Category Archives: Uncategorized
Hello 2023
I suppose I should say farewell to 2022, but I don’t actually feel it deserves the courtesy. But here we are on the first day of a new year and I, for one, am hopeful it will be one to remember—in a good way!
Wishing you, as always, good health, good books and good company…
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NAIDOC Week…
This year I’ve chosen to acknowledge NAIDOC Week by ordering my next bundle of books from the Foundation for Indigenous Sustainable Health online store. FISH also has a retail store at 769 Beaufort Street, Mt Lawley (Western Australia), which sells Indigenous-only books, artworks and gifts (read an excellent article about it here). I’m looking forward to visiting soon—the artworks look beautiful!
The Foundation for Indigenous Sustainable Health is an organisation that aims, through various initiatives, ‘to provide opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to share their wisdom and insights to the broader community to teach people how to connect and care for each other and for country, whilst closing the gap and breaking generational cycles of poverty, trauma, and engagement with the justice system.’ I first found out about the organisation via WritingWA, which has been promoting its work throughout NAIDOC Week.
The books I’ve ordered, and am looking forward to reading, are Homecoming (Magabala Books), a debut hybrid work (poetry/prose) from Noongar and Yawuru writer Elfie Shiosaki; God, the Devil and Me (Magabala Books) by Alf Taylor, an autobiography described as ‘darkly humorous and achingly tragic’ about Taylor’s childhood years spent at the New Norcia Mission, 120 kilometres north of Perth; and one I’ve been meaning to read for a long time, Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia (Black Inc. Books’ ‘Growing Up…’ series), a collection of essays edited by Anita Heiss.
During the week, Lisa Hill has been hosting Indigenous Literature Week over at her wonderful ANZ LitLovers blog, and has posted reviews of Homecoming and Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, among many others—all of them well worth checking out.
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WA Premier’s Book Awards shortlists…
The shortlists for the WA Premier’s Book Awards have just been announced! It’s hard to believe a year has gone by since I found myself on the shortlist for the WA Writer’s Fellowship. Congratulations, everyone, and good luck!
The Premier’s Prize for an Emerging Writer ($15,000)
- Father of the Lost Boys by Yuot A. Alaak (Fremantle Press)
- Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs (Scribe Publications)
- A Question of Colour by Pattie Lees and Adam C. Lees (Magabala Books)
- We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know by Sophie McNeill (ABC Books: An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
- The Salt Madonna by Catherine Noske (Pan Macmillan Australia) *2, 2 and 2 interview with Kate
The Premier’s Prize for Writing for Children ($15,000)
- How to Make a Bird – Written by Meg McKinlay and Illustrated by Matt Ottley (Walker Books Australia)
- Littlelight by Kelly Canby (Fremantle Press)
- Shirley Purdie: My Story, Ngaginybe Jarragbe by Shirley Purdie (Magabala Books)
- Across The Risen Sea by Bren MacDibble (Allen & Unwin)
- Willy-willy Wagtail: Tales from the Bush Mob by Helen Milroy (Magabala Books)
The Daisy Utemorrah Award for Unpublished Indigenous Junior and YA ($15,000 and a publishing contract with Magabala Books)
- Home is Calling – Natasha Leslie
- Dirran – Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler
The Western Australian Writer’s Fellowship ($60,000)
- Amanda Bridgeman
- Donna Mazza *2, 2 and 2 interview with Donna
- Jon Doust *2, 2 and 2 interview with Jon
- Madelaine Dickie
- Sisonke Msimang
The full press release from the State Library of Western Australia here.
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Love Your Bookshop Day 2020
In this year-like-no-other, we’ve been forced to face many previously unimaginable things, but I never want to imagine a world without bookshops.
Our local booksellers have been working hard throughout these difficult times, finding ways to keep us connected with books and ideas—sending newsletters, presenting Zoom events, offering special deliveries. I have often felt concerned on their behalf, knowing that they already exist in a space threatened by faceless global merchants.
Tomorrow it’s national Love Your Bookshop Day, an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate bookshops as one of things that make our lives worthwhile. I want to send out a big thank-you to all of the bookshops who have nurtured me as a reader and supported me as a writer—and to the special people who work behind their counters.
If you’re able to get out and about tomorrow (and commiserations to those who can’t), do drop into your favourite bookshop, say hello and tell them what they mean to you. And buy a few books while you’re there, of course!
Happy Love Your Bookshop Day 🙂
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Love Your Bookshop Day winner…
Well, I was going to toss onto the floor all the entries in my Love Your Bookshop Day draw and see which one my Siamese cat jumped on first, but she let me know that it was too cold for such shenanigans and refused to leave her blanket.
And so to plan B. Into one of my vintage hats they went, and my husband drew one out.
Congratulations to Jyoti McKie, who has won a copy of one of the books I’ve featured on the blog this year, a copy of Kathleen O’Connor of Paris and a few little Paris treats. Jyoti has chosen Step Up, Mrs Dugdale by Lynne Leonhardt. They’ll be on their way to you soon, Jyoti.
A big thank-you to everyone who entered. It was heartening to see so much love and appreciation for our bookshops!
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looking up/looking down 