AustLit
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5 Jun 2017(Display Format : Landscape)
World Environment Day
Today is World Environment Day! To celebrate this year’s WED theme ‘Reconnecting people to nature’, we will be showcasing our ‘Children’s Literature and the Environment’ Exhibition currently in development by the project team at QUT.
As environmental issues are a major concern in this country, Australian children’s and young adult literature frequently explores issues such as environmental waste, global warming, species endangerment, ecocitizenship, and the effects of globalisation on the environment. Such texts offer insights into ecocatastrophe, climate change, anthropocentrism, sustainability, and other important issues, or they might simply celebrate the environment. Environmental narratives also provide creative and imaginative scenarios and solutions that can encourage young people to consider their own relationship with the environment.
Our project logo is the green leaf-tailed gecko, used with permission and drawn by writer and illustrator Narelle Oliver. Her picture books raise environmental awareness through detailed linocut illustrations of Australian flora, fauna and natural habitats. Her most recent book, published posthumously, is Rock Pool Secrets, which shows the simple pleasure of exploring rock pools, and the environment around us.
Take a look at ‘Children’s Literature and the Environment’ for other prolific environmental authors as well as collections around topics such as endangered species, climate change and global warming, environmental destruction, the Great Barrier Reef, bushfires, and protecting the environment. The exhibition also highlights ways to use environmental texts in the classroom.
Using the World Environment Day hashtag #WithNature, tell us your reading recommendations for Australian books that ‘reconnect people to nature’.
Here are some suggestions to get you started:
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1248410091383452386.jpgAtmospheric : The Burning Story of Climate Change Carole Wilkinson , 2015 single work information book
Blurb: We can't survive without Earth's atmosphere, yet most of the time we ignore it. We treat our atmosphere as a rubbish dump for our greenhouses gas emissions. Slowly but surely, what we are doing is changing Earth's climate.
Atmospheric cuts through the many voices raised around climate change to tell the story of our atmosphere, what is putting our climate at risk and what we can do about it. This could be the most important book of your life.
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MilroyDingosTreeCoverLarge_FV[[equals].jpgDingo's Tree Gladys Milroy , 2011 single work picture book
Blurb: Dingo's Tree is a tale of friendship and sharing, it tells of the struggle to survive in a land that is devastated by mining. It is a powerful children's cautionary tale on the destruction and havoc that mining causes to land and to community.
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4730513836225098140.jpg2375541383922870612.jpgA Patch from Scratch Megan Forward , 2016 single work picture book
Blurb: Jesse and Lewis want to grow their own fruit and vegies, just like people do on a farm. They're going to dig and build, plant and grow, and when they're finished they're going to have a feast!
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Blurb: Australia's leading prize for young poets showcased in a collection of fresh poems from our freshest minds. This year's best poetry radiates wit and wisdom, making this anthology a must for poetry lovers of all ages.
This volume contains poems of all subjects, but contains many about the environment, particularly environmental destruction, loss of wildlife, farming and drought; as well as poems honouring the beauty of places.
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6095091614175747485.jpg6103552060759039579.jpgSam's Bush Journey Sally Morgan , Ezekiel Kwaymullina , 2009 single work picture book
Blurb: Sam is a young boy who like most young boys of this generation loves computers, DVDs, iPods and iPhones. He hates the Australian bush and the outdoors. Sam would be happy if it all disappeared.
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10 May 2017(Display Format : Custom)(Scheme : scheme-orange)
Vale Rosie Scott
Rosie Scott was an award-winning writer and tireless campaigner for social justice and for literature and storytelling through her membership of PEN and the ASA. With Dr Anita Heiss, she edited the important work of perspectives on The Intervention : An Anthology in 2015.
Born in New Zealand, Rosie moved to Australia in 1985. She won recognition for her writing by being shortlisted on a number of awards and by winning an Australia Council Fellowship. She was awarded an Order of Australia in 2016.
It is with sadness that we learned of Rosie Scott's death last week and offer our sincere condolences to her family and friends.
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18 Apr 2017(Display Format : Landscape)(Scheme : scheme-darkerblue)
Aust. Climate Change Fiction : #AustLitCliFi
Deborah Jordan is currently preparing an expanded and revised edition of her Climate Change Narratives in Australian Fiction to be published by AustLit.
And while we're generating lists of solarpunk and ecopunk, post-apocalyptic narratives and dystopias, environmental destruction and cyclones, we're also putting out a call to you, readers of Australian fiction.
Do you read cli-fi? Ecopunk? Solarpunk? Dystopian fiction? Have you come across Australian films, television series, short stories, or poems that explore the ramifications of global warming and climate change? Is there a novel you've been desperate to talk to everyone about? Talk to us!
Send us your recommendations using the hashtag #AustLitCliFi, and help us create a comprehensive listing of fictional responses to this urgent topic.
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9 Mar 2017(Display Format : Landscape)(Scheme : scheme-rose)
The Best of AusArts (Cirrus), 2016
Explore this collection of exemplary work by students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences undertaken in 2016. Using the new teaching teaching and learning platform built on the AustLit system, Cirrus allows teachers and students to undertake innovative assessment activities. The best outcomes will be published annually by AustLit.
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22 Feb 2017(Display Format : Portrait)(Scheme : scheme-turquoise)
New to AustLit
Newly indexed on AustLit is the latest edition of Hecate (42.1). Carole Ferrier, in her Editorial introduction, discusses the well-researched essay “Crossing the Boundaries : The Versatility of Women in the Novels of Janette Turner Hospital” by Fiona Duthie. She states :
Hecate has from the mid-1970s published work from cross-disciplinary perspectives that contest hegemonic received ideas regarding gender, class, ethnicity and race, and sexualities, and how these things have played out at particular times in particular places. In this issue, Fiona Duthie's article discusses some female characters in Janette Turner Hospital's novels who aim at 'interesting forms of internationalism' and who challenge 'cultural and political systems that seek to enforce division,' so that they can try 'to achieve the truth and justice they so earnestly desire against the backdrop of the general bleakness.' While this could be said of many fictional female characters in much of the literature of the past decades, the reference her to 'bleakness' seems particularly apposite when 'interpreting the world' in 2016.' (4)
Of particular note in this edition is the Dymphna Cusack poem ‘We Are the Sons’ edited by Marilla North. An AustLit title search of this poem returned no results; however, a first line search of the poem revealed a perfect match. The poem ‘The Spirit of Anzac’ was published under the pseudonym ‘Atalanta’ in The Bulletin, 23 April, 1930. A fabulous discovery, indeed–as we had no record of other writing names Cusack may have used.
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16 Jan 2017(Display Format : Landscape)(Scheme : scheme-orange)
New to AustLit
Intriguing publications recently recordedBringing attention to freshly indexed publications across the fields AustLit covers. A new regular posting...
The recent issue of AnthroVision is a fascinating exploration of the relationship between texts and visuals. And it's online!
"This collection of essays and video contributions both focuses and relies on interactions between texts and images. AnthroVision – as an online journal aiming to “include audiovisual material and to promote innovative ways of writing within an academic framework” – is therefore an ideal publication avenue for this volume, which also addresses the strategies, choices, and constraints that shape research that is conducted with these two media (texts and visuals). The articles do not only unveil the “epistemological backstage” (Olivier De Sardan 1992: 185) of visual documents; they question the dialogic relationship between images and texts. Magali McDuffie, Rosita Henry and Daniela Vávrová, as well as Flora Aurima-Devatine and Estelle Castro-Koshy, for example, chose a two-tool writing process. In their articles, the film questions, completes, and gives more depth to the written text; it does not “double” it. In all the contributions, the film and/or the photographs and the text are mutually enriching. This is also the case in Barbara Glowczewski’s book, Totemic Becomings. Cosmopolitics of the Dreaming/Devires Totêmicos. Cosmopolitica do Sonho, which is reviewed by Gerko Egert: Egert stresses that the bilingual book “composed as a rich assemblage of images and text […] charts the complex cartographies of Warlpiri Dreaming cosmologies” – a mapping that Glowczewski also explicates and gives examples of in her video contribution to this issue."
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27 Oct 2016(Display Format : Landscape)
ICYMI, 2016: AustLit's Year-to-Date
It's that time of year when we look back on what has happened with AustLit in the last ten months, and what the last two months of the year will bring.
New Bibliographical Records:
As always, AustLit regularly adds to the bibliographical records that form the core of our database. New works are added to AustLit on a daily basis, and one of the great joys of working for the only database of national literature in the world is finding these new works and new authors every time we come to work.
Here are some of the statistics on new works and authors that caught our attention in the twelve months since October 2015.
Records for more than 28,000 new works that have been added to AustLit in the past year, including new records for over 12,000 new works with a 2016 publication date. Australians: they know how to write.
AustLit doesn't just index current works: we're regularly adding new records for old periodicals and newspapers. For example, did you know that we added 60 works published in 1905 in the last twelve months? Not to mention 80 works from 1891.
In terms of genre, here's a breakdown of some of the new works added in the last twelve months:
- 1023 romances.
- 271 horror stories.
- 240 young-adult works.
- 95 Indigenous stories.
- 7 operas.
- 2 westerns.
Scholarly bibliography: the most exciting job out there!
Research:
In 2015, we unveiled two new research projects: Trauma Texts and the Joseph Furphy Digital Archive. This year, we have another two research projects ready to release:
- the Literature of Tasmania dataset, with a rich monograph by Philip Mead, enhanced with images and video.
- a history of steampunk in Australia, the work of AustLit's new winter scholar, coming to you very early in the new year.
Both of these projects are very exciting to AustLit staff, and we are hoping they'll prove very exciting to you, as well!
Perhaps the most exciting research work of the early part of this year was AustLit's work with the Ian Potter Foundation and UQ drama students to bring back to the stage the lost work of Dorothy Blewett. AustLit's director, Kerry Kilner, wrote about the discovery and production of The First Joanna earlier in the year, when it was beautifully produced by UQ students under the aegis of director Sue Rider. Students involved in that production also produced online exhibitions about their experiences with the play, which were published on AustLit.
We welcome two student interns in the first half of 2016, who worked on Dorothy Blewett's archive and on AustLit's collection of full-text speculative-fiction collection.
In second semester, student interns assisted in digitising more of Dorothy Blewett's plays and other unpublished works and produced work around teaching with AustLit, including detailed teaching notes on Australian Gothic drama. Stay tuned to see these new materials unveiled.
Exhibitions and Information Trails:
When we published our yearly round-up for 2015, we highlighted some of the fantastic new additions to the database, including Anita Heiss's BlackWords essays and a new information trail on the Stolen Generations.
BlackWords has continued to gain in strength in 2016, with a new information trail on the Gulf of Carpentaria region about to be published. This trail will highlight writings by the Garawa, Waanyi, and Anindilyakwa people and languages, among others.
In 2016, AustLit also published Diversity in Australian Speculative Fiction : A Bibliographical Exhibition. This online exhibition is a series of reading lists targeting Australian speculative-fiction works that showcase racial and ethnic diversity; physiological, neurological, or sensate diversity; sexual and gender diversity; and religious diversity. Showcasing dozens of works in categories from short stories to graphic novels, the exhibition is accompanied by a list of further reading. Both list and exhibition are regularly expanded.
Tech Update:
Late last year, our big excitement was the new 'Follow' function. This allows you to follow an author's or organisation's AustLit record, and receive updates when a new work is added or substantial changes are made to a biography–an excellent options for fans and students alike. To follow an author or organisation, go to their AustLit page and add your email address to the 'Follow' box on the right-hand side of the record.
In June this year, we announced our new programmer, Brenden Jeon. Brenden has been busy working with our lead programmer, Jonathan Hadwen, on the development of AusArts, perhaps our most exciting new technological update of the year. AusArts is a large project that allows the AustLit content management system to be used by tertiary students. As well as allowing students to create mini web sites that they can publish and use as part of their web portfolio, AusArts also allows for online annotation of text and images. The system has been in development throughout 2016, and is generating much excitement about academics and students at UQ, its first trial site, not to mention AustLit staff.
Remember, if you're ever in doubt about how to use AustLit, check out our handy Help page, complete with video guide, or email us.
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19 Sep 2016(Display Format : Landscape)(Scheme : scheme-darkerblue)
Dust Off Your Books: Here Be Festivals
With the Melbourne Writers Festival, the Queensland Poetry Festival, and the Brisbane Writers Festival just behind us, and a staggering 5000 attendees at the inaugural Canberra Writers Festival, it's time to consider what else is out there for the discerning reader who actually likes leaving the house occasionally. By no means a comprehensive list, this is only some of the festivals awaiting you in the last quarter of the year.
26 September sees the start of the Tasmanian Poetry Festival, with guest poets including Sarah Holland-Batt, Dan Disney, Emilie Zoey Baker, and Jill Jones.
29 September kicks off the National Young Writers Festival. This is always one of the liveliest festivals on the calendar, and they're not kidding when they call it the future of Australian fiction.
30 September is the first day of Conflux, the speculative fiction gathering, with guest of honour Alan Baxter and some seriously shiny workshops and presentations. (We know you got the joke, Firefly fans.)
1-2 October brings us Crime Scene WA, with a brilliant line up of writers, including Candice Fox and Emma Viskic.
12-23 October, if you're in Perth, you get to enjoy the inaugural Australian Short Story Festival, with an opening address by Cate Kennedy and a closing address by Kim Scott.
26 October sees the start of Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, a Southeast Asian festival that draws writers from across the region.
1 to 11 November is a festival for all those readers who don't necessarily want to leave the house: the Digital Writers Festival. An innovative sequence of online-first content, the Digital Writers Festival is in its second year this year.
18 to 20 November offers you Queermance, a celebration of queer romance in fiction. For authors and publishers of GLBT fiction, this is your place to be.
18-19 November also offers you a short convention with Sisters in Crime: SheKilda 3 packs more than 40 authors into less than two days.
And if you're outside the urban centres, check out the following regional and rural festivals:
- Toowomba Writers' Festival
- Scone Long Literary Weekend
- WriteFest (Bundaberg)
- Wollongong Writers Festival
- Clare Readers and Writers Festival
- Write Around the Murray Festival
- Batemans Bay Writers Festival
- Avon Valley Readers and Writers Festival
- Sunshine Coast International Readers and Writers Festival
Image credit: The Bibliomaniac, from 'Navis Stultifera' (The Ship of Fools) (1497). From Sebastian Brandt, A Brief History of Wood-engraving from its Invention, Joseph Cundall, 1895 (via Wikimedia Commons).
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8 Sep 2016(Display Format : Landscape)
Paralympics: Athletes in their Own Words
With the Australian Paralympics team having just walked the stadium in Rio for the opening ceremony, let's look at some of the Australian athletes who have told their own stories of competition in the Paralympic Games.
(Image source: Basketball at the 1964 Paralympics.)
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8520663582682053431.jpegThree Quarter Man : Pranks, Passion and Paralympics Sam Bramham , 2014 single work autobiography
Sam Bramham is known as much for his larrikin attitude as for his athletic prowess–although a few among us will definitely shudder at the anecdote about the shark-attack prank.
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There are those among us (present company included!) to whom wheelchair rugby is a source of endless fascination and amazement–let Ian Simpson talk you through it.
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1578524050504005020.jpgPushing the Limits : Life, Marathons & Kokoda Kurt Fearnley , 2014 single work autobiography
Small-town boy to elite athlete, and on to the Kokoda Trail ...
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2979637393576322042.jpgFull Circle : One Life, Many Lessons John MacLean , 2009 single work autobiography
John Maclean has swum the English Channel, completed the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon, and–if you're not already tired just thinking about it–won silver at the Paralympics.
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5313737539995485515.jpgWithout Warning : A Soldier's Extraordinay Story Damien Thomlinson , Michael Cowley , 2013 single work autobiography
Once a commando, always a commando. Former soldier Damien Thomlinson tells the story of how he came to be an aspiring Paralympian.
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Part of the collection Ngariaty : Kooris Talkin', Donna Burns's story includes representing Australia at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics.
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