AustLit

'The following article examines how Australian literary fiction by women is received in the United States. In particular, it considers how books are positioned by publishers, reviewers and authors as relevant to an American audience as well as to what extent Australian literary fiction’s appeal is borne out in reviews and in an online forum, Goodreads. To address these questions, I examine the US reception of three diverse literary novels by Australian women: Waanyi author Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book (Atria Books, 2016), Charlotte Wood’s The Weekend (Riverhead, 2020), and Michelle de Kretser’s Questions of Travel (Little, Brown, 2013). I argue that recent Australian literary fiction by women makes an appeal to US readers through a combination of “transnational orientation”—or ideas, characters and settings that a novel evokes to address a global readership—which are leveraged by publishers in book design and endorsements, and “authorial disambiguation”, in the form of essays and websites written by authors and addressed to local and global readers. Efforts to draw attention to a novel’s currency for a US audience are unevenly evident in reviews in broadsheets and trade publications, as well as on Goodreads.' (Publication abstract)

'An unforgettable and profound novel about three generations of one family and the healing power of understanding where you've come from.

'As a teenager in the 1970s, Sarah is forced to leave her home in upstate New York to accompany a missionary to Idaho. When she falls pregnant, she is despatched to relatives in Sydney, who place her in a home for unmarried mothers. Years later her daughter, Bet, pieces together her mother's life story, hoping to understand her better. As she learns more about Sarah's past, Bet struggles to come to terms with her own history and identity, yet is determined to make peace with Sarah's choices before it's too late.

'Lucy Neave's moving and deeply personal second novel, Believe in Me, explores the relationships between mothers and their children across three generations of one family. The book questions what we can ever truly know of our parents' early lives, even as their experiences weave ineffably into our identities and destinies.' (Publication summary)

'Literary texts reveal aspects of lived experience, historical reality and subjectivity. In Uses of Literature, Rita Felski (2008) argues that they therefore take part in practices of knowing. In the following paper, writers’ recognition of moments of discovery as described in The Paris Review Interviews is contrasted with biomedical scientists’ discussions of their salient discoveries in interviews from the Australian Academy of Science’s website. While writing in the biomedical sciences has long been assumed to consist of ‘writing up’ results established in a laboratory, some research into scientific writing suggests that the process of writing itself clarifies scientists’ thinking. The following paper compares interviews with writers and interviews with scientists using an online text analysis tool, Voyant. It asks how the conceptualisation of discoveries made by biomedical scientists differs from or aligns with notions of discovery among fiction writers, and what role the interview process plays in revealing how writers and scientists write. Long-held assumptions about writers’ and scientists’ practices affect approaches by interviewers to their subjects, yet analysis of existing interviews demonstrates how discoveries emerge in the fiction writing process; in contrast, interview questions asked of scientists likely obscure the role of writing in their work.' (Publication abstract)

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'Meg's brothers were lucky. They joined the army when they turned eighteen: first Liam, then Stuart. When reveille sounded, they sat up in their bunks and pulled on their boots. They washed their faces with a towel dipped in cold water, raised their arms and rolled on deodorant, then drained cups of sugary coffee in the mess hall. They weren’t required to consider existential questions; they simply had to do their jobs.'  (Introduction)

'This paper examines the literary interview as a form, and as a source of research material for creative writing and literary studies. In the article, I discuss theoretical and methodological approaches to conversations with writers and the usefulness of the interview for creative writing scholars. Novelist Charlotte Wood published The Writer’s Room: Conversations about Writing (2016) soon after her award-winning fifth novel, The Natural Way of Things (2015), appeared; the two books were constructed at around the same time. Through an interview I conducted with Wood about The Writer’s Room and her reasons for speaking to contemporary writers, I assess the statements Wood makes in the introduction to her collection and explore the texture of literary interviews. The article examines what information interviews provide about an individual writer’s working methods and looks at the emotions or affect around authors’ writing lives as a means of gauging the utility of the interview for scholars and writers. I argue that while the apparent aim of the interview is to obtain insights into an author’s praxis, related objectives may be to build connections between authors and their readers, and to augment communities of writers.' (Abstract)

'This paper brings into dialogue contemporary discourse in creative writing studies about approaches to reading draft fiction with a subjective account of the experience of being read. Through drawing on two key essays on reading strategies in the discipline of creative writing, statements by published authors and my own process, this paper looks at how writers respond to feedback on their writing. Reading of draft creative work occurs in overlapping contexts – in universities, by informal networks of writers and by editors – and social structures such as reading and writing groups support a writer in his or her response to criticism. The changes made to manuscripts as a result of feedback can be significant; this paper looks at the contexts in which such changes are executed. Ultimately, this paper argues that ‘communities of practice’ composed of writers who attended a university creative writing program together and who continued to read each other’s work after graduation utilised and developed strategies initiated in such programs. Such communities have benefits for their members in terms of social support and publication.' (Publication summary)

'Melbourne, 1938. Annabel's dream is to be a scientist. Falling in love is not part of her plan. But when she meets Bill Whitten she knows instantly that they are destined for each other.

'She has to wait for him to come back from the war. Their life together, as lovers and microbiologists, can now begin.

'The newlyweds emigrate to New York. They are at once captivated by fellow immigrants Frank, an ex-Communist from Hungary, and his playwright wife, Suzy. It's the 1950s and the Cold War is in full swing. Frank, Annabel and Bill find work on weapons projects, experimenting with lethal infectious diseases.

'Did they cross the world for this? Annabel's whole being is anchored in her ardour for Bill, and their work together. But other forces—suspicion, paranoia, deceit—are at play. Everything begins to unravel: her work, her career and her marriage.

'With its backdrop of science and politics Who We Were is a love story to be reckoned with, an intimate and powerful first novel about trust, obsession and the truth itself.' (Publisher's blurb)