Fate-al Attraction: The Albanian reviewed in Hecate online

Hecate's Australian Women's Book Review has reviewed The Albanian by Donna Mazza in issue 20.1:

"Donna Mazza’s tale of home, and the escape from it, explores romantic ideas of fate and the mysterious, which entwine the main character as she sees the world and learns, necessarily, about herself. This is an enormous undertaking for a début novel, covering years, countries, political, cultural and personal differences, but it has been quite successfully achieved. "

Read more here

IN BRIEF: New Designer reaps rewards

Fremantle Press designer Ally Crimp was recognized in the Campaign Brief WA Awards on Friday 20 March.

Creative agencies across Perth vied for one of the eight coveted awards.

Ally, formerly an Art Director for Rare creative thinking, was a finalist for her ‘Playroom’ campaign in the Press Campaign category.

Ally’s art direction has been the recipient of several local and national awards in the past for clients such as St John Ambulance, Bowra and O’Dea and The Department of Education and Training.

Elaine Forrestal's tips for first-time authors on working with children

Ok, so you've published your first picture book and you've been invited to run a workshop or talk with a room full of young children. You're not a teacher, you're not a librarian and you dropped out of acting school - so how do you prepare?? Elaine Forrestal, educationalist and award-winning children's author has some pointers!

Young children love to be read to. But when there are twenty five – or more – of them you can’t just read from the book in the same way as you would with one or two. It’s vital to make eye contact with as many or them as possible, and to keep scanning the group so that you are aware of the first signs of waning concentration.
Over-dramatise when you read, especially if there are some students who are not paying attention. Look for places in your text where you can shout, whisper, pull faces or dance about.

Once you have finished reading the book, get them to talk to you about it. This can feel a bit chaotic at first, but if they all want to talk at once it’s a good sign. Just field as many questions as you can, giving answers that you think will interest the whole group, not just the questioner.

If no one says anything, it’s time for some lateral thinking.
This is where the activities come in. Be well prepared beforehand with all the necessary equipment for the students to:

*Write their own stories
*Draw their own illustrations
*Dramatise your story – a few simple props will get them going. Ask for volunteers to take on the rolls of the characters. You will probably have so many that the play will need to run through more than once.
*Turn one of their own stories into a play, a song, an action rhyme that they can all perform together.

There are dozens of things you can do. Just use your imagination. The first couple of times are always the scariest. After that you will love working with young children. They are so spontaneous and enthusiastic about everything. And you will quickly find out which activities work best with your particular book. Don’t be afraid to use them over and over again.

Click here to check out Miss Llewellyn-Jones by Elaine Forrestal.

Lighthouse Girl launched at Westbooks

Around 150 people went to the launch of Lighthouse Girl by Dianne Wolfer and Brian Simmonds at Westbooks on Friday 27 March. The book was launched by State Librarian and CEO of the State Library of Western Australia, Margaret Allen.

Brian Simmonds, Don Watson and Dianne Wolfer signing copies of Lighthouse Girl

Dianne Wolfer signs books at the Lighthouse Girl launch

Around 150 people came to the launch of Lighthouse Girl at Westbooks

Clive Newman, MC and Marketing, Sales and Distribution Manager

Fremantle Press author shortlisted for a NSW Premier’s Award

Anna Haebich has been shortlisted for the Community Relations Commission Award as part of the 2009 NSW Premier’s Awards.

Spinning the Dream: assimilation in Australia 1950-1970 is one of six books nominated for the Award worth $15,000.

Professor Haebich said she was proud to be nominated for an award that prizes the diversity of Australia's history.

“I am especially pleased to think that the judges appreciated my efforts to trace how assimilation has shaped the lives of immigrants, Indigenous people and other Australians throughout this history,” said Ms Haebich.




Read more here

2009 Barbara Jefferis Award Winner Announced

Helen Garner won the 2009 Barbara Jefferis Award, worth $35,000, for her novel The Spare Room on 27 March 2009. The award is given to the writer of "the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society".

Fremantle Press author Alice Nelson was one of six novelists shortlisted for the award for her novel The Last Sky. The other shortlisted authors and books were: Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book (HarperCollins), Zacharey Jane, The Lifeboat (University of Queensland Press), Toni Jordan, Addition (Text) and Joan London, The Good Parents (Random House).

Lighthouse Girl Art Catalogue

Award-winning artist Brian Simmonds is selling the evocative charcoal drawings from the book Lighthouse Girl by Dianne Wolfer.

Lighthouse Girl will be launched at Westbooks on 27 March 2009 at 5.30pm and at the Albany Town Hall on 8 April 2009.

For further information or a catalogue, please contact cmiller@fremantlepress.com.au or 08 9430 6331

About the Artist
Brian Simmonds was born in Subiaco and worked for many years as a Lithographer in the Printing industry while studying art in the evenings. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from Curtin University and worked for The Sunday Times, New Idea and an advertising agency before he became a professional artist in 1990. He has since earnt his living by painting popular portraits and busking as a portrait artist in galleries, hotel lobbies and even on a Mediteranean Cruise Ship. He has exhibited his work many times and won numerous prizes for drawing, oil painting and mixed media works. His work can be found in many private and public collections in Australia.

At Arm’s Length

How close do you get to your characters, the real ones not those made up, when writing narrative nonfiction? Can the writer still be objective in a book length project when that means digging deep into the lives of their subjects?

The issue was discussed at the session At Arm’s Length during the 2009 Perth Writers Festival.

Chris Pash followed two groups of people – Australia’s last whalers and a group of activists – for his book, The Last Whale published by Fremantle Press. Susan Wyndham, literary editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, stayed close to a neurosurgeon and his patient for her book, Life in his Hands published by Picador.

Susan said: “The traditional way of being a journalist is to remain on the outskirts of your subject observing closely not injecting your own opinion, not becoming involved.”

In her book, Susan does both the subjective and the objective. “I didn’t pretend that I didn’t admire these two men (pianist Aaron McMillan and surgeon Charlie Teo) and yet I reported the story.”

The news that Aaron had secondary cancer came as a terrible blow to Susan personally. She was a friend to the characters as well as the reporter. "I was the first person who Aaron’s mother called the day he died."

Chris Pash said he liked the people his book, both the whalers and the activists. “I have an overload of empathy but that also allows me to understand their views.” His view is that the whalers didn’t have a voice in 1978 when whaling off Albany, WA, came to an end. Part of the motivation for writing The Last Whale was to record the lives of the whalers and present their lives accurately.

He maintains contact with the two groups of people and while he put a massive effort into being fair to both sides he acknowledges that the act of writing the book brought about change. “What has happened is that the two sides understand each other and they are friends.”

Thirty years ago the two groups were pitched against each other in duel across the Southern Ocean, the whalers in steel ships, the activists in open rubber boats. There was a lot of anger and heartache for the whalers when they lost their jobs. They were discarded by their community. The activists also were forgotten, their direct action against the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company a blip in news coverage.

It was satisfying for Chris when one of the last remaining Australian whaling ship masters, Paddy Hart, went to Japan in December 2008 to protest against whaling. He went at the invitation of Steve Shallhorn, the CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, whom he met at the launch of The Last Whale.

Great Western Australian Storytellers Photos

Authors Elaine Forrestal (Miss Llewellyn-Jones), Norman Jorgensen (Jack's Island) and Jen Banyard (Spider Lies)

Lynne Cahill, Manager of Newspaper in Education at The West Australian presents Jack's Island

Norman Jorgensen, author of Jack's Island with Miss Llewellyn-Jones illustrator Moira Court and CBC WA Branch President Jan Nicholls

Director of the Fremantle Children's Literature Centre Lesley Reece

Jen Banyard plays a song on her ukelele inspired by Leonard Cohen

Great Western Australian Storytellers Literary Evening

The Fremantle Children's Literature Centre hosted Great Western Australian Storytellers on Monday 23 March. Over 100 audience members were entertained by speeches and readings by authors Norman Jorgensen, Elaine Forrestal and Jen Banyard.

Guest speaker Lynne Cahill of Newspapers in Education at The West Australian said Miss Llewellyn-Jones by Elaine Forrestal was a great hit with the children in her neighbourhood who regularly visited her front garden to be read to from the book. When introducing Norman Jorgensen she said Jack's Island should come with the price of a ticket to Rottnest.

Ms Cahill launched Spider Lies by first-time novelist Jen Banyard. Ms Banyard's thank-you speech included a musical number performed on her Ukelele.

Ms Banyard said the song was inspired by Leonard Cohen.

Boy on a Wire Book Launch

Jon Doust (Author) and Georgia Richter (Publisher)

Jon Doust, Georgia Richter and MC Chris Pash at the launch of
Boy on a Wire
at Christ Church Grammar School, Claremont

Dianne Wolfer talks with her illustrator Brian Simmonds

Dianne: Seeing an artist bring your story to life visually is exciting and sometimes a little unnerving. As Lighthouse Girl grew, it became an unusual blend of archival photos, newspaper articles, maps and sketches. Cate Sutherland and I began searching for the right illustrator. It wasn’t easy. Cate knew Brian Simmond’s work and she thought that his evocative charcoal sketches would compliment the black and white photography and also tie-in with the era of the book setting. She was right. I love the way Brian captures the wild, windswept beauty of Breaksea Island. Although he is an established and successful artist, Lighthouse Girl is Brian’s first book. I asked whether working as an illustrator is a different process.

Brian: Yes, it is totally different. When I read the story, I could ‘see’ the images that I wanted to put with the text. Then I needed to develop those ideas. One challenge was to add things that weren’t referenced.

Dianne: Can you give an example?

Brian: Devices like giving the lighthouse keeper a moustache… For research, I spent a lot of time looking through books to find images that captured what I wanted to portray. Stills from old movies were the most helpful.

Dianne: I remember I was fascinated to see the springboard image you used for the illustration on page 114. That was based on a scene from the movie To Kill a Mockingbird wasn’t it? That final scene with Gregory Peck and ‘Scout’…

Brian: That’s right. It was helpful to use movie stills like that as a reference. Not to copy the image but to capture a similar moment.

Dianne: While you were working on Lighthouse Girl, you told me that sometimes you felt like a movie director…

Brian: Yes, it was as if I was engaging a cast of people and I needed to invent sets, lighting and so on…

Dianne: What was the most challenging part of the process?

Brian: Keeping the continuity with character’s facial features was challenging. That became easier once Cate took photos of her niece Ali Babington.

Dianne: Would you like to illustrate again?

Brian: Definitely, for me the process was also like being a jazz musician. Like a jazz player your fingers don’t know exactly where they are going until they get there. It was the same for me. My head was filled with images and my fingers then made a mark before I thought too much about it.

Dianne: The marks you made are certainly beautiful. Thank you so much.

Mentorship available at Fremantle Press

Applications for the OYEA Producer Mentor program are now available on the Australia Council website: www.australiacouncil.gov.au/oyeaproducermentors

As part of the Australia Council’s Opportunities for Young and Emerging Artists (OYEA) initiative, 10 paid mentorships for emerging producers, agents, gallery dealers and rights managers are available for a period of 18 months under the ‘emerging producers mentorship program’.

The selected candidates will have to opportunity to work directly alongside one of the following industry leaders:

Elizabeth Walsh, Artistic Director, 10 days on the Island, TAS
Marguerite Pepper, Managing Director, Marguerite Pepper Productions, NSW
Steven Pozel, Director, Object : Australian Centre for Craft and Design, NSW
Daniel Brine, Director, The Performance Space, NSW
Clive Newman, Manager, Fremantle Press, WA
John Oster, Executive Officer, desART : Association of Central Australian Aboriginal Art & Craft Centers, NT
Michael Heyward, Publisher, Text Publishing, VIC
Lee-Anne Donnolley, Executive Producer, Arts Projects Australia, SA
Rob Gebart, Program Manger, The Arts Centre, VIC
Bill Hauritz, Festival Director, Woodford Folk Festival, QLD

More information and application forms can be found on:
www.australiacouncil.gov.au/oyeaproducermentors

Jen Banyard discusses Spider Lies

Spider Lies had been brewing for quite a while before Freo Press’s Children’s Publisher Cate Sutherland called me in to talk about it. I came across its seed just the other day – on a sheet of yellow pad paper from some years ago. On it I’d scribbled a few story ideas. ‘Boy who blushes uncontrollably’ was followed by ‘Someone’s Spying on Me - Kid keeps a cockroach/spider in a jar – One day looks out the window to see a giant spider’s eye – Only goes away when spider is released.’ There were two ticks against the spider story and none against the blushing boy story. Wise choice!

Some time after jotting down these possibilities, I found in my ideas box an article from The West Australian on a schoolchildren’s experiment in which spiders had been sent into Space. It was the spark I needed for my scribbled idea to come to life. For a creative writing course at the University of WA I wrote a ‘spider story’ outline and the following year, for a major assessment, wrote it up into a 12,000-word novel – the maximum word length allowed. I’d like everyone to assume that just to have cracked a Pass at university my young readers’ story must have been twice as good as all those literary adult ones – but they’d be wrong. The university encouraged creative writing of nearly all genres, though I think they might have drawn the line at text message novels!

Still, Spider Lies has changed a fair bit since its first, shorter version. The title, for instance, has gone from ‘Eyes Spy’ (too dull) to ‘When the Spider Cried’ (too gloomy), to ‘Eyes, Lies and Spider Stew’ (submitted to Freo Press, but thought too convoluted) to the current one with its sinister overtones complemented by Tracey Gibbs’ cover conveying the underlying humour of the story.

But by far the most significant developments lie in the 9,000 words that I added a year or so and one rejection later. With time, I realised that (egads!) some of the criticisms along the way had been well founded, and there was now no word limit as an excuse to ignore them. So, before burning any more bridges with publishers, I sat down in November ’07 to tweak the story, thinking I’d be done before Christmas. It took me well into the following year! I excised a clunky plot twist and a few sorties that, though sublimely written naturally, added little; I restructured so as to escalate suspense; I wove in more character growth and difficulties in Connor’s friendship with Wart; and I developed their teamwork in saving the world. My writing mentors liked it and – da-da! – so did Publisher Cate.

But it wasn’t over yet! Just when I was thinking that I’d got away with glossing over the ticklish business of how the spider had escaped and come back to Earth, Cate slipped her cattle prod out of her desk drawer. ‘You’ll come up with something,’ she smiled, zapping my toes. Cate got out her cattle prod on several other occasions too, spurring me to greater efforts that in the long run were undoubtedly worth the discomfort. So here we have it – Spider Lies – a story that, hopefully, will make lying in bed at night beside an open window never quite the same again. Mwa-ha-ha-ha!!!

Reg Cribb's launch speech for Boy on a Wire

( If Jon were launching a book that I had penned I’m sure he wouldn’t have a speech prepared. He’d fly by the seat of his pants, coz thats what he does.. But I am a good Aquinas boy and we dont fly by the seat of our pants. )

Jon...Jon...Jon.... a brave man you are. To write this book then have the audacity to launch it at Christ Church Grammar informs me with no fear of retribution, that you have kahunas the size of a space hopper. Methinks Its the equivalent of Ian Fleming launching ‘From Russia With love’ at KGB headquarters in Moscow or Peter Benchley launching ‘Jaws’ in the shark tank at the Miami aquarium.

Jon and I met at the Sprung Writers Festival in Albany. Both the town and myself obviously made an impression on him because here I am launching his wonderful novel and now...well he calls Albany home.

Suffice to say that I dont know Jon that well but like everyone else who comes into his radius I am aware that he is an extremely funny bugger. Jon also fulfils the criterion to be a West Australian writer in that he had a rural upbringing and bears the bruises of boarding school. I can rattle off a rather long list of other WA writers with the same upbringing. It seems to be a prerequisite.

As I was reading Boy On A Wire with its ‘fictional’ boarding house, I was trying to guess where it might be set. It was screaming Guildford at me..because well....Guildford always looked to me as imposing as something out of Tom Browns School Days with its ivy covered walls and foreboding Tardis -like chapel. By one third of the way through I was thinking....for no apparent reason, perhaps Hale then by the end with its High Anglican sensibilities it waS anywhere but Aquinas. But then I received the invite to the launch right here at Christchurch and all was revealed. Who would have thought? But I can’t judge this esteemed school too harshly, lets just call Jon a product of his times, the 60’s had a lot to answer for.

Boy On a Wire leapt out at me with the anarchic energy of one of my favourite autobiographies, ‘Bound For Glory’, the amazing story of travelling Depression era folk singer, Woody Guthrie. That is a tale that threatens at times to spiral beautifully out of control and often does. And for that comparison there is much to admire then in Jon’s story.

Teachers will always tell you to write about what you know first up then second time round, perhaps expand on that. Maybe by your third book, you should be attempting to write about what you dont know. Well I hope Jon keeps writing about what he does know because its more than enough and bloody entertaining to boot. Methinks Jon asked me to say a few words today because he knows that I too am a product of the Boarding House system. And a Catholic one to boot. John is a child of the 60’s I am a child of the 70’s. But as we all know, the 60’s didn’t arrive in Perth until the 70’s which means that Jon was actually living through the 50’s but wont admit it. And why would you. It’s just not as sexy.

Anyway. thank you Jon for making me read this book and rubbing my face once again in a part of my life that I have done my utmost to exorcize from my psyche. I still wake up in cold sweats over that period of my upbringing.

As the litany of adolescent suffrage cascaded out of these pages in ghastly torrents, I couldn’t help think that Boy On A Wire was right up there with the greatest horror novels I have ever read. Short sheeting, toothpaste on the genitalia, cadets (not compulsory at Aquinas I am pleased to say) and nights and days filled with endless, experimental and very audible.... wanking. Short sheeting. I was the victim of short sheeting all the bloody time. Why would you short sheet someones bed? What purpose does it serve? I thought about this long and hard and could only find one inevitable solution. We do it because like a bad ‘Carry On’ film....its piss funny.

But the most pungent memory that Jon evoked was the first school social and the perfumed odour of the opposite sex clinging to the school jumper post event. Post Pride Of erin, Boston Two Step, Barn Dance. The jumper that you never ever washed again. Jon views adolescence the way we all do , the way we all did but were way too emotionally stunted at the time to admit. Like an impartial observer to his own inadequacies and the changes that are taking place within him. Your body becomes its own horror movie and although you wish you could tear your eyes away from what is happening to it... you just cant.

Like all good humorists Jon knows just the right time for the story to become poignant. He understands instinctively that the harder he makes us laugh the harder we will cry in the end. And like all great WA stories it has to all come to a head, to culminate, to explode at Rotto. Jon, I too had schoolies week at Rotto, it has been around methinks since the Swan River was called Derbal Yerrigan .I too stole furniture from an unsuspecting hut to keep a beach fire burning, because if you couldn’t keep the beach fire burning your chances of snaring an unsuspecting Santa Maria girl were next to nil. Any parent who harbours the idea that making their impressionable young son read the story of Jon Doust, responsible Baby Boomer elder ,because it will lead them toward the light, will be severely disappointed. Jon tells us in no uncertain terms that no matter how much we frown on the current , Generation of wayward youth Gen Y and Z, Gen whatever.... Twas ever thus.

Jon understands that when you go to boarding school, you are basically an independent spirit from age 12. You form your own thoughts, make your own bed, fight your own fights and thus a knock down, stand up showdown with your parents at the end of it all is sadly inevitable. Day bugs, they just dont get it.
My Wholehearted Congrats Jon. You made a sea change to Albany and instead of writing a crappy, sappy TV series starring David Wenham, you wrote a beautiful, honest testimony to adolescence in all its smelly, warty, effluent glory. You have showed us in Boy On A Wire that being adolescent is a time of being barely afloat, bobbing uncontrollably in a merciless raging sea of hormones, with two choices, sink or grow the hell up. Thankfully for us the growing up part is still a work in progress for Jon. His growing up sometime in the near future, would be our literary loss.

I wish we could launch books the way we launch ships. When you smash a bottle of champers against the side. Boy on the Wire should be launched by dousing it in something long gone. A can of TAB, a can of Frist perhaps or a bottle of Weaver and Lock lemonade. Maybe we should sprinkle some confectionary cigarettes on it or douse it with a mini bottle of milk, the ones that used to come in crates at primary school. then get the milk monitor to clean it up afterwards. In the absence of these sweet, nostalgic comestibles, Jon...consider Boy On A Wire launched.

Miss Llewellyn-Jones @ Fremantle Children's Literature Centre

Elaine Forrestal at the Fremantle Children's Literature Centre with a group from Mosman Park Primary School. Miss Llewellyn-Jones Exhibition in the background.

Catch Elaine at a Fremantle Children's Literature Centre event on Monday 23 March at 7pm! More details here.

Great Western Australian Storytellers

Join special guest Lynne Cahill, Manager of NIE at The West Australian,
for a night of conversation and storytelling.

Elaine Forrestal and Norman Jorgensen will be joined by Jen Banyard
whose first novel, Spider Lies, will be launched on the night.

Monday 23 March 2009 —7pm for 7.30pm start

Fremantle Children's Literature Centre, Old Prison Hospital
Cnr Knutsford Street & Hampton Road, Fremantle WA 6160
(Parking available in Parry Street Car Park)

Please RSVP to admin@fremantlepress.com.au or 08 9430 6331

Boy on Wire Launch

The Centre for Ethics at Christ Church Grammar School (CCGS) hosted the launch of Boy on a Wire by former “old boy” Jon Doust last night.

Around 200 people attended including ex CCGS students, politicians, friends and family.

Speaking on behalf of Fremantle Press Georgia Richter said Jon’s manuscript was one of the most wonderful she had ever worked on and the only one from the Press that had reduced her to tears – in a good way!

Frank Sheehan, chaplain at Christ Church Grammar School, read an excerpt from the book; a semi-autobiographical account of life in a boarding school during the 1960s.

When launching Boy on a Wire author and playwright Reg Cribb spoke warmly of Doust’s sensitive and humorous take on this ‘growing up’ story.

Jon Doust thanked all the friends and colleagues who had read early drafts of the manuscript.

“I couldn’t have written this book if I hadn’t already made peace with those experiences,” said Doust.

The evening ended with a moving rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Bird on a Wire by musician Xave Brown.

Fremantle Press would like to thank Teresa Scott and Frank Sheehan of Christ Church Grammar School, the Lane Bookstore, author Chris Pash as well as all the speakers and performers who participated.

Photographs of the evening will be available soon.

Click here for more information about Boy on a Wire

Interview with Dianne Wolfer:

Dianne, where did you get the idea for Lighthouse Girl?

DW: I began writing Lighthouse Girl after reading an article written by Ron Crittal in The Weekend Australian newspaper on April 23/24th 2005. This is the part that interested me:
Perth man Don Watson tells of his mother, Fay Catherine Howe, daughter of the Breaksea Island lighthouse keeper. She was just 15 and stood on the island signalling to the departing fleet in morse code, almost certainly the last human contact with Australia. Numerous postcards came back to Albany from the Middle East, addressed to "The little girl on Breaksea Island".

I live in the south west and so I knew that in 1914 Albany was the last sight of Australian land for many of the young ANZAC soldiers sailing to Gallipoli. Although I was working on other projects, I kept thinking about the Little Girl on Breaksea Island and her soldiers. I tracked down Don Watson to find out more, and he was enormously generous in sharing his family’s story.

In 2006 I applied for a New Work Grant with ArtsWA (now called the Department of Culture and Arts).

Were you successful?

DW: Yes. At last I could take time out from other commitments to start fleshing out my notes and begin writing Fay’s story. I’d imagined a picture book along the lines of Photographs in the Mud, and so I had a 1200 word limit in mind. But the story kept growing. Fay had a lot to say.

Her story became longer and longer… It ended up being approximately 6000 words.
Isn’t that too long for a picture book?

DW: Yes, way too long! Cate Sutherland, the Children’s Publisher at Fremantle Press was great. She encouraged me to write till the end of the story and then we could look at how to structure it.

The book is unusual in that it has a lot of archival material as well as illustrations. How did that come about?

DW: Originally I wanted to include scans of Fay’s postcards, but sadly they were lost after she died. I’d seen some wonderful old photographs of the troopships in King George Sound and of the Breaksea Lighthouse, so I spent many hours tracking down old images and searching through microfilms of Albany Advertiser articles.

Are those articles real?

DW: Yes.

They tie in well with the illustrations…

DW: Brian’s charcoal images are lovely aren’t they? The originals are huge and I think their soft smudgy lines give a beautiful contrast to the archival work. Fremantle Press Designer, Tracey Gibbs also did a wonderful job. Lighthouse Girl was a collaboration between all of us; Cate, Tracey, Brian and me.

Who are we distributing?

Fremantle Press helps distribute a number of books published by authors, community groups and other publishers. Here are some examples:

Mowanjum: 50 years of community published by Mowanjum Aboriginal Community

indigo journal published by Tactile Books

Abstract Earth published by Sandpiper Press

Tracy Ryan shortlisted for ABR Poetry Prize

Fremantle Press poet Tracy Ryan is on the shortlist for the 2009 ABR Poetry Prize alongside Rose Lucas, Kathryn Lomer, Lisa Gorton, Angela Malone and Judith Beveridge.

Ryan’s short listed poem ‘Lost Property’ features in the March edition of Australian Book Review.

Ryan said when she wrote ‘Lost Property’ she was remembering how vivid and huge the world seems for children, and how easy it is to lose that quality as we grow up.

“In my large family I wasn’t the first child, so from the time I was born there were mysterious discarded objects in the house that had belonged to older siblings.

“I found these quite magical, especially because they gave me a sense of how life goes on before we exist (and of course afterwards, though that’s something we usually don’t understand till much later!),” said Ryan.

The ABR Poetry Prize is now in its fifth year and offers a prize of $4000AUD for the winning entry. Previous recipients of the award were Stephen Edgar, Alex Skovron, Judith Bishop and Ross Clark.

This year’s winner will be announced in April.

Ryan’s latest poetry collection Scar Revision was shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year Award in 2008.

Albany Launch: Lighthouse Girl

Join Dianne Wolfer and illustrator Brian Simmonds to celebrate the release of Lighthouse Girl.

Launched by Joy and Mike Lefroy

When: 5.15pm, Wednesday 8 April
Where: Albany Town Hall
217 York Street Albany

RSVP ESSENTIAL: By 5 April to library@albany.wa.gov.au
or 08 9841 9390

Sponsored by the Singing Tree Albany, The Albany Public Library, Rickety Gate and the National Trust of Australia.

INTERVIEW: Author Peter Docker discusses Someone Else’s Country and his Mickelberg play

I was born into a community whose preferred method of living with Aboriginal people was apartheid.

The country towns were, and still are, a hotbed of a nasty form of racism. Perhaps it is because out there everyone knows inherently the fairy tale version of history, where the first Australians were somehow divested of all of their wealth and land with no violence, is a total fabrication.
In fact, for many whites it is like the war is still going. And because of my belief that Australians are inherently good people who genuinely believe in community values, this set up a great conflict inside of me. How could this happen? How could, for example, West Australians freeze the Nyoongar people out of our economic, education, and social systems for 150 years, and then blame Nyoongar People for the wretched state in which they find themselves?
And really, I wanted to write about how much joy and fun and belonging that I have experienced inside the other country within our country, which is Aboriginal Australia.
When Someone Else’s Country first came out I was quite nervous about how it would be received in Indigenous circles.

I had unwittingly chronicled a kind of secret history that never sees the light of day outside of certain, closed circles. Overwhelming the response has been incredibly positive. The reaction from white Australia was quite a different thing. I was accused in the West Australian press of being a liar, and an exaggerator. I have lost most of my white friends, and all of my extended blood family, which was unexpected, and on a personal level, fairly tough to deal with.
Unfortunately, I don’t think much has changed for Indigenous people. This is because the fundamental shift that needs to happen in this country has not happened and, as yet, is on no-one’s agenda. The dominant white culture wants the Aboriginal people to change to be more like us. This has been tried since the arrival of the first settlers, and even though it takes many forms, it is all about assimilation. There is another way.

White Australia needs to become ‘blacker’. We need to educate ourselves. We need to understand Aboriginal Law better. We need to learn about the relationship between country and story. We need to learn Aboriginal Languages so we can pay proper respect. There is vast ecological knowledge in this country – perhaps even the answers to the world’s burgeoning environmental disaster – but this knowledge is not in the English language.

I always wanted to be a writer, but somehow fell into performing because of the intoxicating rush and immediacy of the relationship with the audience. I think being a performer makes me more attuned to the drama and the urgency of any situation. Also, I play the scenes out in my head, and sometimes out loud (doing all the voices) as I am writing them. I have to really love a subject to write about it. I have to be obsessive.

After this book Someone Else’s Country was published, I was approached by Ray and Peter Mickelberg, who wanted me to write a play about their experiences with the justice system.
I was immediately interested because I greatly admired these men who stood up at the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody and gave evidence about a young Aboriginal prisoner whose murder by the prison guards they had witnessed, in spite of massive pressure (death threats) brought to bear on them by the authorities.

The outcome is an explosive play which goes to the heart of corruption in the Police Force and the Judiciary of WA.

Many West Australians who for years have swallowed the smear campaign run on them by certain sections of the media will be quite shocked by what they see. This is a seminal West Australian story – two innocent men sent to jail for a crime that they did not commit – who simply refuse to lay down. Two innocent men, one a returned soldier who gave his all for his country on the battle fields of Vietnam, who suddenly find themselves in one of the most brutal prisons in the Western world, where living conditions for the inmates are unchanged since the 1850s.

The play will be produced in Fremantle by Deckchair Theatre Company August, September 2010.

Albany Launch: Boy on a Wire

Fremantle Press invites you to join Jon Doust at the launch of Boy on a Wire

WITH A MUSICAL PERFORMANCE BY XAVE BROWN

When: 5.30pm, Thursday 2 APRIL 2009
Where: MAIN GALLERY
VANCOUVER ARTS CENTRE, 85 VANCOUVER STREET,
ALBANY WA

RSVP ESSENTIAL by 30 MARCH: 08 9430 6331 or admin@fremantlepress.com.au

Sponsored by the Singing Tree in Albany

Vagabond Holes: David McComb & the Triffids

For all those eagerly awaiting the September release of Vagabond Holes: David McComb & the Triffids as well as Beautiful Waste, the poetry of David McComb, you might want to check out music show in the meantime:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/musicshow/stories/2009/2503718.htm

Lighthouse Girl Book Launch

Join Dianne Wolfer and illustrator Brian Simmonds to celebrate the release of Lighthouse Girl.

To be launched by Margaret Allen, Chief Executive Officer and State Librarian, The State Library of Western Australia

WHEN: 5.30pm, Friday 27 March
WHERE: Westbooks, 396 Mill Point Road
Victoria Park WA 6100
RSVP ESSENTIAL: By 24 March to
admin@fremantlepress.com.au or 08 9430 6331

Sponsored by: The State Library of Western Australia and Westbooks

World's first willy?

According to John Long, author of Swimming in Stone: The Amazing Gogo Fossils of the Kimberley the world's first male member may be as old as 400 million years.

John Long studies ancient vertebrates of the Gogo region in Western Australia. Since the discovery of a primitive mother fish with a fossilised embryo inside he has known that ancient fish had sex. Until now though, he didn't know how.

Talking on ABC radio's Science Show he said;

"It was another fantastic eureka moment when you make a big discovery that for 100 years has been completely overlooked."

Catch the full interview here:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2009/2503431.htm

Lighthouse Girl in a Barina

Check out these pictures of Dianne Wolfer who is taking her latest release Lighthouse Girl on a roadtrip from Cairns to Albany in her trusty Barina!

Boy on a Wire Book Launch

The Centre for Ethics at Christ Church Grammar School would like to invite you to the launch of Boy on a Wire by Jon Doust.

When: 6pm, Thursday 19 March 2009
Where: SENIOR STAFF COMMON
ROOM, Christ Church Grammar
School, Queenslea Drive, Claremont W.A 6010

RSVP ESSENTIAL by 17 march: 08 9430 6331 or
admin@fremantlepress.com.au

Numbers are limited.

Online Freebie!

Last year Fremantle Press released Hal Spacejock book one as a free download, and we’ve seen just over 50,000 downloads to date.

As of today the rest of the series is available in DRM-free ebook format, at a super-low price of A$5 each. (Approx US$3.50) That means you can grab the entire series for A$15 (approx US$10) … or less than the price of a single paperback!

Now for the good bit: a freebie is up for grabs for anyone willing to share the good news. All you have to do is blog or tweet about the release of the Hal Spacejock ebooks, then let us know

In return we’ll email you a free ebook of Hal Spacejock Second Course, the second title in the series. Call it an incentive, a big thank-you, a ‘review copy’ or an outright bribe. I know Hal would!

There’s an info page which you’re welcome to cut and paste details from, or you can just link to it instead: http://www.spacejock.com.au/HalSpacejockEbooks.html

For more information about the eBooks click here

Perth Writers' Festival Podcasts

Check out the ABC podcasts for Fremantle Press authors appearing at the 2009 Perth Writers' Festival:

Chris Pash, author of The Last Whale

At Arm’s Length
http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2009/03/06/2509725.htm?site=perth

From history to the page
http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2009/03/09/2511248.htm?site=perth

Anna Haebich, author of Spinning the Dream

Re-thinking the Australian Dream
http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2009/03/01/2501443.htm