AustLit

'Lachlan Walter spent his childhood in a foggy and ferny town at the outer edge of Melbourne, where the suburbs meet the mountains. When he was ten or eleven years old, his family relocated to the dry, hot and dusty climes of central Victoria. He moved back to Melbourne once he’d finished high school, this time to the inner northern suburbs. Ever since then, he’s divided his time between Melbourne’s inner and middle northern suburbs, and what he considers his old hometown in central Victoria. No matter what, he’ll always consider himself a country boy at heart.' (Introduction)

'Mention the Dreaming, and many fantasy fans will think of the setting for Neil Gaiman’s comic book series The Sandman. In it, avatars like Death and Delirium populate a realm where humanity’s imagination bumps against all that’s eternal. The titular character evokes our shared hopes and fears in lines like, “What power would Hell have if those here imprisoned were not able to dream of Heaven? Lofty, sure. But Gaiman’s treatment of the concept is nevertheless a pop culture varnish. The Dreaming as a notion comes from Aboriginal Australian spiritualism, and is primarily concerned with reverence for ancestors and the environment.' (Introduction)