Scant Joy for Writers in Queen's Birthday Honours
No Australian creative writers were included in the June 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours list. Those with a connection to the world of literature and who were recognized are Ray Coffey and Clive Newman, both associated with Fremantle Arts Centre Press, and the historian Bill Gammage.

Among Australia's most distinguished writers are several who have previously been recognised as Australian National Living Treasures or who were awarded Centenary Medals in 2001, but who have not been honoured in the Order of Australia lists. Other writers have received Order of Australia Medals or Membership in earlier phases of their literary careers, but have gone on to achieve worldwide acclaim and may now be suitable for recognition at the higher level of Officer of Companion in the Order.

The Honours Secretariat points out that 'anybody in the community can nominate any Australian citizen for an award within the Order of Australia. Community organisations, professional bodies and the like may nominate someone for an award.' Further details on the nomination process are available on the Honours website.

Second Home for ABR in Adelaide
Australian Book Review (ABR) has generated a new partnership in its South Australian birthplace. Flinders University is to become a sponsor of ABR with editor Peter Rose spending part of each month at the university and maintaining an office there. While at Flinders Rose will teach within the creative writing program and develop opportunities for students to gain experience in editing via volunteer and internship positions.

Welcoming the agreement, Professor Graham Tulloch, acting head of the School of Humanities, noted that ABR has 'done so much for the promotion of writing in Australia over the years, and we anticipate a productive synergy with our creative writing program as well as seeking new contributors for the magazine.' (News and Research Stories, Flinders University, 8 June 2005)

ABR began its life in South Australia in 1961 under the joint editorship of Max Harris and Geoffrey Dutton and was based there until 1974. After a publishing hiatus, the magazine began its second series from Melbourne in 1978 under John McLaren's direction. Following the work of several other editors Rose took over in 2001. Under his leadership the magazine has supplemented regular funding, from the Australia Council and the support of subscribers, with a major sponsorship from LaTrobe University and a national sponsorship with the National Library of Australia.

(A more detailed account of ABR's editorial and publishing history can be found on the AustLit record for Australian Book Review.)

Books Alive 'Great Read' List Released
Books Alive has announced the selected titles for The 2005 Books Alive Great Read Guide. Project Director, Brett Osmond, said that Books Alive research showed 'regular Australians are in need of more help when buying books.' In response, the campaign organisers produced a 48-page full-colour magazine-style guide to assist buyers with choices. The Guide is divided into 12 genres and more than half the titles are by Australian writers.

Australian books fare particularly well in the children's section of the Guide. Included are:

• Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French
• The Day My Bum Went Psycho by Andy Griffiths
• Mister Monday by Garth Nix
• Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden
• Specky Magee and the Great Footy Contest by Felice Arena and Garry Lyon

and

• Are We There Yet? by Alison Lester

Among the adult works are David Malouf's Remembering Babylon and Tim Winton's Dirt Music (in the 'Literary' section), and Jane Goodall's The Walker and Kerry Greenwood's Cocaine Blues (in the 'Crime' section).

Part of the 2005 strategy for Books Alive is the commissioning of the novella, Hell Island, by Matthew Reilly. Reilly comments wryly that his books 'won't win too many literary prizes', but he is evidently pleased to be associated with the campaign. 'Books Alive is about getting lapsed readers back into reading and introducing non-readers to the joys of a great book, telling them that reading is not only as good as TV, movies, Xbox and PlayStation, it's better.' Reilly hopes that Hell Island will prove to be a 'page-burner' and will thereby show 'even the most reluctant reader that a book can outdo the biggest Hollywood blockbuster.' (Media release, July 2005)

Two and a half million copies of The 2005 Books Alive Great Read Guide are being distributed via the August issue of the Australian Women's Weekly, bookshops, libraries, transport hubs and other outlets. From 27 July to 31 August Reilly's novella will be given away with any book purchased from the Guide.

The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has expressed concern about the Guide on two main fronts. Given that the Books Alive campaign is funded by the Australian government through the Australia Council, the ASA has queried why money is being spent 'promoting foreign authors'. ASA Executive Director, Jeremy Fisher, also asks why the Guide mainly lists 'books that are already selling well'. Given the Books Alive aim of providing guidance to prospective readers Fisher suggests an 'Amazon approach'. 'A campaign something along the lines of "If you liked Maeve Binchy (or Jodi Picoult or Ian McEwan) try this book by an Australian writer" would support Australian writers, and encourage book buying and reading.' (ASA News, '"Books Alive" an affront to Australian authors', 28 July 2005)

Williamson Says 'Enough'
After a thirty-five-year career, David Williamson says he has written his last work for the theatre. With nearly forty plays under his belt and ten AWGIE Awards to his credit, Williamson has decided to give priority to his health and no longer subject himself to the barbs of theatre critics. Williamson has been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, a condition exacerbated by high stress levels. After a tribute night in his adopted home of Noosa Heads, Williamson told Age reporter Jo Roberts, 'I don't want that feeling any more of lying awake at night, wondering what some bastard is going to say about me the next day in the press.' Williamson found the critics' comments particularly chaffing when he had just witnessed the audience response to opening night and knew his play would be a success. 'But some bastard is going to tell you the next morning that you can't write. I've had enough of that.' (Age, 23 June 2005)

Williamson need hold no fears of such a response on his visit to Sydney for the 2005 Helpmann Awards. (See Awards & Shortlists section below for further details on this year's Helpmanns.) On 8 August Williamson will be presented with the James Cassius Award recognising his 'outstanding contribution to the performing arts'. Williamson is a joint-winner of this year's Cassius with Dame Joan Sutherland. Two nights later Williamson's final play, Influence, will begin a brief return season at the Sydney Theatre.

Clive James Embraces New Technology
Although admitting that his website has been generated 'by young helpers talking a language I don't pretend to understand', Clive James has entered the world of cyberspace with enthusiasm. Several years ago James was 'flattered to be asked' to accept the role of chair of the British internet company Welcome Stranger. (The company's most recent venture is the magazine In London.) James's website is managed by one of his colleagues at Welcome Stranger and offers text, audio and video links. In the text section James has added some of his newer poems and is now incorporating poems by guest poets. An international field of poets includes Australian Stephen Edgar.

James is also working on two major print publications – a fourth volume of memoirs and a cultural history of the 20th century. Speaking of the latter project James told Kay O'Sullivan, 'it's a vast topic and a vast book – 700 pages, and I've cut it down.' (Sydney Morning Herald, 25-26 June 2005) Both books are due for publication in late 2006. The first three volumes of James's memoirs have been published in separate volumes and in the omnibus, Always Unreliable : The Memoirs.

Emery Takes Up Role as Director of Literature
John Emery, writer of novels, short stories and screenplays, has been appointed the new Director of Literature at the Australia Council. Emery is currently the co-head of Screenwriting at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and he is already a member of the Literature Board. Emery published three novels and a collection of short stories during the 1970s and 1980s before concentrating on writing for the screen. He adapted his novel Freedom for the 1982 film of the same name. The film was an early Scott Hicks production.

Miles Franklin Selling in Canberra
An exhibition at the National Library of Australia, 'Miles Franklin : A Brilliant Career?', not only attracted visitor interest in the display, it also prompted increased sales of books by and about Miles Franklin. During May 2005, the first full month of the exhibition, My Brilliant Career was the National Library Bookshop's bestselling title. This was followed at number three by Childhood at Brindabella and at number four by Paul Brunton's The Diaries of Miles Franklin.

The exhibition was displayed at the State Library of New South Wales in 2004 and traveled to the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery in Tasmania earlier in 2005. Paul Brunton has written an informative and detailed guide to the exhibition. The text, with its accompanying illustrations, is available online via the State Library of New South Wales's website.

Science Meets Science Fiction in New Magazine
Damien Broderick has been appointed fiction editor of the new Australian science magazine, Cosmos. Announcing the appointment Wilson da Silva, the magazine's editor, noted Broderick's respected standing in the international science fiction community and commented that science fiction is a 'well-regarded and profitable fiction genre overseas. We mean to develop the genre locally, as well as bring some of the best of global science fiction writing to Australian readers.' (Press release, 10 June 2005)

Medals Join Lu Rees Collection
In early July 2005 Lu Rees Archives gladly received three medals previously awarded to Lu Rees for her services to literature. The medals, including the inaugural Dromkeen Medal, will be housed in the Archives at the University of Canberra. Professor Belle Alderman, manager of the collection and member of AustLit's Executive Board of Management, said the medals will be displayed as part of the Archives 25th anniversary celebrations later this year.

The Lu Rees Archives houses over 14,000 books including foreign language editions of Australian children's books, school magazines dating back to 1916, prepublication materials and artwork. The collection has been largely built on donations from publishers, authors, illustrators, individuals and organisations. The Archives maintains a wish list of items missing from the collection and welcomes donations to fill these gaps. The desired items include Children's Book Council of Australia award-winning and notable books for the period 1948 to 1998 and some of the works of Colin Thiele. A full list is displayed on the Archives website.

A First for Tim Winton
Tim Winton's Lockie Leonard series will be the first of his works to receive film treatment. The Film Finance Corporation (FFC) has approved funding for the series to be filmed for television saying: 'set against a backdrop of great surf on the spectacular south coast of Western Australia, Lockie Leonard's wit, emotional depth and acute observation guarantee fresh entertainment for older children.' (FFC Australia News, 20 July 2005)

Australian Culture Presents a Fresh Face Overseas
Two current ventures are promoting Australian culture to overseas markets. In Aichi, Japan, Australia is hosting a pavilion at the 2005 World Exposition. A feature of the Australian contribution is the Arts and Entertainment programme that includes workshops with Australian authors and illustrators Alison Lester and Ron Brooks. Both Lester and Brooks have been regularly shortlisted for Children's Book Council of Australia Awards (CBCA) and their work is translated into many languages. Lester's Are We There Yet? is nominated in this year's CBCA Picture Book of the Year category.)

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister John Howard launched Undergrowth – Australian Arts UK on 22 July during his visit to London. Undergrowth is a two-year contemporary arts promotion that will involve productions and events in a range of art forms including dance, music, literature, visual arts and drama. The Sydney-based Australian Theatre for Young People is among the groups representing Australian contemporary talent.

A full programme of events is available at Undergrowth's website.

Updates on stories covered in previous AustLit newsletters:

One Book One Brisbane Novel Selected (June-July 2005) –
Kimberley Starr's The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies will be the fifth and final winner in the short-lived One Book One Brisbane (OBOB) campaign. Rosemary Sorensen (Courier-Mail, 15 June 2005) reports that the Brisbane City Council has decided 'to scrap OBOB and to turn it into a writing prize'.

As of 2006 the Council will invite writers to enter a short story competition with Brisbane as the theme. Brisbane Lord Mayor, Campbell Newman, said the new competition One Book Many Brisbanes, will aim at 'developing and harnessing literary talent in this city [...] this competition will be open to our up-and-coming writers – as well as those invited to the Brisbane Writers' Festival.' (Lord Mayor's Budget Speech) The ten winning stories will be published in an annual anthology available through Brisbane libraries and bookstores.

Film Producers Seek Inspiration between the Covers (June/July 2005) –
It's not only film producers who are grabbing Australian books for inspiration. In the first seven months of 2005 six plays adapted from books have reached production for the stage across the country.

• In Queensland, Vivienne Cleven's adaptation of her award-winning novel, Bitin' Back, has just completed its first production by Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts under the direction of Wesley Enoch.
• Sydney audiences have seen two adaptations of children's works – Patricia Cornelius's version of Morris Gleitzman's Boy Overboard and Julia Britton's take on the Ethel Turner classic, Seven Little Australians.
• In Victoria, British-born Stewart Morritt was so taken with 'working with writing that has stood the test of time' (Age, 17 May 2005) that he presented Henry Lawson's 'The Drover's Wife' and 'The Bush Undertaker' at performances in Castlemaine and Melbourne.
• In Adelaide young children were happily 'penned' for performances of Mem Fox's Where Is the Green Sheep? Louise Nunn declared it 'a winner in every respect.' (Advertiser 12 March 2005)

and

• In Canberra veteran playwright Alan Hopgood brought the diaries of 'Weary' Dunlop to life in 'Weary : The Story of Sir Edward Dunlop'. The play received the imprimatur of the Governor General, Sir Michael Jeffrey who called it 'a wonderful production' and said 'every Australian should see it'. (Sunday Mail, 13 March 2005) 'Weary' has also played in Launceston, on the Gold Coast, and in Adelaide and Melbourne.

The White Earth Notches Up Another Win for McGahan
Andrew McGahan's The White Earth is the winner of this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award. The other shortlisted novels were Sarah Armstrong's Salt Rain, Gail Jones's Sixty Lights, Steven Carroll's The Gift of Speed and Charlotte Wood's The Submerged Cathedral.

In their formal comments, the Award's judges said that 'McGahan writes with a total command of thematic design and narrative structure. The White Earth draws on the full resources of the novel as an imaginative form to explore some of the most urgent social and political issues haunting Australians today.'

Writing in the Bulletin, Ashley Hay found a common thread in the five works nominated for the 2005 award. 'Within each were dislocated children – grown up or growing up, born, unborn, even stillborn – whose vulnerabilities and isolations pushed through the other incidents and ideas their books sought to unravel.' (5 July 2005) In the case of McGahan's The White Earth, the 'child' is the nephew of landholder John McIvor. Nine year-old William is suffering with an undiagnosed brain abscess. The judges observed that McGahan 'as if seeing through the distracting pain of the boy's illness ... subjects postcolonial Australia to a searing analysis. William's disease is literally the burden of the past.'

McGahan's win was announced by Gillian Armstrong at the State Library of New South Wales on 23 June. Armstrong, a noted film director, introduced an element of humour into the evening's proceedings when she told the shortlisted writers 'I just want to say that I'm working my way through my free copies of all your wonderful books. I've got a break coming up in about a week, so please, if you haven't sold the film rights yet, could you just hang off?' (AM, ABC Radio, 24 June 2005)

New Award Presented at ASAL
The Inaugural Magarey Medal was presented at this year's Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) conference in Adelaide. The medal is the gift of Professor Susan Magarey, founding editor of Australian Feminist Studies, and recognises the 'best biographical writing on an Australian subject' by a female writer. The first winners of the prize were Isabel Flick and Heather Goodall for Flick's autobiography, Isabel Flick : The Many Lives of an Extraordinary Aboriginal Woman. At Flick's invitation Goodall began assisting with research and writing, but following the death of the renowned Aboriginal activist Goodall completed the book in consultation with Flick's family.

The award's judges said that the collaboration resulted in 'a remarkably successful synthesis of autobiography, oral history and biography' and provided 'an engrossing "tale" that has the narrative drive of a novel and the depth of a history.'

The full report, and the judges' comments on the other two shortlisted works, Margaret Somerville's Wildflowering and Anne Whitehead's Bluestocking in Patagonia, can be viewed on the website of the Australian Historical Association (AHA). The AHA and ASAL have joint responsibility for administering and judging the award.

Two other awards were presented at the ASAL conference. The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal was awarded to Gail Jones for Sixty Lights. The Walter McRae Russell Award was shared by Tanya Dalziell for Settler Romances and The Australian Girl and Maryrose Casey for Creating Frames : Contemporary Indigenous Theatre : 1967-1990.

War Tale Wins Courier-Mail Prize for Hartnett
Sonya Hartnett has won the inaugural Courier-Mail Book of the Year for Younger Readers with her World War I tale of friendship, trust and story-telling, The Silver Donkey.

The focus for the 2005 Award changed from adult books to novels for younger readers. The Courier-Mail (25 June 2005) said this shift was because 'writing for teenagers has become enormously important, as the amount of information available through rapidly developing media makes it more difficult for younger readers to experience the simple, intense joy of a good book.' Hartnett would appreciate that idea of an intense reading context. She told Rosemary Sorensen 'I've always felt very closely bonded in silence with my reader, just them me and the words, and the private voices in our heads talking to each other [...] I like to think of the kids lying in bed, and the scenes of the book running like movies through their imaginations.' (Courier-Mail, 30 July 2005)

Also shortlisted for the award was Michael Gerard Bauer's The Running Man. Bauer's novel won the People's Choice Award. Sharing a common theme with Hartnett's novel – that of friendship between younger people and a serviceman – The Running Man tells the story of a reclusive Vietnam veteran and an adolescent boy. Bauer uses the motif of silkworms to explore the limits placed on a life.

Margo Lanagan Features in 2005 Ditmar Awards
The Ditmar Awards for Australian Science Fiction were presented at Thylacon, the 44th Australian National Science Fiction Convention, in Hobart on 11 June. Margo Lanagan collected two awards. She won Best Collected Work for her young adult collection, Black Juice, and 'Singing My Sister Down' won the Best Short Story award. Other winners were Sean Williams for The Crooked Letter (Best Novel) and Paul Haines for 'The Last Days of Kali Yuga' (Best Novella). Haines also won the Best New Talent award.

Beveridge Recognised in Mildura
Judith Beveridge has joined a list of esteemed poets in winning this year's Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for Poetry. Inaugurated in 1997, to honour the accomplishment of Hodgins's own poetry, the Medal has now been won by nine poets including Bruce Dawe, Peter Porter and Chris Wallace-Crabbe. This year's award was presented at Gallery 25 on 15 July as part of the Mildura Writers' Festival.

Les Murray, a long-time supporter of the Festival, was unable to attend this year due to ill-health. Organisers dedicated the Festival to Murray and held a dinner in his honour. Murray was able to join the dinner via a telephone link and listened in as others read his poetry.

Playwrights' Award to Katherine Thomson
Katherine Thomson has won the Australian National Playwrights' Centre (ANPC) Award for 2005. Thomson received the award from 2004 winner Stephen Sewell during the recent ANPC Conference in Newcastle.

Thomson's 1991 drama Barmaids has just enjoyed a revival in South Australia and Queensland. Her latest project is the currently in production, 'Answered by Fire'. Thomson wrote the script for this four-hour mini-series about the 1999 referendum in East Timor and its gruesome aftermath. The script, based on interviews with East Timorese people and members of the United Nations mission, grew out of Thomson's earlier work, Mavis Goes to Timor. Speaking to Patrick McDonald (Advertiser, 25 July 2005) Thomson said 'I was able to use contacts that I'd made and the knowledge of East Timor, but really it's a completely different story [...] I developed an interest in East Timor as a writer and it's a great opportunity to continue working in the same subject.'

Stories of Aboriginal Women Win Cultural Award
A series of booklets recording the 'cultural attachment Aboriginal women have to their local landscape' has won the Cultural Heritage category of the 2005 EnergyAustralia National Trust Heritage Awards. Published over the last three years, the Aboriginal Women's Heritage series tells the stories of 53 women from six regional areas of New South Wales.

Lisa Corbyn, Director-General of the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation said that the women involved 'talk about a life long before the advent of today's conveniences and of struggles in a white world.'

The full text of the booklets can be downloaded from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service website.

Musical and Plays in Line for Helpmann Awards
One musical and several plays are included among the nominations for the 2005 Helpmann Awards. Those in the running for a prize are:

• 'Eureka : Our Story' (Best Musical)
• 'The Sapphires' (Best Play and Best New Australian Work)
• 'Through the Wire' (Best New Australian Work)
• 'Eating Ice Cream with Your Eyes Closed' (Best New Australian Work)


• 'Riverland' (Best Presentation for Children)

and

• 'Gamegirl' (Best Presentation for Children)

The winners of this year's awards will be announced at the Lyric Theatre, Star City in Sydney on 8 August.

A full list of nominees can be viewed on the Helpmann Awards website.

Winton Headed for Cork
Tim Winton is one of six nominees for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. The winner of the award will be announced on 25 September as part of the official programme for the Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture festival. Although only in its sixth year, the Frank O'Connor Festival is already the longest-established annual Short Story festival in an English-speaking country. The award will be presented to 'the author of an original collection of short stories deemed to be the best published in English between January 2004 and September 2005.' Winton's nomination is for his 2004 collection, The Turning.

Prize-money is £50,000 and all shortlisted authors are obliged to attend the awards ceremony.

And Watch Out For...
Awards to be announced in the next two months include:

• The Children's Book Council of Australia Awards (19 August)
• The Ned Kelly Awards (for crime fiction) (September)
• Victorian Premier's Literary Awards (Shortlist, 16 September)

and

• The Man Booker Award (Shortlist, 8 September)

New Novels Attract a Flurry of Reviews
Four new Australian novels are currently engaging the minds of the country's book reviewers:

• Delia Falconer's second novel, The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers, was not intended as her next book after The Service of Clouds. Falconer had spent over a year traveling and researching a novel about Buffalo Bill's touring circus when she discovered an American author, Thomas Berger, had exactly the same idea and would race her to publication. With her original idea dead, Falconer 'had a terrible lengthy grieving process to get through, to give it a decent burial, before I finally found another project I could be passionate about.' (Good Weekend, 25 June 2005) Falconer settled on the experiences of Captain Frederick Benteen, an officer who served under General Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn during the American Indian Wars.
  
  Reviewing the short novel for the Canberra Times, Lesley Fowler Lebkowicz writes 'This is not a book to read for plot or for revelation about character [...] The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers is as much an extended prose poem as it is a novel, as interested in the possibilities of language as in those of narrative.' (2 July 2005) Aviva Tuffield echoes these thoughts in the Age. Tuffield says 'for some this book may be too disjointed and elusive. Falconer is a determinedly literary writer who has made no concessions to the demands of story nor compromised her vision.' (2 July 2005) For Malcolm Knox, literary editor for the Sydney Morning Herald, this is one of Falconer's strengths. He is convinced that her writing style will enable her to 'join the league of our top literary writers who also win mass-market sales.' (Good Weekend, 25 June 2005)



• Review titles for Christos Tsiolkas's Dead Europe include words such as 'disturbing', 'blasphemous', 'cursed', 'demons', 'decay' and 'wasteland'. The subject matter is definitely dark and morally murky. Tsiolkas blends elemental stories from the middle and end of the twentieth century including family curses, ghosts, vampires, anti-Semitism and reckless sex. Robert Manne (Monthly, June 2005) describes the book as 'ambitious and undeniably powerful but also perplexing and disturbing.' Manne concludes that Tsiolkas 'has sought to excite himself and his jaded audience playing, to my mind purposelessly, with the fire of a magical, pre-modern anti-Semitism.'
  
  An enthusiastic Ian Syson (Age, 28 May 2005) believes the book 'is not just good; it's breathtakingly good. This is Tsiolkas surely making his ascent to the position of one of Australia's pre-eminent contemporary novelists.' Syson argues that Tsiolkas's weak characters, moribund cultures and hate-filled peoples show us our likely future. However, 'within all this, Tsiolkas finds moments of beauty and life. One of his strengths is the ability to reveal gentleness lying where none might be expected. His prose is sometimes so achingly tender and beautiful that it gives us pause to reflect on the tragedies that force a writer capable of communicating such joy and delight to stare down the many spectres haunting Dead Europe.'



• Both Barry Oakley and Katharine England approached Kate Grenville's latest novel with a degree of caution. When Oakley read that The Secret River involved a convict transported from the slums of London to the shores of Port Jackson his 'spirits sank a little' and he wondered whether there was room for yet another character in the already crowded literary landscape of European settlers in New South Wales. (Bulletin, 19 July 2005) England shared similar concerns saying that 'the predictability of novels based on early Australian settlement has tended to leave me a bit cold.' (Advertiser, 2 July 2005) Both, however, were won over by Grenville's story of William Thornhill, a London waterman who is transported for theft and who eventually carves out a life for himself on the Hawkesbury. Oakley wrote, 'such is the power of Grenville's imagination that everything seems newly minted.' England concurs and declares the novel 'marvelous'. England decides that Grenville has been able to produce a book 'that not only sets the intense light and alien contours of the country vividly on the page but is definitive in its depiction of the complex relations between colonists and indigenous inhabitants.'
  
  Grenville told Sally Blakeney (Bulletin, 12 July 2005) that she had been 'inspired by the Reconciliation Walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2001.' Participating in the walk, Grenville had found herself wondering 'whether the ancestors of an Aboriginal woman who'd smiled at her in the crowd had seen her mother's ancestor who'd been sentenced and deported to Australia in 1806 and had "taken up land" on the Hawkesbury River. "I suddenly thought: is he an ancestor I need to be ashamed of? Was he one of the settlers who went out and shot people?"'
  
  The Secret River may be the first in a series of interlocking novels as Grenville draws further on the stories of Australia's early development.



• Award-winning poet and family memoirist, Peter Rose, has tapped into his own life as writer, publisher and editor for his first novel, A Case of Knives. Michael Sharkey, writing for the Weekend Australian, says Rose 'looses acerbic barbs at cannibalistic publishers, editors, writers and other fry in the circles reserved for the book trade. He is also droll in his dismissal of poets and in his pervasive satire on the manners of inhabitants of the journalistic, academic, legal and political professions.' (23-24 July 2005) Sharkey, however, has reservations about Rose's use of 'quasi-epistolary fiction' and wonders if it isn't becoming 'a tiresome commodity.' While also noting Rose's eye-balling of the publishing world 'and the way they get up one another's noses', Daphne Guinness asks whether Rose has filled a gap in satirical writing in Australia. (Sydney Morning Herald, 16-17 July 2005) Her answer: 'Absolutely.' She is looking forward to Rose's already-promised next novel.
  
  Told in diary-form, A Case of Knives features fifty-year-old publisher Julia Collis and her younger ward Matthew Light. In addition to its commentary on the literary world, it also throws glances at opera, politics and a fair spectrum of sexual proclivities. According to Michelle Griffin this mix has allowed Rose to offer 'the sort of book publishers always wish their authors would deliver – a clever, juicy thriller with lots of sex and intrigue and just enough "guess-who-don't-sue" buzz to attract interest beyond the bookstore.' (Age, 16 July 2005)

British Writers Find Inspiration in Australian War Stories
Two British novelists have been sufficiently intrigued by true Australian stories from World War II to develop the tales into novels. Robert Ryan's first three novels all had World War II settings and he has now added After Midnight to that list. During a Google search Ryan discovered the letter of an Australian airman to his infant daughter. Eight months after the letter was sent, airman Millar was on a mission to drop supplies to resistance fighters in northern Italy when his plane went down. The wreckage was never discovered. The now sixty-two year-old daughter gave Ryan permission to publish his novel about her father and the search for the remains of the Liberator aircraft.

In each of his novels Ryan has 'drawn on people who were involved in the event, or knew the character, to flesh out the story for him before he began writing.' (Australian Bookseller & Publisher, May 2005) Likewise, UK novelist Jojo Moyes asked her Australian grandmother to tell the story of migrating to England on The Ship of Brides. Moyes's grandmother had been one of 650 war brides who were transported from Sydney to Plymouth by the Royal Navy in 1946. The novel traces the six-week sea-journey undertaken by the women, some as young as fifteen, in company with the 1,100-strong crew of the HMS Victorious.

China Calling
Chinese-Australian poet, Ouyang Yu, has recently been appointed Professor of Australian Literature at Wuhan University in Central China and is charged with establishing an Australian Studies Centre within the University. Professor Yu is calling on Australian publishers, magazine editors, academics and writers to donate books to the 'as yet to be founded and funded' Centre.

Further information on sending books can be obtained from Professor Yu:
Postal address: PO Box 200, Kingsbury, Victoria, 3083
Email addresses: youyang@bigpond.net.au or youyang@hotmail.com

Cardigan Press Seeking Terror, Tears and Tinnitus
Melbourne publisher, Cardigan Press, is calling for submissions for its 2006 anthology. The Press declares: 'If you write short stories that inspire: terror, mirth, schadenfreude, explosions, the gift of tears, [or] tinnitus you should submit your work to Cardigan Press. We like your kind.'

Submissions close on 28 September 2005. Full guidelines are available on the Cardigan Press website.

$2,500 Up for Grabs in Scarlet Stiletto Awards
Entries close soon for the 12th Scarlet Stiletto Awards for the best crime and mystery short stories. The Awards, offered by Sisters in Crime, usually attract several hundred entries and have previously been won by Tara Moss and Cate Kennedy.

Entries close on August 31, 2005. The entry fee is $10. Entry forms are available by writing to:
Sisters in Crime
GPO Box 5319, Melbourne 3001
or via the
Sisters in Crime website.

The 2005 awards will be presented in St Kilda on 25 November by a mystery celebrity.

Seventieth Anniversary for Penguin
Penguin Books turned 70 in July 2005. To celebrate this publishing milestone the UK company, joined by Penguin Australia, has released a special collection of 70 short titles by 70 Penguin authors. The books will sell for $3.95 each or can be purchased as a boxed set for $200. No Australian authors are included among the 70 titles.

A list full list of the Pocket Penguins is available on the Penguin UK website and on the Australian Penguin site.

Wombat Stew Turns Twenty-One
Following the 21st birthday of Mem Fox's Possum Magic in 2004 (see Possum Magic Comes of Age), another favourite Australian children's story turns 21 this year. Wombat Stew, by American-born Marcia Vaughan and Northern Territorian Pamela Lofts, first appeared in 1984. Although not reaching the heights of fame enjoyed by Possum Magic, Wombat Stew has been continuously in print, has undergone several translations and has spawned a recipe book. It has also appeared in sound, Braille and large print versions.

Scholastic Australia is marking Wombat Stew's 21st birthday with new hardback and paperback publications. The book will also be the featured work for the fifth National Simultaneous Storytime. On 2 September at 11.00am Australian Eastern Standard Time, children in libraries, classrooms and other venues around Australia will settle in for a reading of the 'gooey, brewy, yummy, chewy' story.

Scarcely a Murmur Greets The Hand That Signed the Paper Ten Years On
Ten years ago, Australian newspapers and literary journals were crammed with hundreds of columns, essays, letters and critical articles each putting their own spin on the 'Demidenko Affair'. Helen Demidenko's novel, The Hand That Signed the Paper, had won The Australian / Vogel National Literary Award (for an unpublished manuscript) in 1993, the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal in 1994 and the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1995. Soon after the announcement of the Miles Franklin win, the Brisbane-based Courier-Mail revealed that Helen Demidenko was in fact Helen Darville, the daughter of English migrants and not a young woman of Irish-Ukrainian heritage as she had claimed. Demidenko's book had already caused ripples due to its perceived anti-Semitic stance with commentators such as Gerard Henderson and Robert Manne taking issue with Demidenko's portrayal of the Holocaust.

Ultimately, the affair gave rise to three book publications (all in 1996): Manne's The Culture of Forgetting : Helen Demidenko and the Holocaust, Andrew Riemer's The Demidenko Debate and the anthology The Demidenko File. AustLit records a total of 360 works about The Hand That Signed the Paper beginning with Barry Oakley's 'The Dark Side Shines for Helen' (September 1993) and ending (to date) with Malcolm Knox's 'The Darville Made Me Do It' (July 2005).

At the National Library of Australia, the PANDORA Archive maintained a watch on Darville's website until 2003 when the final update to the site was made. The site is now moribund, but is preserved through PANDORA's web archiving service.

Bary Dowling 1933-2005
Bary Dowling was a naturalist, farmer, horticulturalist, depressive and writer. Born in the Victorian town of Ballarat, Dowling evoked his childhood in his predominantly third-person autobiography Mudeye : An Australian Boyhood and Beyond. Not until the final chapter, when he consults a psychologist in order to ask the question 'why?', does Dowling move to the first-person voice. Philip Jones, in his obituary for the Age, declares Mudeye 'a little-known classic of Australian literature' that bears 'close comparison with the highly acclaimed memoirs of the late Hal Porter.' (7 June 2005) (Porter's best-known autobiography is The Watcher on the Cast Iron Balcony, 1963.)

Also a writer of poetry and short stories, Dowling was most at home as a nature writer. According to Jones, Dowling contributed hundreds of articles to the Age and 're-acquainted Melburnians with the wonders of the Yarra River.' In a recent letter Bary Dowling wrote, 'I am hugely grateful to have been given life and to have life on display – birds in the garden, clouds above, plants, the whole of nature to love and appreciate and worship.' (Quoted in Philip Jones's obituary, Age, 7 June 2005)

Selwyn Pritchard 1933-2005
Poet, novelist and translator Selwyn Pritchard was born a few weeks after Bary Dowling and outlived him by only four weeks. After serving with The Royal Welch Fusiliers during the 1950s Pritchard became a teacher and later entered Oxford to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Pritchard migrated to Australia (via New Zealand) and began publishing poetry in the mid-1980s. In addition to the four volumes of poetry published between 1990 and 2001, Pritchard also published two novels and two further collections of poems as e-books. The latter titles can be downloaded from Pritchard's website by following the links to e-books.

Pritchard's last job was in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Jinan University in Guanghou, China. His interest in Chinese language and literature is demonstrated in his work on Lunar Frost : Translations from Poets of the Tang and Song Dynasties for which he prepared the translation in collaboration with Jinan University colleagues Zhan Qiao and Liang Rui-Qing.

New Search Function Available
In response to a client's search request AustLit has developed a new function, available in both Basic Search and Advanced Search modes. All searches can now be restricted to 'Limit to separately published works'. All other search requirements are entered in the same way and then the 'Limit' box is checked before hitting the 'Search' button. A search of, for instance, 'Criticism' first published in '2005' will yield a result set of over 160 items. These mostly comprise criticisms published within periodical issues. By restricting the search with the 'Limit' field, the result set yields fewer than ten items that are published in book or full text electronic form.

AustLit continues to welcome suggestions from clients. If you have an idea for an improvement or a development, please use the contact details at the end of this newsletter to get in touch.

AustLit Staff Activities
In early July, AustLit's Executive Manager, Kerry Kilner, and Content Manager, Carol Hetherington, presented papers to the annual Association for the Study of Australian Literature conference in Adelaide. Kerry Kilner's paper was titled '"they're out there compiling bibliographies" – "Multicultural Writers" in AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature' and explored the significance of the Australian Multicultural Writers subset of AustLit. Carol Hetherington spoke on the subject of 'American Connections: Authors, Editors, Publishers: KSP and W.W. Norton'. Carol investigated the connection between the American publisher Norton and the novelist Katharine Susannah Prichard and discussed the American edition of one of Prichard's most highly regarded novels, Haxby's Circus. Both papers were warmly received.

Also winning accolades has been Stephany Steggall, a member of the AustLit team at the University of Queensland. Stephany was awarded her PhD on 22 July for her thesis, 'Colin Thiele : Double Vision : A Biographical Study of an Australian Writer and Educator'. The 'double vision' of the title refers to Thiele's dual vocation as both author and educator. The award of the PhD follows the publication of Stephany's biography of Thiele Can I Call You Colin?. Stephany's biography of Ivan Southall is currently in pre-print production and will be published in 2006.

Another busy UQ team member is Dr Irmtraud Petersson. Irmtraud's scholarly article, '"Odysseus from the Outback" : Fredy Neptune in German and Its Critical Reception' was published in Australian Literary Studies (ALS), May 2005. The article compares the reception of the German translation of Les Murray's verse novel, Fredy Neptune, with the reception in Australia. Accompanying the article is Irmtraud's interview, 'Translating Fredy Neptune : Interview with Thomas Eichhorn'. Fiona Capp, in the 'Pick of the Week' (Age, 25 June 2005) highlighted Irmtraud's ALS article as a 'fascinating study of the German reception' of Murray's epic poem.

AustLit has recently farewelled two valued team members. Rebecca Kemble is now working full-time for the University of Canberra Library and has regrettably relinquished her role with the Lu Rees Archives. Gillian Dooley is devoting her time more fully to her role as Special Collections Librarian at Flinders University Library. Gillian and Rebecca both brought specialised knowledge to AustLit and shared their expertise freely. Continuing AustLit team members will no doubt continue to 'bump into' Gillian when indexing Australian Book Review, the Adelaide Review and JAS Review of Books as she is a regular reviewer with each of those publications. The AustLit team wishes Rebecca and Gillian well in their new endeavours.

New AustLit Records
During June and July 2005, the Content Development Team added:

• 3,474 new works

and

• 835 new agents (individuals and organisations)

In addition to these new records, over 7,600 existing work and agent records have been upgraded and enhanced.

We welcome your feedback on our service, and will work hard to develop content and services to meet your needs. If you have any comments and suggestions, please contact us at:

info-austlit@austlit.edu.au

Or spend two minutes filling out our User Survey form.