AustLit

'Our new issue opens with ‘Dream Geographies’, an important essay by Alexis Wright that covers the many aspects of writing her most recent novel Praiseworthy. In her expressive, allegorical style, Wright discusses the importance of writing on a large scale in an imperilled world, the state of Aboriginal self-determination and the value in thinking off-key to conjure humour. She also describes the collection of notes (many scribbled quickly to catch the flow of thoughts) and treasured objects that helped fire her vision of the book (random gifts from a windfall: a feather from the local birds, or a perfect bird’s nest that had floated down from the highest tree in a night storm, and fallen undamaged into the garden). ' (Introduction)