'‘Spider Town’, Frank Moorhouse’s first published short story, appeared in Overland #29, autumn 1964.
'We’ve rescued it from the archives, because Frank is keen for it to find new audiences, and also because there is one change he wishes he could make. We’ve given him the opportunity here, by republishing the story below, along with his marked-up correction.
'We’re also giving readers the opportunity to edit the story – to tweak, comment on, alter, transform, to even create new endings and back stories.' (Introduction)
'Vanessa Berry’s new book Mirror Sydney: An Atlas of Reflections (Giramondo, 2017) is a travel guidebook of sorts: writing on Sydney that outlines overlooked places far distant to the dazzling tourist promenades that appear in The Lonely Planet and other popular collections. But this highly rewarding collection of essays (with accompanying illustrations) also transcends the panegyrical tone of much city writing, managing to examine the confronting politics of urban space while also thoughtfully re-imagining the contemporary act of memoir-writing. As the title transparently intimates, this is a book that reflects in a philosophical sense as well as ‘through the looking glass’.' (Introduction)
'During Children’s Book Week, I visited an elite private school where a deputy principal asked me if I thought I was doing boys a disservice by having such girly covers on my books. I politely but firmly replied that I thought people who told boys they weren’t supposed to read books with girls on the cover were doing everyone a disservice.' (Introduction)
