Reading is a dance on the beaches of the mind, writes Greg Dening. His reading-dances are about the pain of cross-cultural encounters, of loomings beyond the horizons of discipline, gender and race, of the pleasures of a hundred texts. In Readings/Writings his aim is to cultivate our imaginations so that we might see further, understand more deeply and hear more acutely. This book opens with Dening's extraordinary piece, 'Memorial', a deeply moving reading of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. Dening's profound yet lucid reflections on the meanings contained in this stark, simple memorial set the tone for the book.

Take a walk through Melbourne’s streets and discover a world of fascinating historical tidbits with renowned writer and history buff Robyn Annear.

On Valentine's Day, after a night of red wine and pasta and planning for their future, Natasha Sholl and her partner Rob went to bed. A few hours later, at the age of 27, his heart stopped. Found, Wanting tells the story of Natasha's attempt to rebuild her life in the wake of Rob's sudden death, stumbling through the grief landscape and colliding with the cultural assumptions about the 'right way' to grieve. It is a memoir about falling in love in the aftermath of loss, and what it means to build a life in the space that death leaves. Furious and passionate, bracingly honest and beautiful, Found, Wanting is above all, a memoir about living and making sense of the multitude of lives within us. PRAISE FOR FOUND, WANTING 'what she shares with the reader is profound, necessary and also, at times, funny and quite beautiful.' - Jason Steger, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald 'Forthright, compelling and at times darkly funny, it's a thoughtful and beautifully written reflection on the ways Sholl came undone' - The West Australian 'Sholl has given us a beautifully written memoir that powerfully delivers the wisdom each of us will need at some point about how a human life is spacious enough to accommodate both grief and joy.' - Sarah Krasnostein, author of The Trauma Cleaner 'Sholl is a stunning writer and observer of the human condition. Gripping, candid and tender, Found, Wanting is for anyone who knows the loneliness of loss.' - Jessie Stephens, author of Heartsick 'that's what makes this book such an unexpected pleasure to read. Natasha's attitude, her unique turns of phrase, and her deep honesty shine through, making a story that could be heavy with sadness, actually hope-filled and oftentimes funny.' - The Australian 'Sholl writes with dignity and thoughtfulness.' - The Sydney Morning Herald 'Sholl's forthright nature and hard-won wisdom is at the heart of why I was riveted by Found, Wanting. Her honesty is fearless and relatable, and there is something so heartachingly vulnerable about the unspeakable thoughts and undignified moments that she relates here' - Jackie Tang, Readings Monthly 'Found, Wanting's relentless and heartbreaking depiction of loss could've been unbearable were it not for the moving beauty of the writing.' - Allee Richards, Kill Your Darlings

Poet Omar Sakr's debut novel is a fierce and fantastic force that illuminates the bonds that bind families together as well as what can break them. An estranged father. An abused and abusive mother. An army of relatives. A tapestry of violence, woven across generations and geographies, from Turkey to Lebanon to Western Sydney. This is the legacy left to Jamal Smith, a young queer Muslim trying to escape a past in which memory and rumour trace ugly shapes in the dark. When every thread in life constricts instead of connects, how do you find a way to breathe? Torn between faith and fear, gossip and gospel, family and friendship, Jamal must find and test the limits of love. In this extraordinary work, Omar Sakr deftly weaves a multifaceted tale brimming with angels and djinn, racist kangaroos and adoring bats, examining with a poet's eye the destructive impetus of repressed desire and the complexities that make us human.

Nail-biting, atmospheric, and unputdownable, the brilliant new thriller for fans of Wimmera and The Dry. ONE MISSING GIRL. NO SUSPECTS. A TOWN ABOUT TO IGNITE. Quala, a North Queensland sugar town, the 1970s. Barbara McClymont walks the cane fields searching for Janet, her sixteen-year-old daughter, who has been missing for weeks. The police have no leads. The people of Quala are divided by dread and distrust. But the sugar crush is underway and the cane must be burned. Meanwhile, children dream of a malevolent presence, a schoolteacher yearns to escape, and history keeps returning to remind Quala that the past is always present. As the smoke rises and tensions come to a head, the dark heart of Quala will be revealed, affecting the lives of all those who dwell beyond the cane. The Cane is an evocative and atmospheric thriller, and announces an exciting new voice in Australian crime writing. 'A fine, brave, perceptive writer.' - Mark Dapin, journalist and author of Public Enemies 'A stunning piece of Australian rural noir.' - Mark Brandi, bestselling author of Wimmera and The Rip

The Englishness of English literature had been expressed in Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Sir Walter Scott, those writers whose works seemed best to embody the spirit of the place or the spirit of its folk. In what writers or works would the Australianness of Australian literature be discovered? (David Carter 1997)--------This first literary Reader on Australian studies from India not only investigates this central question but explores many other facets of Australian literature and especially Australian cross-cultural relationships with India and Asia. Taking a broad view of what Australian literature is, this Reader explores the dimensions of Australian literature (national, Aboriginal, multicultural, ecocritical, postcolonial, modernist, comparative, feminist, and popular) in its varied genres of drama, poetry, autobiography, explorers' journals, short stories, literature of war, travel writing, Anglo-Indian fiction, diasporic writing, mainstream novel, nature writing, children's literature, romance, science fiction, gothic literature, horror, crime fiction, queer writing, and humour. Each paper in this Reader presents different ways of "reading down under" and "performing Australianness." Juxtaposing the varied critical perspectives of nearly 60 critics this Reader hopes to create a constructive dialogue in the fight against the dominance of an Anglo-American academic approach.

‘Angus & Robertson and the British Trade in Australian Books, 1930–1970’ traces the history of the printed book in Australia, particularly the production and business context that mediated Australia’s literary and cultural ties to Britain for much of the twentieth century. This study focuses on the London operations of one of Australia’s premier book publishers of the twentieth century: Angus & Robertson. The book argues that despite the obvious limitations of a British-dominated market, Australian publishers had room to manoeuvre in it. It questions the ways in which Angus & Robertson replicated, challenged or transformed the often highly criticised commercial practices of British publishers in order to develop an export trade for Australian books in the United Kingdom. This book is the answer to the current void in the literary market for a substantial history of Australia’s largest publisher and its role in the development of Australia’s export book trade.