AustLit

'Whenever I write fiction, which is not very often these days, there always turns out to be some sort of fake baby, or something otherwise unreal or uncanny about a relationship. In one story, a glassblower is making marbles that symbolise his life’s regrets, until he comes to making the baby he never had; the glass baby eventually shatters on the floor. In another, a woman wishes to understand what being widowed will feel like and takes her pretence so far that her husband divorces her. In yet another, a husband and wife cannot agree on whether they had a child at all.' (Introduction)

'Australia has a strong history of poetry, albeit largely white and male. Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson, Adam Lindsay Gordon, CJ Dennis, AD Hope and Dorothea Mackellar are all notable figures in Australia’s colonial history and literature. Why is it, then, that poetry collections are largely ignored by our major literary prizes?' (Introduction)

'On a bright but breezy, cool day in August, I start a long drive out to the bush. My car heats up as I drive. At a red light I remove my coat. The sun streams into the windows as I get further away from the suburbs. Healesville is not close to home but I feel myself relax as the scenery changes to eucalypts and fresh air.'  (Publication abstract)

'In Richard Flanagan’s foreword to No Friend But the Mountains, he states that Behrouz Boochani is ‘a great Australian writer’. The notion of what constitutes Australian literature has always been a bit nebulous. At first blush, it seems easy to define: writing by Australians. But then, who are these Australians? And by what definition could Boochani be considered an Australian writer? As Keyvan Allahyari and Paul Rae wrote in The Conversation, ‘If a non-citizen who has never set foot on mainland Australia can win [the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award], who counts as an Australian author?’' (Introduction)