AustLit

'John Martinkus chats with fellow investigative journalist Mark Davis about his fearless book, The Road: Uprising in West Papua. This is a live recording of an online event hosted via Zoom during the Covid-19 crisis.'  (Production summary)

'In a recent essay the literary scholar Mark McGurl asked,

Should Amazon.com now be considered the driving force of American literary history? Is it occasioning a convergence of the state of the art of fiction writing with the state of the art of capitalism? If so, what does this say about the form and function of narrative fiction—about its role in symbolically managing, resisting, or perhaps simply ‘escaping’ the dominant sociopolitical and economic realities of our time? (447)

'McGurl’s essay, with its focus on the sheer scope of Amazon’s operations and their impact on literary institutions, from their online bookstore, to their ebooks division, to their Audible audiobooks division, to their Goodreads reader reviews community, provides a salutary insight into current conditions of cultural production. The fate of literary culture, as McGurl says, now rests in the hands of digital technology, with its close connections to the neoliberal commodification of work, leisure and culture. But McGurl’s essay if anything underestimates the extent to which the fate of western cultural production is increasingly tied to digital media corporations. Focused on Amazon’s impact on the literary field, it opens up possibilities for understanding the processes of platformisation that underpin the cultural activities of companies such as Amazon.' (Introduction)

'In this article I investigate four phases in Australian non-fiction publishing between the late 1950s and early 2000s, focused on works of current affairs, politics and popular history. Many such books, I argue, were published as part of a ‘cultural mission’ in Australian non-fiction book publishing, where an imperative for reform motivated many publishers to publish books they believed to be of greater than commercial importance. The paper first defines ‘cultural mission’ publishing. I then argue that such publishing has played a crucial role in Australian culture wars and struggles over national identity since the late 1950s and that these struggles have played out in four overlapping phases that reflect shifts in national debate and the commercial imperatives of book publishing. These consist of, first, a ‘renaissance’ phase from the late 1950s until roughly the late 1960s; second, an ‘insurrectionist’ phase from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s; third, a ‘reaction’ phase from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, and fourth a ‘corporatist’ phase that gathered pace in the late 1990s.' (Introduction)

'Ours is a very particular moment in cultural and media history. Traditional ‘gatekeepers’ of ideas and culture are being disintermediated as we transition away from hierarchical forms of cultural organization to a system that is in some ways more open, where old approaches are in crisis and under siege. And where new approaches are emerging alongside rearguard actions that hope to keep traditional structures in place.' (Introduction)

'Non-fiction books by and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have arguably played a crucial role in the framing of public discussion of Indigenous issues in Australia since the 1950s. In this article, I track quantitative trends in the publishing of the approximately 769 such books for the Australian retail trade between 1960 and 2000, as part of what I describe as an emerging “cultural mission” among Australian book publishers through the period. The article then discusses two major trends within the data. The first is an overall increase in the number of titles published annually through the period, while the second is a declining interest by mass-market trade publishers in publishing books in the area from the 1980s onwards versus an increased publication rate by smaller independent presses and two large trade publishers with a particular interest in the area, one of which is also independently owned. The article concludes with a discussion of possible reasons for the latter trend in the context of ongoing debates about white Australian colonialism.'  (Publication abstract)

'In the second of our articles examining the influential book Gangland 20 years on, its author Mark Davis reflects on the cultural landscape today.

“Has anything changed?” Two decades after I published my book Gangland: Cultural Elites and the New Generationalism, about the domination of the “generation of ‘68” in Australian cultural life, I still get asked that question.'

'Greg Combet has been at the centre of some of the biggest battles of our time—the waterfront dispute, the collapse of an airline, compensation for asbestos victims, the campaign against unfair workplace laws and then climate change. From an isolated childhood on the Minchinbury estate west of Sydney, Combet's world changed dramatically with the early death of his father, a wine-maker.

Facing many challenges, he rose to lead the Australian trade union movement and become a senior minister in the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments. Along the way he has struggled with political ideology, the impact of work on his family and the relentless demands of the parliamentary life.

'The Fights of My Life is the story of a man who faces up to the power structures of politics, big business and the media. He now makes the case that the labour movement's work is far from done—the Labor Party and the trade unions must democratise to engage the next generation of activists to fight the good fight: to achieve a more fair and just Australia.' (Publication summary)

' More Than Luck is both a collection of ideas for citizens who want real change and a to-do list for politicians looking to base public policies on the kind of future Australians really want. The book shows what's needed to share this country's good luck amongst all Australians - now and in the future. Like all of CPD's ideas, the proposals in the book are forward-looking and creative. There is a mix of easy wins that are ready to be implemented and some big, bold nation building ideas that may require a bit more backbone on the part of our political leaders.'

Source CPD website, www.cpd.org.au (sighted 27/07/2010)

'Mark Davis and Miriam Lyons outline the main themes of the new book, More Than Luck: Ideas Australia Needs Now'

'The University of Melbourne Book Industry Study (UMBIS) is and ARC -funded research project that aims to provide as complete a picture as possible of the book publishing industry in Australia.

Published in association with the Australian Publishers Association and Thorpe-Bowker, this report is the first in a series of annual studies, bringing together all available industry information along with the results of a specially commissioned survey.

UMBIS aims to cover the full spectrum of Australian book publishing - from very small publishers to the largest; in the general trade, educational and specialist publishing.

UMBIS will be an invaluable research tool for anyone interested in Australia's multi-billion dollar book publishing industry.' (Publisher's blurb)