'It’s possible that of all the classic Hollywood genres, it is the western in which Australian filmmakers have done their best work. In the process of taking on the genre as their own, they have increasingly reconfigured it to examine and challenge questions of nationhood, identity, history and race.' (Introduction)
'Debra Adelaide is quick to tell me she isn’t a poet. She does love poetry though, she says, because in a very short amount of time it can take people into another space. It is highly political and very effective and not compromised in terms of its art. “Poetry is like the guerilla warfare of literature. It can just run in there really quickly, lob in a hand grenade and run out again. Stories and novels take longer to get into your system.”' (Introduction)
'In our era of climate change, prophecies about our future are commonplace. Scientists are our key prophets nowadays – though they are often repudiated or betrayed, like the religious prophets of old – but writers also increasingly offer their prognostications. Dyschronia, the third novel by the Australian writer Jennifer Mills, is another contribution to the future-oriented genre of cli-fi or climate-change fiction. Future gazing is also thematised by Mills’ novel.' (Introduction)
'Bottled is the right word for this graphic novel by Chris Gooch, a young and accomplished member of a talented field of comics-makers coming out of Melbourne and debuting on the international stage. You don’t know what kind of book this is until quite a long way in, beyond its intimations of malaise and disaster, but it’s clear from the outset that it’s fizzing with dark juice – you feel like someone’s thrown it at you.' (Introduction)
