'Freedom of speech is the freedom to offend and that means the freedom to offend anyone.' - Bill Leak. A new collection of the art and observations of cartoonist, painter and all-round contrarian - the incomparable Bill Leak. The public has rarely held politicians and the practice of politics in such contempt. Luckily Bill Leak is here to guide us through the darkness. UnAustralian of the Year contains Leak's best editorial cartoons since 2007 and is a satirical history of an extraordinary period in Australian politics: from the enthusiastic popular mandate enjoyed by Kevin Rudd's Labor after the 2007 federal election to the brutal merry-go-round of party leaders culminating in the rancour and instability surrounding Julia Gillard's minority government. In a series of reflections Leak writes with his customary directness and acerbic wit on a range of topics: his recent accident and recovery from brain damage; the blessings of manic-depression for the creative artist; the art of editorial cartooning and his commitment to free expression; portrait painting and the contemporary art scene.

Un-Australian Fictions sets out to analyse a subset of Australian literary fictions published between 1988 and 2008 – from the bicentenary of British settlement to the global financial crisis and into a new millennium. During a new transnational era, Australians faced sober and unsettling times. Already accorded the status of national obsession, issues of national identity were vigorously contested. Concepts such as the nation, multiculturalism and globalisation became topics for heated discussion in the public sphere. Australia’s literary communities were not immune or isolated from these ongoing discussions. The “un-Australian fictions” which this book studies represent the challenges which these texts, in their own unique way, bring to the Australian national ethos and the national mythology, which is predicated on traditions such as masculism; a bush ethos; the pre-eminence of white colonial settlement; connectedness to an imaginative European geography; as well as an unbreakable tie to Britain. As un-Australian fictions, these texts reflect the destabilisation of what were once certain, spatial and psychic borders and orders of Australianness. They affect as well as reflect, the wider conversation that continues today about what being Australian means in a new millennium.

Asian - Australians have often been written about by outsiders, as outsiders. In this collection, compiled by award - winning author Alice Pung, they tell their own stories with verve, courage and a large dose of humour. These are not predictable tales of food, festivals and traditional dress. The food is here in all its steaming glory - but listen more closely to the dinner - table chatter and you might be surprised by what you hear. Here are tales of leaving home, falling in love, coming out and finding one's feet. A young Cindy Pan vows to win every single category of Nobel Prize. Tony Ayres blows a kiss to a skinhead and lives to tell the tale. Benjamin Law has a close encounter with some angry Australian fauna, and Kylie Kwong makes a moving pilgrimage to her great - grandfather's Chinese village. Here are well - known authors and exciting new voices, spanning several generations and drawn from all over Australia. In sharing their stories, they show us what it is really like to grow up Asian, and Australian. Contributors include: Shaun Tan, Jason Yat - Sen Li, John So, Annette Shun Wah, Quan Yeomans, Jenny Kee, Anh Do, Khoa Do, Caroline Tran and many more.

This book brings together leading scholars and practitioners to take stock of the frictions generated by a tumultuous time in the Australian art field and to probe what the crises might mean for the future of the arts in Australia. Specific topics include national and international art markets; art practices in their broader social and political contexts; social relations and institutions and their role in contemporary Australian art; the policy regimes and funding programmes of Australian governments; and national and international art markets. In addition, the collection will pay detailed attention to the field of indigenous art and the work of Indigenous artists. This book will be of interest to scholars in contemporary art, art history, cultural studies, and Indigenous peoples.

Welcome to 2020. Brexit, Trump, leadership challenges- those were the days. The Morrison government, after delivering its promised tax cuts, had only one thing on its policy mind- protecting its presumptive budget surplus. Sure, avoiding questions about such trifles as sports rorts, robodebt cock-ups, and water scams required an inordinate amount of energy. But, all in all, it must have seemed like a good time to take a holiday. Anyway, other people were on the fire hoses - terrified, exhausted, selfless - as south-east Australia gave us a glimpse of the looming slow-motion catastrophe of a rapidly heating world. Meanwhile, in a wet market in Wuhan, events were unfolding that would shake all our societies to the core and change our world forever. The mantle and burden of heroism was about to be passed to a new cast of ordinary people on a very different front line. Is this a time for joking? Too soon? Maybe we need the penetrating satirical intelligence and the dark, challenging humour of our political cartoonists more than ever. Featuring Dean Alston, Peter Broelman, Pat Campbell, Andrew Dyson, John Farmer, First Dog on the Moon, Matt Golding, Fiona Katauskas, Mark Knight, Jon Kudelka, Alan Moir, David Pope, David Rowe, Andrew Weldon, Cathy Wilcox, and many more ...