminal figure in Australian bibliography and compiler of Australian Literature from Its Beginnings to 1935. Miller produced much of his bibliographic reference material while a resident in Tasmania and, in recognition of his achievements, the University of Tasmania Library (Sandy Bay campus) is named in his honour. South African-born Miller was honorary University Librarian from 1913 to 1945 and the Library is currently hosting an exhibition featuring his life and work. The display includes some surprising items. Included among the memorabilia is a set of tuning forks purchased by Miller in the USA for use in psychological testing. (Among his myriad roles, Miller was Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at the University.) The display underlines the ongoing significance of Miller's work through AustLit, and its Tasmanian subset.

What Do the Symbols Mean?
Regular users of AustLit will be familiar with the various symbols that appear in some work records. For those who are newer to AustLit here are some explanations:

• The arrowed globe – – indicates a work accessible electronically in full text format
• The book symbol – – is attached to a separately published work (monograph and periodical)

and

• The people icon – – means that a work is peer reviewed

Users seeking only works available in full text can modify a Basic or Advanced search by checking the 'Limit to full text' option on the search screen. For example, you can discover recent critical articles in full text within the 'Australian Literary Responses to Asia' subset by constructing the following Basic search:

1. Scope: select 'Australian Literary Responses to Asia' from the drop down menu
2. Year: insert the desired year or year range (e.g. 2005-2007)
3. Type/Form/Genre: select as desired (e.g. 'column' and 'criticism')
4. Limit to full text: check box

This search (as of March 2007) will provide a results list of five works appearing in journals; three of the works are from peer reviewed sources.

New AustLit Records
During February and March 2007, the Content Development Team added:

• 7,328 new works

and

• 1,735 new agents (individuals and organisations)

In addition to these new records, over 11,500 existing work and agent records have been upgraded and enhanced.

Books Alive Gathers Momentum for 2007 Campaign
The federally-funded Books Alive initiative is on again in 2007, its fifth annual occurrence. Following the success of Matthew Reilly's Hell Island in 2005 and Monica McInerney's Odd One Out in 2006, campaign organisers have commissioned sports writer, journalist and biographer Peter Fitzsimons to write a biography of the Australian boxer Les Darcy. Fitzsimons considers Darcy's story to be 'one of the two greatest Australian stories of all time'. 'For me, it has everything', says Fitzsimons, 'passion, patriotism, love, betrayal, sport, religion, politics, war, friendship and moral ambiguity – all wrapped in the one tale'. (Bookseller + Publisher, March 2007)

Darcy's boxing career swung on the pendulum of public and media opinion. At the height of his popularity he was acclaimed in Australia and the USA as the greatest middleweight boxer of all time. When he chose not to enlist during World War I, and instead pursued his career in the USA, newspapers and governments on both sides of the Pacific were quick to judge. Darcy succumbed to septicaemia during his failed USA tour and died at the age of 21. His funeral procession is said to have drawn 700,000 people onto the streets of Sydney.

Darcy has already inspired Australian writers, particularly in the theatre. In 1974 Jack Hibberd's The Les Darcy Show hit the boards in Melbourne and Perth; nearly thirty years later Nick Enright's The Good Fight was workshopped by students at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Other Darcy-inspired works include Ruth Park's 1995 biography Home before Dark and Marsh Little's commemorative lyric, 'Les Darcy : A Song of Remembrance' (available electronically through the National Library's Digital Collections and linked to by AustLit).

Books Alive will publish 238,000 copies of Fitzsimons's story. It will be available as a giveaway title during the Books Alive campaign (25 July - 31 August) whenever a book from the Great Read Guide is purchased.

In the Public Domain
Annual reports do not always lend themselves to riveting reading, but the 2005-2006 report of the Public Lending Right (PLR) Committee provides an interesting window onto the acquisition preferences of Australia's public libraries. The PLR surveyed libraries three times from 2003 to 2006 and compiled a list of the most commonly held books. Topping the table is John Marsden's The Other Side of Dawn, the final instalment of the Tomorrow Series. (All seven books from the series are included in the list's top twenty.) John Marsden and Bryce Courtenay share equal billing in the list's top ten with three titles apiece. The other four books are Mem Fox's Possum Magic, Tim Winton's Dirt Music, Melina Marchetta's Looking for Alibrandi and a lone non-fiction title, Flags and Emblems of Australia by Jill Bruce.

The PLR report notes that the list indicates the age pattern of titles held in library collections: 'many items [reach] their use-by date after 10 years. Falling below the 50 survey copies – the threshold for a lending rights payment – becomes a reality for books around 10 years old as collections are weeded and new editions take their place.' Few titles on the list pre-date the 1990s. Among the oldest are Robin Klein's Hating Alison Ashley and Marcia Vaughan's Wombat Stew – both originally published in 1984 and regularly reprinted.

The PLR scheme makes payments to 'eligible Australian creators and publishers whose books are held in public lending libraries'. It operates in tandem with the Education Lending Right scheme for books held in educational libraries. The PLR Committee's full report is available on the website of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Together with the PLR 'Top 100', the report also includes the 100 highest scoring books held in educational libraries for 2005-2006 and a list of creators and publishers who attracted payments under the PLR scheme.

WA Government Boosts Local Publisher
The Western Australian (WA) government is providing a funding package to help overcome financial difficulties faced by the Fremantle Arts Centre Press (FACP). The package includes a $300,000 grant and an interest-free loan repayable over a five-year period. Announcing the package, WA Minister for Culture and the Arts, Sheila McHale, said the government wanted to ensure the future viability of FACP and would provide the funds after FACP 'agreed to a number of conditions designed to secure the Press's long-term financial stability'.

FACP publisher Ray Coffey is hopeful the funding will stabilise the Press in the wake of previous cuts and some changes in publishing direction. A previous move to more commercial books was not entirely successful, but Coffey is confident that FACP's trading position is turning around and that the new funding will enable unpaid royalties to be met. Coffey expects FACP to focus on the 'literary end of the publishing spectrum' where it has achieved success in the past. (West Australian, 13 March 2007)

The Fremantle-based publisher brought Elizabeth Jolley to public attention in 1976 with the publication of her first book, Five Acre Virgin and Other Stories, and it was the original publisher of A. B. Facey's A Fortunate Life. The Press has counted many other prominent writers in its stable including, at various times, Dorothy Hewett, Tim Winton, Philip Salom and Andrew Lansdown. It aims to develop 'the widest possible audience for outstanding Western Australian writers and artists' and has been committed to fostering Indigenous literature. Its most outstanding success in that field is Sally Morgan's My Place which has sold over 500,000 copies in Australia over the last 20 years. My Place received a further re-print in February 2007.

New Editor Takes Reins at Overland
Overland, the literary journal bearing the motto 'temper democratic, bias Australian', has appointed a new editor to take over from Nathan Hollier. Jeff Sparrow will move from reviews editor to overall editor following the publication of Overland's Autumn 2007 issue. Sparrow has recently published Communism : A Love Story, a biography of the radical intellectual Guido Baracchi, and his two-volume history of Melbourne, Radical Melbourne, is published by Vulgar Press. Sparrow is convinced that little magazines continue to have a role as 'cultural gadflies' despite the challenges of digital media and rapid technological change.

Sparrow brings to his new role a determination to examine Overland's raison d'être: 'I've always thought that Overland perhaps relaxed too readily into its comfort zones of cultural nationalism and literary realism and I'd like to challenge Overland's readership with explorations of issues and themes that take us past the national borders and beyond realism'. Australian Book Review once described Overland as the 'pit bull of Australian literary magazines'. That's one tradition Sparrow is keen to maintain: 'I see no reason to try to lose that status'. (Overland website)

Playwriting Prize to Honour Wherrett
The Australian Writer's Guild (AWG), with support from the Copyright Agency Limited, has announced a new playwriting prize named in honour of theatre director Richard Wherrett. The $40,000 prize will be shared evenly between the winning playwright and the production company that first produced the play in Australia. It will recognise excellence in playwriting and reward theatre companies that show a commitment to new Australian works.

AWG President Simon Hopkinson said the prize 'will encourage, reward and foster creativity in the Australian theatre community and further enhance our reputation as a nation that produces new, innovative and exciting works for the stage'. Hopkinson believes the award is a 'fitting tribute to the life and work of a great Australian theatre practitioner'. (AWG media release, 19 February 2007)

Richard Wherrett directed over 120 professional theatre productions during his 40 year career. He was co-founder of the now-defunct Nimrod Theatre Company and the first Artistic Director of the Sydney Theatre Company. Jacki Weaver, a long-time associate of Wherrett, said her friend and collaborator would have been thrilled to have an Australian award named after him. While acknowledging the importance of producing classic and overseas works, Weaver believes: 'we have got to keep informing ourselves about our own culture. There is nothing more thrilling than the palpable feeling of an audience in recognition of their own stories'. (Sydney Morning Herald, 20 February 2007)

The inaugural Richard Wherrett Prize will be presented at the 40th annual AWGIE Awards in Sydney on 31 August 2007.

Barbara Jefferis Award Instituted
Barbara Jefferis, the first woman president of the Australian Society of Authors (ASA), will be remembered in a new literary award announced recently by the ASA. The annual prize, to the value of at least $35,000, will recognise 'the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society'.

The award is the result of a $1,000,000 bequest to the ASA from Jefferis's husband, and ABC film critic, the late John Hinde. Commenting on the bequest, ASA Chair Georgia Blain said: 'This is an extraordinary act of generosity. But it is typical of Barbara and John. And it is a wonderful reminder of Barbara's legacy ... The sustainability of Australian literature today has much to do with her work to improve authors' incomes.'

Jefferis wrote extensively for radio and she published eight novels during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. She worked tirelessly and effectively on behalf of all writers and was particularly active in the Public Lending Right scheme.

Writers Head to Asia for Residencies, but Tours Come to an End
Eight writers have been offered residencies under the Asialink Literature Residency Program for 2007. Playwright Stephen House and children's author Kirsty Murray will both travel to India. House will be based in New Delhi while he undertakes work on his first novel and Murray will go to Chennai to research an Australian theatrical troupe that toured India in 1910. Murray will develop the research into a work of historical fiction for young adults. Poets Sarah Holland-Batt and Michael Farrell will be off to Japan. Holland-Batt will work on a lyrical poetry manuscript and Farrell will investigate connections between poetry and the Japanese comic book form manga.

In mainland China and Macau Peter Bakowski intends to write poetry based on his observations and experience of life there. Also in China, at Peking University, will be Xenia Hanusiak. She will be creating a new music theatre work based on the story of 19th century Chinese miner Jong Ah Siug who worked on the Bendigo goldfields in Central Victoria.

Screenwriter John Alsop will take up his residency in the Philippines to research the background for new film and television projects and, closer to home, Julie Janson will continue work on her new play 'Tsunami Tsunami', based on the events of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. Janson will be based at the University of Bunghatta, West Sumatra.

The residency program combines an opportunity for professional development with the prospect of cross-cultural collaboration. During the residencies, each of the eight writers will make connections with the creative artists and organisations of their host country and hopefully develop ongoing links.

Sadly, Asialink has announced the demise of another arm of its cultural program. The Literature Touring Program has operated for the past nine years and has supported Asian tours by Australian writers to countries such as India, Japan, China and Korea. Core funding for the program was provided by the Australia Council and this has now been discontinued. Asialink says that without these funds the program is unviable. Since 1998 the program, in addition to the writers' tours, has co-ordinated displays of over 800 Australian books, represented 50 Australian publishers and sold rights to 90 books. (Asialink media release, 3 April 2007)

It should be noted that the Residency Program is unaffected by the termination of the Touring Program and news about the 2008 residencies will be available in July 2007. More information on Asialink's cultural program's is available on the Asialink website.

Keneally Acclaimed in USA
Thomas Keneally will travel to the USA in December to receive the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The annual award, given by the Tulsa Library Trust, recognises internationally acclaimed authors 'who have written a distinguished body of work and made a major contribution to the field of literature and letters'. The award comprises a $40,000 cash prize and an engraved crystal block. Previous winners include Margaret Atwood, E. L. Doctorow, Neil Simon, Toni Morrison and John Updike.

Keneally will already have ventured to the USA during 2007 for the opening of his play 'Either, Or'. The play is based on the true story of Kurt Gerstein, a German SS officer responsible for ordering pest control chemicals for concentration camps. When Gerstein learned the true purpose of the chemicals, he sought to sabotage supplies and to alert Allied forces to the human extermination underway in the Nazi-controlled camps.

Keneally has been working closely with the production team at Theater J in Washington DC. Ari Roth, Artistic Director of Theater J, describes Keneally as 'a master writer but a student of the [playwriting] form'. During an extended development process, Roth says that the Theater J team got Keneally 'to stop thinking as a novelist writing a screenplay and move toward embracing the storytelling conceits of the theater'. (Washington Theater Review, Spring 2007)

The world premiere of 'Either, Or' opens at Theater J on 2 May 2007.

Away from the 'Big Smoke'
Australian literary events are flourishing away from the major capital cities. Here are a few highlights from recent months and some upcoming events:

• Two Fires Festival
  The New South Wales country town of Braidwood hosted the second biennial Two Fires Festival, celebrating the writing and activism of Judith Wright. The three-day festival included academic dialogues, spaces for writing and performance, and environmental and Indigenous streams. Opportunities to engage with the environment also featured. A bushwalk from Wright's former home, Edge, travelled the landscape described in Wright's 1990 prose piece 'From the Ridge to the River'.



• Ten Days on the Island
  Tasmania held the fourth Ten Days on the Island festival in late March. Festival events were spread across dozens of venues even extending to King Island in the north-west and Maria Island in the south-east of the state.



• Barossa Vintage Festival
  Literary events featured in the biennial Barossa Vintage Festival. This year the Barossa Arts Council launched a series of 'Literature in the Valley' events. Poets including Jude Aquilina and Louise Nicholas took part in 'Poets and Platters' at the Langmeil Winery, Tanunda, on 11 April.


And still to come...


• Nevil Shute Norway Foundation Conference
  'Shutists' from around the globe will gather in Alice Springs in late April to discover more about the life and work of Nevil Shute in the location made famous in his 1950 novel, A Town Like Alice. In addition to three full days of presentations, conference delegates will attend the dedication of the Nevil Shute Memorial Garden at the Alice Springs Public Library. (The Library is officially named in Shute's honour and already houses a permanent Nevil Shute Memorial Collection.) The full program is available on the conference website and further information about the Foundation can be found on the Nevil Shute Norway Foundation website.



• Ginger Mick on Tour
  Also in April, the theatre company Petty Traffikers will tour regional Victoria with 'Ginger Mick at Gallipoli'. The production was first presented in Melbourne in mid-2006 and is a dramatisation of The Moods of Ginger Mick, written by C. J. Dennis during the early years of World War I. It tells the story of a working class bloke who 'gives the sudden shudders to the lor-abidin' race' and is not especially keen to fight so 'toffs can dine on pickled olives'. Petty Traffickers' director, Stewart Morritt, is aware that some of the play's themes reverberate with current issues in Australia society – the gap between social classes, religious divides, and interpretations of patriotism and mateship. But, he says, 'it deals with humanity, ultimately. It just seems to have this context of war. I've not tried to draw any parallels.' (Age, 23 May 2006)
  
  Petty Traffikers has already presented Dennis's The Sentimental Bloke on stage and has toured adaptations of Henry Lawson's 'The Bush Undertaker' and 'The Drover's Wife'. Morritt, an immigrant from the UK, can't understand why the work of Lawson and Dennis is not 'a part of what people talk about and why it's not re-examined every three years like Hamlet would be in England'. He is resolved to 'make it my area to actually keep bringing back these gems'. (ABC Radio's Stateline Victoria, 20 May 2005)

See AustLit's Events Directory to keep abreast of happenings across the country and overseas. And feel free to submit details of literary events of interest to the Australian literature, teaching and research communities and the general public by completing the form provided on the Events Submission page on our website.

Ozlit Studies Vibrant in USA
The American Association of Australian Literary Studies (AAALS) has just held its 22nd annual conference at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. AAALS Board Member, Nicholas Birns, says: 'A delightful reception at the Australian Embassy set the tone for a convivial, entertaining, and intellectually inspiring weekend'. The conference, conducted jointly with colleagues from the Australian & New Zealand Studies Association of North America (ANZSANA), focused on the twin themes of Literature and Politics. Birns lists some of the subjects discussed:

• 'established authors who have not been the subject of as much critical discussion in the US as they deserve (Kim Scott, Brenda Walker)'
• writers once at the forefront of study, but 'now undeservingly pushed into the background (Vance Palmer)'
• newer writers 'receiving their initial academic treatments (Alexis Wright, A. L. [Andrew] McCann, Tim Richards)'

and

• 'challenges to accepted interpretive paradigms on Judith Wright, Patrick White and Jack Davis'

The conference also received a keynote address from Arthur Emerson, Australian specialist at the Library of Congress (LC). Emerson combined 'intellectual depth and lightness of spirit' in his survey of LC's Australian connections. He reminded his audience that '[w]hen much of the Library was lost to fire in 1851, the books had to be replaced with ones purchased from British booksellers – thus an increased emphasis on Australia'.

Birns's full report, including some thoughts on the state of Australian literary studies in the US, is printed in the AAALS Spring newsletter, available on the Association's website. The 2008 AAALS conference will be held in Austin, Texas, during the northern hemisphere Spring.

Ethel Turner Home Added to NSW Heritage Register
Woodlands, Ethel Turner's home during the writing of Seven Little Australians, is a new addition to the State Heritage Register of New South Wales. The Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, announced the listing of the home, drawing attention to the influence of the house and nearby bushland on Turner's writing. Sartor quoted Turner as saying that she had moved from the inner city suburb of Paddington to Woodlands, on Sydney's north shore, in 1891 seeking a lifestyle with 'clean air and free of pollution'.

Agitation for the listing was prompted by student Tracey Fiertl who was seeking a subject for an assignment requiring the drawing up of a conservation management plan. With her assignment complete, Fiertl went on to lobby successfully for Woodland's inclusion on the Heritage Register. Woodlands is the third writer's home on the Register. It joins the former homes of May Gibbs (Nutcote) and Patrick White (Martin Rd, Centennial Park).

Australian Children's Books on US 'Outstanding' List
In 2006 the United States Board on Books for Young People and the Children's Book Council (US) created their first annual Outstanding International Booklist. The list aims to introduce children to 'outstanding writers and illustrators from other countries, help them see the world through others' eyes, and address topics that are missing from children's literature in the United States'. A total of 39 books, written in or translated into English, were selected. Five Australian titles are included on the list:

• Surrender by Sonya Hartnett
• By the River by Steven Herrick
• Dogboy by Victor Kelleher
• White Time by Margo Lanagan

and

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The list was published in the 1 February 2007 issue of the US School Library Journal. The journal claims to be the world's largest reviewer of books for children and teens, and is marketed to teachers, librarians, and booksellers throughout the US.

Victorian Readers' Poll Declared
AustLit's February/March 2007 newsletter reported on the summer reading project sponsored by the State Library of Victoria ('State Library Promotes Summer Reading') and the invitation for Victorians to vote for their favourite novel from a list of '20 Novels Set Close to Home'. Results of that poll are now in. Voting via SMS text message, by mail and in person, Victorians chose Melbourne-born Elliot Perlman's Three Dollars. Perlman was surprised but honoured by the result: 'The quality and calibre of the list itself demonstrates [the] depth of writing this state has produced in its relatively short history. To even be amongst the top five would be an honour, to win is a little humbling.' (State Library of Victoria media release, 22 February 2007)

The True Life of Norma Khouri?
In July 2004, then Sydney Morning Herald Literary Editor Malcolm Knox published an exposé of Norma Khouri's 'factual' account of honour killings in Jordan. (See 'Khouri Undercover', AustLit News September/October 2004) Khouri's account, recorded in Forbidden Love, was shown by Knox to be riddled with errors of fact, as was Khouri's publicly-expounded version of her own life history.

Filmmaker Anna Broinowski has now produced a documentary, made with Khouri's active involvement, titled Forbidden Lie$. The film documents Khouri's fraud and seeks to understand her. Broinowski says that she wants the film to ask its viewers: 'What do you think? Who is this woman? Why does she do these things?' (Weekend Australian, 24-25 February 2007)

Forbidden Lie$ premiered on 25 February 2007 during the Adelaide Film Festival. Caroline Overington, who worked with Knox on the 2004 Khouri exposé, says that Khouri 'emerges from the film as a shocking liar, a wonderful actor and something of a modern-day siren, able to lure men, if not to their deaths, then certainly to their financial ruin with her seductive ways'. (Australian, 29 January 2007) Khouri did not attend the Adelaide screening but contacted media outlets by email to dispute the film's central tenets.

Forbidden Lie$ will be released nationwide through Palace Films Australia later in 2007.

Some quotes revealing the lighter, more personal side of writers and the writing life:

• David Malouf to an interviewer who noticed the demise of his trademark moustache:
  'My little great-nephew spotted that, too. I told him it blew away in the wind one day in the street. I promised I'd make a little notice: "If anyone sees this lost moustache, please return it to this address."' (Daily Telegraph, London, 10 February 2007)
• Kathryn Heyman on tour in the UK:
  'Good Lord, I love train journeys. I pile up books, notepads, pens, laptop on the small table in front of me, then spend several hours ignoring them – staring out of the window at the shifting scene, my mind empty.' (Sydney Morning Herald, 24-25 March 2007)
• Clive James to a journalist who was expecting to conduct an interview over lunch:
  'I can't possibly have lunch! Did I say that? What was I thinking? I'm up against the clock! I'm working in half hour blocks!' (Sydney Morning Herald, 24-25 March 2007)
• Anita Heiss, author of the recently launched chick-lit novel Not Finding Mr Right, with an avoidance tactic for Valentine's Day:
  'I haven't had a proper Valentine's Day date since 1995. I once got on a plane home from Hawaii on Valentine's Day so that when I got home the whole thing would be over.' (Sunday Tasmanian, 11 February 2007)
  and her reaction to hearing about Linda Jaivin's bush camping experience:
  'You know me, I've got Westfield Dreaming. I hunt kangaroo in the supermarket and throw it in the wok.' (Sun-Herald, 11 February 2007)

PEN Award for Frank Moorhouse
Frank Moorhouse has won the 2007 biennial PEN Keneally Award. The award, offered by the Australian PEN Centres, recognises 'an achievement in promoting freedom of expression, international understanding and access to literature as expressed in the charter of International PEN'. Moorhouse is honoured for his 'exceptional contribution to the community of Australian writers ... He has been an outspoken advocate in Australia and overseas on the issues of freedom of expression and copyright reform for many decades, and has recently turned his attention to one of the key issues facing writers and the wider community in the coming decades: freedom of expression in a time of terror.'

The PEN Award is named in honour of Tom Keneally, a member of the Sydney PEN Writers Advisory Panel and a lifetime champion of the values of PEN.

Rosenberg Wins Biography Award
Polish immigrant and Auschwitz survivor Jacob Rosenberg has won the $20,000 National Biography Award for his compelling memoir East of Time. The judges described Rosenberg's book as a 'beautifully crafted' work holding 'extraordinary humanity'. Rosenberg spent part of World War II in the Lodz Ghetto before being moved with his family to Auschwitz. Rosenberg, the youngest child, is the only surviving family member.

East of Time records Rosenberg's life through his childhood and the war years. A sequel, Sunrise West, will be published later this year.

WA Prize for Home Grown Talent
Perth-born writer Alice Nelson is the winner of the 2006 T.A.G. Hungerford Award. The award, presented to Nelson in late February 2007, is offered biennially for an unpublished work of fiction by a Western Australian author who has not previously been published in book form. Nelson studied creative writing at the University of Western Australia prior to enrolling in the Masters program at the City University of New York. Her prize-winning entry, 'In Arcadia', was largely written from her Manhattan studio apartment and 'consequently displays a deep nostalgia for the spaciousness and spareness of the Western Australian landscape'. (Western Suburbs Weekly, 27 February 2007)

As well as a cash prize, Nelson receives a publishing contract with Fremantle Arts Centre Press for 'In Arcadia'. The Press has recently published the winning entry in the 2004 Hungerford Award, Donna Mazza's The Albanian.

Western Suburbs Grunge a Winner
Damian McDonald's realist novel, 'Luck in the Greater West' has won the 2007 ABC Fiction Award. McDonald used his own experience of life in Sydney's west and in a Canberra housing commission block to develop a work that explores themes of 'multiculturalism, unemployment, drug use, racism, sexuality and love'. Tom Gilling, one of the judges of the 2007 award, said that McDonald offered a 'compelling insight into a world that Australian literature doesn't often visit'. (ABC media release, 6 March 2007)

McDonald has named his book's hero Patrick White, in honour of the Australian Nobel laureate. McDonald's White, however, is a drug dealer and small time criminal. 'I thought the name was a quite stereotypically Anglo-Saxon kind of name ... in this multicultural environment I'm writing about, I think it's a good name to represent the white Australian, Aussie-bloke kind of person.' (Sydney Morning Herald, 7 March 2007)

McDonald had virtually lost hope of attracting a publisher for his manuscript: 'I have a mountain of rejection letters at home. I'd tried half a dozen agents and the same number of publishers and they'd all said that now was not the right time for unpublished writers.' (Australian, 7 March 2007) McDonald will now have his book published and promoted by ABC Books.

Competition for the 2008 ABC Fiction Award commences on 30 April 2007. Entries must be lodged by 29 June 2007. For details see the Award webpage.

Dromkeen Medal to Esteemed McVitty
The 2006 Dromkeen Medal has been awarded to Walter McVitty during a ceremony at the Windsor Hotel, Melbourne, in late February 2007. The Medal is awarded annually for 'work that makes a significant contribution to the appreciation and development of children's literature'. Walter McVitty established a successful career over 30 years as a teacher, librarian and lecturer. In the mid-1980s he took early 'retirement' and, with his wife Lois McVitty, established Walter McVitty Books. The independent press published 60 titles over 13 years before its sale to Lothian Books in 1997.

McVitty's Medal citation states: 'His dedication to the encouragement and improvement of reading for children is awesome and sustaining'. His commitment to writers and illustrators, both new and experienced, is described as 'never-ending, highly valued and appreciated by many'. McVitty's achievements have previously been recognised through membership of the Order of Australia in 1994 and with a Nan Chauncy Award in 1998. McVitty's personal account of his career in all its phases is explored in his 2004 autobiography, A Life in Children's Books.

Miles Franklin Longlist
Eight novels have been longlisted for the 2007 Miles Franklin Literary Award. They include work by first time novelist Kate Legge and the multi-award winning Peter Carey. Unlike the 2006 longlist, when historical fiction was much in evidence, this year's nominees favour largely contemporary settings; Richard Flanagan's The Unknown Terrorist (published in 2006) is even set in 2007.

The longlisted novels are:

• Beyond the Break by Sandra Hall
• Careless by Deborah Robertson
• Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
• Dreams of Speaking by Gail Jones
• Silent Parts by John Charalambous
• Theft : A Love Story by Peter Carey
• The Unexpected Elements of Love by Kate Legge

and

• The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan

The shortlist for the Award will be announced on 19 April and the winner on 21 June. Shortlisted writers will undertake regional tours in May and early June, beginning in Tasmania, and the winner will continue touring after the Award announcement. All states and territories will receive author visits in a program supported by the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL).

Orange Prize Longlist
Two Australians are included in the 20-strong longlist for the 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. Deborah Robertson (Careless) and M. J. Hyland (Carry Me Down) are in company with nine British authors, four Americans, two Canadians and one writer each from China, India and Nigeria. The Orange Prize is awarded to 'the woman who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best, eligible full-length novel in English'. (Eligibility is governed by the first UK publication date.)

The shortlist for the Orange Prize will be announced on 17 April and the winner declared on 16 June. The only previous Australian winner is Kate Grenville in 2001 for The Idea of Perfection.

Other recent awards:

• Andrew O'Connor's Tuvalu has won the Best First Book section of the 2007 Commonwealth Writer's Prize, South East Asia and South Pacific. A full list of all regional winners is available on the Prize website. The overall winners will be announced in Jamaica on 27 May 2007.
• Nicholas Shakespeare has won the biennial Tasmania Prize for In Tasmania and Robert Dessaix has been awarded the Margaret Scott Prize for Twilight of Love : Travels with Turgenev. Winners of both prizes were announced during the recent Ten Days on the Island festival.
• Robert Adamson has won the Grace Leven Poetry Prize for The Goldfinches of Baghdad. Although the prize offers only a small financial reward, it is held in high esteem among poets.

Australian detective writer Arthur Upfield has been back in the media in recent months. Upfield and his fictional sleuth Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte have been the focus of an SBS documentary (In Search of Bony, broadcast 25 January 2007), a feature article by Caroline Baum ('The Case of the Disappearing Detective' Good Weekend 20 January 2007), and an interview with American Professor Andrew Milnor, who is writing a biography of Upfield (Mornings with Margaret Throsby, ABC Radio National).

For more than six decades, Upfield's novels and Inspector Bonaparte (Bony as he was known 'to his friends') were everywhere in the public eye in Australia. The books were in bookshops; they were serialised in newspapers and magazines; they were read on radio stations nationwide: Winds of Evil and Mr Jelly's Business are good examples. After Upfield's death, the mysteries were adapted for a popular television series, Boney, in the 1970s and a less popular series in 1992. Libraries Australia lists over 800 records for works by Upfield, in standard print format, braille, large print and as sound cassettes, but the last standard editions of the Bony books to be published in Australia were issued in the 1990s. Like the works of too many Australian writers, they are out of print and difficult to obtain in quality second-hand editions.

In this month's 'Spotlight', AustLit Content Manager, Carol Hetherington, brings us up to date with continuing research and developments relating to Upfield and his works.

An Author Bites the Dust?
Are Bony and his creator really dead and buried, as untraceable as the corpse in a Bony mystery? On the contrary. Overseas, particularly in France and Germany, publication and sales of Upfield novels have remained healthy. There are numerous well-maintained Upfield websites, chat-rooms and blogs used by Australian and international fans, and second-hand copies of his books fetch handsome prices everywhere. In the United States Upfield has always had a loyal following. One enthusiast, Mr Philip Asdell, compiled a scholarly bibliography of Upfield's work in 1984. Between 1981 and 1990 Asdell also wrote and published a regular newsletter for other Upfield fans, The Bony Bulletin, which ran for 33 issues. A year ago, AustLit tried to locate copies of this newsletter and found that no Australian library had listed a complete set on Libraries Australia; however, this year another American enthusiast, Claudia Stone, has published The Collected Bony Bulletins – a 225 page reprint of all the issues together with an index and a new introduction by the original publisher, Philip Asdell.* This is good news for libraries and readers. More good news for Australian readers is that Australian publisher Tom Thompson of ETT Imprint, who appeared on the SBS program, is planning a re-issue on Upfield's Bony series in 2008, as well as a volume of Upfield short stories.

The Case Re-Opened
In Search of Bony provides perspectives from a wide a range of different figures: authors Philip McLaren and Thomas Keneally, historians Henry Reynolds and Gary Foley, publishers Tom Thompson and Michael Duffy, actor and Indigenous arts administrator Lydia Miller, and Upfield's literary agent Pamela Ruskin. They throw interesting light on some of the issues affecting Upfield's literary reputation. In the early years, Upfield was shunned by the literary establishment and crime fiction was ignored by critics and scholars – see Stephen Knight's 'The Case of the Missing Genre' (1998). Upfield would have felt vindicated to find Peter Temple's crime novel The Broken Shore considered for the 2006 Miles Franklin award. Later, in the 1970s, sensitivity about the representation of Aboriginality in Upfield's novels and the casting of white actors to play the part of Bony in the two television series meant that Australian commentators either concentrated exclusively on issues of race, or avoided Upfield completely. According to publisher Michael Duffy, this is evidence of misguided notions of political correctness and Henry Reynolds and Gary Foley both find Upfield's treatment of Indigenous issues quite acceptable. The jury is still out on this matter, however, with Lydia Miller remaining clearly of the opinion that Upfield is guilty of cultural appropriation.

Bony Re-Searched
While research and critical appraisal of Upfield's work has certainly lagged in Australia – to date the only full-length critical study of Upfield was published in the United States (Ray Browne's The Spirit of Australia) – Caroline Baum's assertion that 'academics, critics and literary gatekeepers' treat Upfield and his hero Bony as 'embarrassing jokes' is wide of the mark. At least one PhD has been awarded recently in an Australian university for an absorbing and meticulously researched critical biography of Upfield ('Arthur William Upfield : A Biography' by Travis Lindsey is available online from the Murdoch University website); a case study of Upfield will feature in a forthcoming critical anthology (Fact and Fiction: Readings in Australian Literature. Ed. Amit Sarwal and Reema Sarwal. New Delhi: Authorspress, 2007) targeted at students of Australian literature in India; and a major research project for 2007 into American publication of Australian literature, led by Professor David Carter at The University of Queensland, will examine the publishing history and popular appeal of Upfield's novels. The data from this last project will be progressively incorporated into AustLit. By 2008 AustLit (working through the alphabet to achieve a comprehensive record of the national literature) will have the fullest available listing of all editions and translations of Upfield's work.

Bony in the Baillieu
Ian Morrison, formerly of Melbourne University's Baillieu Library, responded to another inaccuracy in Caroline Baum's article: that indifferent librarians and archivists failed to bid for Upfield's collection in 2000 and allowed it to be 'split up, with the bulk of it going to collectors in the US'. Concerned that the end of this story had not been told, Morrison pointed out that most of Upfield's collection of correspondence, manuscripts and notebooks has since found a home in the Baillieu Library (Good Weekend, 10 February 2007). In 2005 the University of Melbourne Rare Books Collection announced a 'significant acquisition': 'Iconic Australian Novelist Arthur Upfield's Papers Acquired' ran the headline of the UniNews. Other archival material is held at the University of Western Australia and at the National Library of Australia.

So the file on Upfield is far from closed – something of a 'cold case', as they say in detective parlance – but new evidence is emerging and people are still 'on Bony's case'.

* Copies of The Collected Bony Bulletins are available from the compiler, Claudia Stone: 11361 E. Ammon Place, Tucson, AZ 85749-9301, USA 520-760-1289; email : c.stone@cox.net

New Journal for WA Writers
Fremantle-based writers' group 'Out of the Asylum' is launching a new literary journal, Indigo, exclusively targeting Western Australian (WA) writers. Managing editor Donna Ward believes the new publication will fill a significant gap in the West's literary scene and will come to occupy a unique space in the cultural life of Perth. Ward says that Westerly, the only other literary journal based in the west, receives submissions from local, national and international contributors; Indigo will be unique in that it will only receive submissions from WA residents or those who have lived in the state for ten or more years.

Ward told Western Suburbs Weekly, a Perth suburban newspaper, that Indigo will give local writers an opportunity to develop in their home state without 'feeling forced to move east'. (13 March 2007) Supporting her efforts is an advisory group that includes Westerly editors Denis Haskell and Delys Bird, Perth poet and publisher Roland Leach, and Fremantle Arts Centre Press publisher, Ray Coffey.

Submissions for Indigo are being accepted until 25 April 2007; publication of the first issue is due in July. The journal is also seeking donations to assist with the running of the journal. Full details are available on the Indigo website.

Corresponding Lives
Naturally enough, writers don't write only for unknown audiences, they also write intimately and tellingly to each other. In recent months several volumes of correspondence by influential Australian writers have been published:

• With Love and Fury : Selected Letters of Judith Wright
  In 2004, teacher and translator Meredith McKinney and scholar Patricia Clarke published a volume of correspondence between McKinney's parents Judith Wright and J.P. McKinney, The Equal Heart and Mind : Letters between Judith Wright and Jack McKinney. Now they have produced another volume, With Love and Fury : Selected Letters of Judith Wright. At the time of Wright's death, part of her life story had been told in Half a Lifetime, edited by Clarke; but what of the second half? With Wright no longer alive how was the rest of the story to be told? McKinney explains:
  

  When we [McKinney and Clarke] paused to consider it, we realised that Judith in fact had devoted a large proportion of her working life to writing the material for the book we now began to plan. Scarcely a day went by when she did not write letters, and scarcely a week went by when she did not complain about the amount of time she spent doing so. Letters in all their forms – from long and intimate pages to dear friends and family, to briefer letters responding patiently and politely to fans and importunate would-be poets, and the impassioned and hardhitting missives to politicians written in the heat of battle – had poured from her typewriter continuously. It was just a matter of locating them.
  'With Love and Fury : Judith Wright's Letters', National Library of Australia News, 17.5 (February 2007)

  The result of McKinney and Clarke's search was the first volume of letters in 2004; With Love and Fury completes their project.



• Portrait of a Friendship : The Letters of Barbara Blackman and Judith Wright 1950-2000
  In 1997 Barbara Blackman commissioned Bryony Cosgrove to edit Glass after Glass, Blackman's 'autobiographical reflections'. Cosgrove has continued the association by editing a volume of correspondence between Blackman and Judith Wright. The two women met in Brisbane in the late 1940s and formed a friendship that stretched across half a century. The collection of letters in Portrait of a Friendship capture 'an insiders view of literary and artistic life in Australia in the second half of the 20th century and a standard of letter writing that is unlikely to survive the slap-dashery of email'. (Bookseller + Publisher, March 2007)



• Bert and Ned : The Correspondence of Albert Tucker and Sidney Nolan
  Art critic and gallery director Patrick McCaughey is the editor of Bert and Ned : The Correspondence of Albert Tucker and Sidney Nolan. (The epithet 'Ned' is a reference to Nolan's fascination with Ned Kelly.) As well as being outstanding 20th century Australian artists, Tucker and Nolan were connected by what McCaughey describes as the 'shared experience of different but troubled, even traumatic, relationships with John and Sunday Reed' and the literary and artistic community that gathered around the Reed's home, Heide. Tucker and Nolan corresponded for 35 years until an incident at the 1982 opening of the National Gallery of Australia led to a cessation of their friendship. The two men repaired their relationship just before Nolan's death a decade later.
  
  Reviewer for the Australian, Corrie Perkin, reminds readers that 'Tucker and Nolan were gifted writers. In their early years, Nolan contemplated becoming a poet, while Tucker aspired to be a critic and writer. Their letters often have a strong lyrical quality and the word pictures they paint are as sharp and rich as their canvas works.' (28 October 2006)

For a link to another recent collection of letters, Letters Lifted into Poetry : Selected Correspondence between David Campbell and Douglas Stewart, 1946-1979, see 'Revival of Interest in Campbell Legacy' in AustLit's December 2006/January 2007 newsletter.

Scholarship for Biography Research
The Research School of Humanities at the Australian National University is inviting applications for a three-year PhD scholarship to undertake research in biography. The work will be under the supervision of Dr Paul Pickering and the student will undertake a broadly-based project involving a single or group biography, or a consideration of the biographical form.

Applications close on 4 May 2007. Further details are available from Dr Pickering:
Phone: (02) 6125 3451
Email: paul.pickering@anu.edu.au

Harold White Fellows Sought
Applications close on 30 April for the 2008 Harold White Fellowships at the National Library of Australia. Senior researchers and creative artists are invited to apply for the fellowships. Recipients are provided with office space at the National Library and support for research that is based on the Library's collections. Fellowships are awarded for a period of three to four months. Full details, including an application form, are available on the Harold White Fellowships webpage. Enquires can be directed to:
Secretary, Harold White Fellowship Committee
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600
Email: fellowships@nla.gov.au

Humanities Academy Survey
The Australian Academy of the Humanities has been awarded a grant from the Australian Research Council to find out how arts and humanities scholars conduct their research, including their current research methods, use of ICT (information and communications technology) in their research, and what their needs for the future are. The survey is aimed at all researchers in arts and humanities disciplines in higher education institutions in Australia, including post-graduate students.

The survey's designers offer the following invitation: 'We would like to know about your current research methods, including your use of ICT and your future needs. There are 43 short questions, mostly easy-to-complete tick boxes, and it should take 10 minutes to complete.'

Survey responses close on 11 May 2007. If you provide your contact details at the end of the survey you will be entered into a prize draw for a $100 Amazon voucher. Click here to link to the survey.

Celebrating a Centenary of Hope
The Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University is marking the centenary of the birth of A. D. Hope with a three-day conference 'Wandering Islands : A. D. Hope and Australian Poetry'. (The conference shares its title with Hope's first collection of poetry, published in 1955.) The conference will examine the life, work and influence of Hope and the keynote speakers will include poet Kevin Hart, Professor of English at Notre Dame University, Indiana. Conference dates are 17 to 20 July 2007 and further information is available on the conference webpage or by contacting the conference convener, Associate Professor David Brooks:
Email: david.brooks@arts.usyd.edu.au

Elizabeth Jolley (1923-2007)
'Everyone who knew her has a favourite Elizabeth Jolley story.' These opening words from Andrew Riemer's obituary of Jolley (Sydney Morning Herald, 23 February 2007) were borne out in episodes re-told in newspapers across Australia in the days following the West Australian writer's death. Riemer's story came from an interview session at a Sydney Writers' Festival when Jolley responded delightedly to an audience member who quizzed her about the source of the t-shirt she was wearing, rather than asking about any weighty literary topic. For Thomas Keneally, it was Jolley's grounded, unpretentious composition style that stuck in his mind: 'There were no grand journals for her ... She used to write while pegging out clothes. She'd have a note pad in her pocket and she stop and make notes. They'd be on fragments of paper and Post-It notes.' (Daily Telegraph, 21 February 2007) Jolley's agent, Jenny Darling recalled the 'Thelma and Louise-type road trips' taken together when Darling would drive her charge to literary festivals and Bob Sessions, publisher at Penguin, looked back on Jolley's wicked sense of humour: 'she would use [it] as a weapon if you stepped out of line. She'd give you a little jab.' (Age, 20 February 2007) Sessions also has memories of sitting with Jolley during a public engagement featuring newspaper proprietor Conrad Black. Jolley turned to Sessions saying: 'Oh Bob, I am enjoying this, so much testosterone in the air.' (Australian, 20 February 2007)

Elizabeth Jolley came to Australia in her mid-30s with her librarian husband, Leonard Jolley. She had been born in the industrial midlands of England, raised in a Quaker household, educated at home and in boarding schools, and had trained as a nurse during World War II. Despite repeated rejections she persevered with writing and was finally published by the Fremantle Arts Centre Press (FACP) in 1976. Her first book was a collection of short stories, Five Acre Virgin and Other Stories; over two dozen other books followed, along with multiple awards. Jolley won Premiers' awards in Western Australia and New South Wales, several Age Book of the Year and Fellowship of Australian Writers awards, and a Miles Franklin Literary Award (for The Well in 1986).

Jolley's style has been described variously as gothic, mischievous, subtle and disconcerting. Her writing celebrates the lives of the stranger and the exiled, the neglected and the rejected. It often bears witness to the shaping, sometimes damaging, effect of institutions. Literary historian William Grono said that Jolley's work reminded him of 'Geoffrey Chaucer in his descriptions of characters in The Canterbury Tales. They're often done ironically and with unexpected details.' (West Australian, 20 February 2007) Grono's views were echoed by Professor Denis Haskell: 'She seemed to bring something rather different to our literature, a kind of odd eccentric bunch of characters dealing with often very dark issues'. (ABC News, 20 February 2007)

In tandem with her writing career, Jolley taught at Curtin University of Technology (and its former incarnation as the Western Australian Institute of Technology) from 1978 until her retirement in 2000. She was named Professor of Creative Writing there on her 75th birthday in 1998. Her impact was recognised by students (among them Tim Winton) and the wider university community. The Elizabeth Jolley Lecture Theatre is named in her honour as is an annual lecture series and, following the announcement of her death, campus flags were flown at half mast for three days. Vice-Chancellor Jeanette Hacket wrote about Jolley that '[s]he greatly valued being a Curtin staff member, for "a room of her own" in which to write, for her contact with literary colleagues, and for the opportunity to work with young writers. In return, she was equally valued by Curtin staff and students. Her passionate commitment to the community touched us all and will continue to do so through her works.' (VC's Note, 20 February)

At the time of Jolley's death her friend Brian Dibble was in the process of writing her authorised biography, parts of which Jolley had read. Dibble hopes to complete the biography during 2007, omitting sensitive material to which he was given access at the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. Jolley's collection at the Mitchell, except her unpublished manuscripts, has restricted access and will not be available for about 25 years.

Thomas Shapcott, in a poem published just prior to Jolley's death and dedicated to her, invokes the distinctive voice of 'the other' in Elizabeth Jolley. Shapcott writes of an occasion in the West when the two authors encounter a flowering white cedar tree. Jolley tells her companion: 'Cape Lilac, we call these.'

... Cape Lilac,
I hear your voice in that name, Elizabeth,
and again its flowering canopy forces abundance
from a delicate framework, like ghosts in the flower shadows,
and like your voice, re-naming for me
a whole new territory from things
I had assumed I knew unerringly.

'Cape Lilac', Blue Dog 5.10 (2006):8

David Myers (1942-2007)
A semi-autobiographical novel described by its author as 'the memoirs of a larrikin Casanova with foot in mouth disease' provides a pithy insight into the nature and character of Professor David Myers. Professor Myers was a gifted scholar, academic and linguist. He taught and studied at universities in Australia, Canada, Germany and Japan, often launching new programs from which the less courageous and imaginative shied. He developed courses in world literature at the University of Toronto, he established the Language Centre at the Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education (now Central Queensland University), he generated language, educational and personal links in India, Thailand and Japan, and he founded Central Queensland University Press with its specialist imprint Old Silvertail's Outback Books. The imprint is the only press specialising in northern Australia's outback culture and heritage.

Michael Wilding, with whom Myers co-edited anthologies in the Best Stories Under the Sun series, says that '[d]espite the deepening gloom of university life, [Myers] maintained a mischievous sense of humour'. As evidence, Wilding cites 'a satirical calypso in the style of Harry Belafonte' composed as a vote of thanks to a university vice-chancellor and a newspaper photograph of Myers 'posed astride a brass cast of a rodeo bull'. (Australian, 12 March 2007) Myers's irreverence is also manifest in his writings. In 2006 he published Glorious Gods and Swaggering Heroes, a re-writing of Greek myths, and his 'God in the Highly Unauthorised Old Testament' will appear later this year. Myers's earlier publications include four volumes of short stories and a collection of poetry; much of the writing is satirical.

According to Wilding: 'Amid the contemporary conformity of account-driven global conglomerates, Myers stood out as an individualist of the old school, committed to proving that the day of the bon-vivanting gentleman publisher was not yet over.' (Australian, 12 March 2007)

Sue Williams (1948-2007)
A designer and art director 'without peer' is the way Sue Williams is described by her former colleagues at Working Title Press. Williams, along with Jane Covernton, received her grounding in the publishing industry at Rigby. In 1981 Williams and Covernton established their own publishing company, Omnibus Books. The timing was highly favourable. Coinciding with an upsurge of interest in picture books and a diminishing of the Australian 'cultural cringe', the new imprint released the enormously successful One Woolly Wombat in 1982 and Possum Magic in the following year. Both books are much-loved by children (and adults) in Australia and overseas. Williams 'encouraged illustrators to go to the heart of the story and favoured simple, direct imagery that captured the essence of the emotion. Omnibus picture books were characterised by their elegant use of white space and airy composition.' (Working Title Press, quoted in Bookseller + Publisher, March 2007) Williams, under the name Sue Machin, wrote picture books of her own, two of which were illustrated by Julie Vivas: I Went Walking was published in 1989 and Let's Go Visiting appeared in 1997. By the time of the latter publication Williams and Covernton had established Working Title Press, following the sale of Omnibus to Scholastic Australia.

In 2001 Williams left publishing to pursue academic studies at Flinders University. She had recently completed her PhD thesis in the field of women's crime fiction.

Neil Curtis (1950-2006)
Neil Curtis was a prolific illustrator and artist. At the time of his death an exhibition of his non-commercial work had just opened in a Melbourne gallery. Although he was too ill to attend, Curtis wrote: 'These were drawings that had to be done. Just because they had no commercial potential, did not appeal to kiddies (or to most people for that matter) didn't mean they wouldn't come quietly to life and quietly be stored away. The satisfaction was in the doing and that I think it is good art.' (Age, 13 December 2006)

Curtis came to Australia from London as a child. He was awkward in his new country – his accent didn't fit and neither did his disinclination to play sport. However he had a gift for drawing. His artwork has been exhibited in Australia and internationally, and his illustrations graced picture books and children's fiction. In 2004 Curtis and author Joan Grant won the Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award, Picture Book of the Year, for Cat and Fish.

In 2004 Allen and Unwin published Curtis's autobiographical tale The Memory Book. Responding to news of the artist's death Allen and Unwin said: 'His work is loved and appreciated all over the world. His materials were unpretentious: pen and ink, paint and pencil; his style adventurous and exploratory, in turn anarchic, delicate, fierce and joyous ... We have lost a great artist at the height of his powers and a demanding, wonderful, unforgettable friend.' (Bookseller + Publisher, March 2007)

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