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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'In the early 19th century, British explorer John Oxley traversed the then-unknown wilderness of central Australia in search of water. Two centuries later, his great-great-great-great granddaughter spends a final year in Sydney reeling from her own self-destructive obsessions. Reckless and adrift, she prepares to leave. Written with down-to-earth lucidity and ethereal breeziness, this is an unforgettable debut about coming of age in a world that seems increasingly hostile. Watts explores feminine fear, apathy and danger, building to a tightly controlled bushfire of ecological and personal crisis.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
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Dedication: For Hayden and my mother.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Settler Belonging in Crisis : Non-Indigenous Australian Literary Climate Fiction and the Challenge of “The New”
2023
single work
criticism
— Appears in: ISLE : Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment , Winter vol. 30 no. 4 2023; (p. 952–971) -
Creating New Climate Stories : Posthuman Collaborative Hope and Optimism
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Text : Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , vol. 26 no. 1 2022; 'This paper considers an evolving project about climate change that will explore
using collaborative creative writing strategies to emotionally support and engage
writers, primarily focusing on how narratives of hope and optimism might counter
affective responses of anxiety, and the resultant solipsistic inertia or surrender. We
ask: what role could collaborative fiction play in helping to create positive futures
that emotionally strengthen us to manage what may come and what already is? We
outline the inspiration and background to our project and begin to theorise
justification for applying posthuman approaches to the question of reimagining
climate fiction. We review a number of collaborative climate change projects
located outside of traditional writing but still drawing on narrative storytelling, and
consider how our project – which focuses on genre fictions – might add to the
horizon point; one that is not delusional, but also does not lead to dystopian despair.'(Publication abstract)
-
The Saddest of Stories, Beautifully Told : Your Guide to the Miles Franklin 2021 Shortlist
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 15 July 2021; The Guardian Australia , 15 July 2021; -
Tipping Point
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , December 2020;
— Review of The Inland Sea 2020 single work novel'The unnamed narrator of Madeleine Watts’ debut novel The Inland Sea (2020) is a recent literature graduate and aspiring writer. Living off the dwindling remains of her student allowance, she plans to get a job, start saving for an airplane ticket overseas. But first she heads to Glebe to buy the first of the novels she will read on the rocks at Gordons Bay over the ‘last hot summer’ of her final months adrift in Sydney.' (Introduction)
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Madeleine Watts : The Inland Sea
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 22-28 February 2020;
— Review of The Inland Sea 2020 single work novel'The unnamed narrator of Madeleine Watts’ debut novel is an emergency dispatch phone operator. She’s spending her last year in Sydney making bad decisions: drinking too much, sleeping with the wrong men, wanting to escape overseas but seduced by the hourly rate of shift work and bearing witness to a national climate emergency. Her life is a freight train hurtling towards panic stations.' (Introduction)
-
Madeleine Watts : The Inland Sea
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 22-28 February 2020;
— Review of The Inland Sea 2020 single work novel'The unnamed narrator of Madeleine Watts’ debut novel is an emergency dispatch phone operator. She’s spending her last year in Sydney making bad decisions: drinking too much, sleeping with the wrong men, wanting to escape overseas but seduced by the hourly rate of shift work and bearing witness to a national climate emergency. Her life is a freight train hurtling towards panic stations.' (Introduction)
-
Tipping Point
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , December 2020;
— Review of The Inland Sea 2020 single work novel'The unnamed narrator of Madeleine Watts’ debut novel The Inland Sea (2020) is a recent literature graduate and aspiring writer. Living off the dwindling remains of her student allowance, she plans to get a job, start saving for an airplane ticket overseas. But first she heads to Glebe to buy the first of the novels she will read on the rocks at Gordons Bay over the ‘last hot summer’ of her final months adrift in Sydney.' (Introduction)
-
The Saddest of Stories, Beautifully Told : Your Guide to the Miles Franklin 2021 Shortlist
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 15 July 2021; The Guardian Australia , 15 July 2021; -
Creating New Climate Stories : Posthuman Collaborative Hope and Optimism
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Text : Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , vol. 26 no. 1 2022; 'This paper considers an evolving project about climate change that will explore
using collaborative creative writing strategies to emotionally support and engage
writers, primarily focusing on how narratives of hope and optimism might counter
affective responses of anxiety, and the resultant solipsistic inertia or surrender. We
ask: what role could collaborative fiction play in helping to create positive futures
that emotionally strengthen us to manage what may come and what already is? We
outline the inspiration and background to our project and begin to theorise
justification for applying posthuman approaches to the question of reimagining
climate fiction. We review a number of collaborative climate change projects
located outside of traditional writing but still drawing on narrative storytelling, and
consider how our project – which focuses on genre fictions – might add to the
horizon point; one that is not delusional, but also does not lead to dystopian despair.'(Publication abstract)
-
Settler Belonging in Crisis : Non-Indigenous Australian Literary Climate Fiction and the Challenge of “The New”
2023
single work
criticism
— Appears in: ISLE : Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment , Winter vol. 30 no. 4 2023; (p. 952–971)
Awards
- 2021 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
- 2021 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing
- Sydney, New South Wales,
