AustLit

'

Eight years after his astonishing Cannes prizewinning first feature, Samson and Delilah, Warwick Thornton’s majestic Sweet Country scored major awards in Venice and Toronto last year and is officially opening here next week — and it’s no coincidence that it opens in the week of Australia Day. This is a slice of Australian history that an indigenous director such as Thornton is best equipped to depict; only by confronting and examining the racism of a bygone period can we hope to understand why racism is still so prevalent in this “sweet country” of ours.' (Introduction)

'From 2014 to 2016, Nicholas Turner documented the “aesthetics of sport at a grassroots level” for an online website he founded with a friend. Turner’s idiosyncratic reports on amateur sports — from dancing to arm-wrestling, schoolboy rugby to rodeo — made international lists of “best online writing” and led to interest from a British literary agent, who wanted him to produce a collection of longer essays.' (Introduction)