AustLit

This Foreward introduces the new editorial team for Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature and discusses the history of the publication from it's inception.

Drawing upon ideas of practice-led research outlined by Webb and Brien (2008), and considering these within the context of my own creative practice, this article explores the intersections of the positions of writer-as-teacher, writer-as-artist, and writer-as-scholar. This is contextualized with reference to three of my creative works from different phases of my career, A New Kind of Dreaming (2001 ), Fireshadow (2005) and Daywards (2010). Framed by Webb’s argument for the appropriateness of Bourdieu’s ideas of practice-led research (2012) and Nodelman’s suggestions about the relationship between habitus and the agency of young-adult writers (2008), it will examine the degree to which my construction of young protagonists has been shaped by, and has in turn shaped, my changing habitus as a practicing young adult writer and scholar of children’s literature. Drawing upon my dual roles as scholar and teacher of creative writing within the academy, and reader and scholar of children’s literature studies, it argues that the liminality of the scholarly/creative space emerging from this nexus has impacted upon the ways I consider and construct my ‘child’ characters and my own position in relation to them.'

Source: Abstract.

Research background:

Dudek locates the role of the child protagonist in critical dystopia as central to the masked utopian reading that the text invites: ‘an impulse whose imperative it is to see difference and to resist uniformity, into a dystopian space’ (2005: 65). Ming Tan argues that the role of the child resistor protagonist in dystopic spaces is a vehicle for contemporary adult concerns: ‘this phantom – the child who never existed … is often indicative of fears for the future. Child sacrifice is a common trope in our society … beneath it lurks questions of desire, identity, and humanity’ (2013: 55).'

'When you've run from the past, you have to stand and face the future...

'Dara, her brother Jaran and their cousin Eyna have grown up among the Clan; their lives are peaceful as they eke out an existence in the towering forest below their escarpment home. But when the ghosts of a dead civilisation reach out to haunt them one final time, they and their family must set out, on an unmapped path across a dying land.

'Walking daywards, always into the sun.' Source: www.uqp.uq.edu.au (Sighted 07/04/2010).

'Grade 7 is not going well for Nathan Nuttboard. First, he is publicly dumped by Sally-Anne Anderson, the most popular girl in the class with whom his classmates forgot to inform him he was even going out. Then his teacher, Mr Hart, announces that this year for the school concert the Grade 7 class is going to do something different - a surfing adaptation of Romeo and Juliet written by Mr Hart himself. To make matters worse, Mr Hart assures the students that he has written it specially to guarantee that there is a part for every one of them.

'Remembering previous concerts with humiliating outcomes, Nathan determines to make his audition piece so bad that Mr Hart can't possibly cast him in the play. Yet his best, or worst, efforts completely backfire as Mr Hart loves his natural performance and he finds himself cast as Romeo opposite Sally-Anne's Juliet. This horrifies the pair of them, especially when they realize that the nature of the love story requires them to kiss on stage. It also infuriates Nathan's friend, Markus, who wants the part of Romeo for himself. In desperation, Nathan attempts to find a solution to the kissing problem, but when he nearly pokes Sally-Anne's eye out, in front of the Headmaster, Mr Stoat, Mr Hart has no choice but to recast the play, making Markus Romeo. At first Nathan is delighted and relieved by this turn of events, but slowly and unwittingly he realizes that he is in fact jealous of Markus. When, at the dress rehearsal, Nathan wishes Markus good luck instead of telling him to break a leg, Markus does just that and Nathan finds himself again promoted to the role of Romeo. He and Sally-Anne manage to make up their differences ensuring that the play is a success and solidifying their own relationship.'

(Publisher's blurb)

'Nathan, Gnarly and the Nuttboard family are back again in a sequel to Eaton's popular Nathan Nuttboard: Hits the Beach. Narelle as difficult as ever; Dad still technologically challenged; Mum her usual assertive self; little sister Nadine intrusive and Nathan and friend Gnarly continuing their happy-go-lucky sure to miss-fire antics. What IS new is the arrival of a little known grandfather from Scotland, Fergus McCraigh.

'Self-centred, overbearing, canny, rude, Fergus makes life miserable for all the members of the family. Narelle, the only one of the children to remember a visit to Scotland where she was accused of spoiling Fergus's sporran, already dislikes the man before he dobs her into her parents for being at a pub instead of studying; Nathan is forced to give up his bedroom for Fergus and to share Nadine's together with her thousands of stuffed toy animals. Neither is too happy with the situation. Mum has a history of not getting on with her father, and Dad, well Fergus never forgave him for marrying his daughter and taking her off to Australia.' (Publication summary)

A post-apocalyptic trilogy set the Darklands, a quarantined expanse of outback desert, contaminated generations earlier by the remote and mysterious Nightpeople.

'Saria is the last of her kind, the final child to be born in the Darklands, a quarantined expanse of outback desert, contaminated generations earlier by the remote and mysterious Nightpeople. Spirited away at her birth before the Nightpeople could remove her from the genetic pool, Saria, now in her early teens, is called before the Council of Dreamers to be used as a bargaining chip. There she discovers the truth about her own past and that of her people.' - publicity blurb, endmatter, Skyfall

'You let your sister burn.

'When Vinnie’s sister is killed, he runs away from the accusing eyes of his father to the isolation of the bush. There, he must answer a question … was it his fault?

'In 1941, German soldier Erich is sent miles away from his family after being captured and interned in an Australian prisoner-of-war camp. Despite everything he’s grown up believing, Erich must learn to co-exist with his sworn enemy and, in doing so, question his father’s expectations that have defined his existence.

'Amid the rain soaked forests of South Western Australia, these two young men’s lives collide across the years, changing them both as they struggle to escape their painful memories of fireshadow.

'Some battles are imposed on us, some fought within.' (Publisher's blurb)

A few days at the beach, camping with your family. Sounds like a good time, right? Maybe, but don't forget to factor in: * the motobike riding bogan * an older sister in love * a tent which is suffering a spiritual crisis * a surfer named Gnarly who's idea of fun involves exfoliating sparkplugs! For Nathan Nuttboard, this could be an interesting few days.

Abstract via publisher, UQP