AustLit

'Languages of Water is a rare but intimate fusion of East, West and Africa, a stunning artefact of writerly immersion and cultural exchange. This child of digital collaboration brings together writers, illustrators and translators of poetry, fiction and essays, and refuses to be contained.

'In a playful interrogation of French literary theorist, critic and philosopher Roland Barthes’ le plaisir du texte and death of the author, Languages of Water opens with the homing story ‘When the Water Stops’. Cross-cultural creators interpret the story in different forms of itself, offering subversive fiction, poetry, essays, monochrome graphics, sudden fiction, and translations of the homing story in English, Swahili, French, Cantonese, Malay, Vietnamese and Bengali.

'A bold and exceptional offering edited by World Fantasy Award finalist and award-winning author Eugen Bacon—an Otherwise Fellowships honouree for ‘doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction’. Featuring works by acclaimed and award-winning authors, essayists, translators, scholars and artists.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

After falling out with her brothers, Samaki the goddess of water flees to Earth where she must mask her trace by splitting into a quadruplet of magi.

'A quadruplet is perfect, but all things are never equal. Dissonance arises when the magus Umozi breaks the quadruplet.

'Only the newness of a child magus can restore balance and save a broken paradise—with the help of a goddess mother.'

Source:  Publisher's blurb.

'In the one tumultuous day, Ch’anzu loses hir job and finds wife Scarlet in bed with a stranger. As life unexpectedly spirals out of control, Ch’anzu turns to hir charismatic Aunt Maé for comfort and wisdom, and makes the bold move to work on a project in Serengotti, a migrant African outpost in rural Australia.

'In a novel haunted by the strangeness and yearnings of a displaced community – both beautiful and fractured – Ch’anzu is forced to confront hir many demons. Back in the city, brother Tex has gone missing. In Serengotti violence and infidelity simmer.

'This is a novel bathed in sensuous, original language, a love letter to the strong women who bind families together despite everything. It’s also a tender remembrance of the many who haven’t or couldn’t survive the dislocations and tragedies of their turbulent pasts.' (Publication summary)