AustLit

'Stella Prize-shortlisted author Kris Kneen examines their body through the lens of art and burlesque in this gorgeous, intimate story of fatness, beauty and self-knowledge.

'How does a person come to know that they are different from the children around them? To measure themselves against a set normal and find themselves lacking?

'When did I know that I was plump, and then fat?

'Fat child, self-denying adolescent, hungry young woman; a body now burgeoning uncontrolled into middle age. Kris Kneen has borne the usual indignities—the confrontations with clothes that won't fasten, with mirrors that defame, with strangers whose gaze judges and dismisses. This is the story of how Kris learned to look unblinkingly at their recalcitrant body, and ultimately found the courage to carry it to freedom.

'Fat Girl Dancing is a frank, beautiful and triumphant ode to self-respect from one of Australia's most original and acclaimed writers.' (Publication summary)

'In her 2010 memoir, Affection, Krissy Kneen introduced readers to her unique family and the towering matriarchal figure of her grandmother. Stern, domineering, fiercely loving, Lotty Kneen—born Dragitsa—was always tight-lipped about her early life and family history. She rebuffed Krissy's curiosity and forbade her from taking the trip back to the old country that might have satisfied it.

'When her grandmother died recently, Krissy finally felt at liberty to explore the questions that had nagged at her for so long. In The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen Krissy sets out with a box containing her grandmother's ashes, intending to trace the old woman's early life in Slovenia and Egypt, and perhaps locate some remnants of family. Along the way she uncovers the extraordinary story of the colony of Slovene women who became the nannies of choice for the wealthy Italians of pre-war Alexandria-and identifies as best she can the places where Lotty's restless, demanding spirit will be at peace.' (Publication summary)

'The email notification startles me. It is from Virgin Airlines. Get ready to fly soon. When I click into the notification, Virgin—an airline that has entered voluntary administration—tells me that my direct flight to Tasmania has been changed to three separate flights spread over eight hours. I will be flying from Brisbane to Sydney, then from Sydney to Melbourne, then, after quite a wait, from Melbourne to Hobart.' (Introduction)

'As floodwaters rise on a central Queensland property, repressed memories emerge of a trauma left behind.'

Source: Radio National Fictions.

'‘Hello. Jessica Weir? I’m sorry, miss, but this was the last number—’ ‘Matthew’s on his way home. He should be here soon.’ And only the ocean breathing into the silence as if her own chest were rising and falling without fail. As if his heart were still beating. As if nothing in the world had changed. ‘We’ve found a car, miss. No sign of a driver.’

'WHEN Jessica’s partner disappears into the dark Tasmanian forest, there is of course the mystery of what happened—the deserted car, the enigmatic final image on his phone. There is the strange circle of local women, widows of disappeared men, with their edgy fellowship and unhinged theories. And the forest itself: looming over this tiny settlement on the remote tip of the island.

'But for Jessica there is also the tight community in which she is still a stranger and Matthew was not. What secrets do they know about her own life that she doesn’t? And why do they believe things that should not—cannot—be true? For her own sanity, Jessica needs to know two things. Who was Matthew? And who—or what—has he become?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The exploration of the flesh begins here. Inspired by Krissy Kneen’s best-selling memoir, The Body In a Body blurs the line between truth and fiction. 

'Kneen, a fifty year old writer meets Rose, an ex-lover, on a long haul flight. Krissy hasn’t seen Rose for thirty years and this sudden unexpected meeting brings back memories of her sexually voracious, twenty year old self. 

'The Body In a Body is play about women’s bodies, how they age, how they change and how these changes are perceived by others. It explores sexuality and the harsh realities of being a sexual person in an ageing body, while challenging current social ideals of thinness, youth, heterosexuality and unachievable beauty standards. 

'This is a play that asks the hard questions, what do you think about your own body and what would happen if you were kinder to yourself? All is in flux, everything changes. The one immutable element is the fact of a body.' (Production summary)
 

'Some time in the near future, university lecturer Caspar receives a gift from a former student called Liv: a memory stick containing a virtual narrative. Hooked up to a virtual reality bodysuit, he becomes immersed in the experience of their past sexual relationship. But this time it is her experience. What was for him an erotic interlude, resonant with the thrill of seduction, was very different for her—and when he has lived it, he will understand how.

'Later…

'A convicted paedophile recruited to Liv’s experiment in collective consciousness discovers a way to escape from his own desolation.

'A synthetic boy, designed by Liv’s team to ‘love’ men who desire adolescents, begins to question the terms of his existence.

'L, in transition to a state beyond gender, befriends Liv, in transition to a state beyond age.

'Liv herself has finally transcended the corporeal—but there is still the problem of love.

'An Uncertain Grace is a novel in five parts by one of Australia’s most inventive and provocative writers. Moving, thoughtful, sometimes playful, it is about who we are—our best and worst selves, our innermost selves—and who we might become.' (Publication summary)