Cirrus@Austlit

'A creative and cultural history of Brisbane bookshops by Brisbane writers.

'An anthology of creative non-fiction, essays, and memoirs by authors, editors, journalists, poets, historians, librarians, and bookshop owners (past and present).

'What readers have found on the shelves of Brisbane bookshops has educated and entertained, informed and inspired them to seek further, to think more deeply, to travel across the world and its past. Since the 1840s – despite fire and floods, bombings and police raids – Brisbane bookshops had fed the imaginations and nourished the learning of many generations of readers and scholars who’ve helped to make the city, the nation, and the future a better place.

'The final section of the book contains profiles of the current generation of independent bookshops in Brisbane – new and second-hand/antiquarian; general and specialist.

'Edited by Anne Richards and Matthew Wengert, with Bianca Millroy.

'Cover illustration by Delilah Willsteed.

'Contains writing by: Venero Armanno - Steve Capelin - Matthew Condon - Gareth Dickson - Joanne Dolley - Nick Earls - Phillip Edmonds - Raymond Evans - Simon Farley - Jane Frank - Caroline Gardam - Helen Gregory - Mick Healy - Bruce Heiser - Cheryl Kensett - Jean Kent - Bronwen Levy - David Malouf - Louise Martin-Chew - Bianca Millroy - Sean Phillips - Anne Richards - Julianne Schultz - Nathan Shepherdson - Bill Sutton - Chrissi Theodosiou - Meg Vann - Hugh Watson - Matthew Wengert - John Willsteed.' (Publication summary)

'Memoir of Uncle Noel Blair, who was born at Cherbourg Aboriginal Settlement in Queensland in the 1940s.

'Uncle Noel Blair is a fighter. Born in the 1940s, he grew up at Cherbourg under ‘the Act’ – Queensland’s notoriously repressive legislation that controlled the daily life of Indigenous people.

'Uncle Noel fought with gloves in boxing rings and tents, and without gloves or rules whenever the harassment and insults of corrupt government and police became intolerable. He also fought to better help his people through legal work and social justice campaigns that are part of the long struggle to triumph over the brutality of racism in contemporary Australia.

'Uncle Noel Blair and the Jinibara people were legally recognised as the traditional owners and custodians of their Country in south-east Queensland around Woodford, opening up new pathways to justice and recognition of their culture – a journey from mission to Festival.

'Uncle Noel’s story inspires, and teaches. It is Jinibara truth-telling.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Speculative fiction set in the near future. Malignant technology. Morality. Survival. Love.

'Dronikus tells the story of a man who stands up to the cynical destruction of our human and natural worlds.

'Unbearable heat by day; torrential rains at night; city streets flow like rivers; people huddle in doorways; dronikus and rators clash with protestors; city streets crackle with fire and glo-slime; dronikus kill with exploding darts.

'Zola - returning from years of lonely exile - re-connects with his past, finding friendship and love. But this is abruptly snatched away; his friends are murdered and he is kidnapped, imprisoned in his family home by his brothers, Enrike and Meriti. They control Pandoke, the family's huge armaments and surveillance corporation. Pandoke is genetically modifying human foetuses, working to engineer a new human being that will survive the environmental cataclysm. They try to coerce Zola to join them.He escapes. Pursued by his brothers, Zola joins an island community which is in a life and death struggle against the corporation and their inhuman plans 'to save humanity'.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A story, both intimate and international, of the relationships between extraordinary people in Brisbane, Australia –– the poet and Indigenous activist Oodgeroo Noonuccal (formerly known as Kath Walker), and the family of Sir Raphael & Lady Phillis Cilento.

'Author Ross Wilson (a documentary producer and writer) unfolds a rich and vivid narrative that includes people working across the 20th century in medicine, arts & literature, law & politics, dance & theatre.

'This story could only be told with the permission and support of member of both families, and their friends.

'This Accidental Present will give readers a new appreciation of Oodgeroo’s creative genius, as her lyrical writing emerges from the many paths her life took.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Bryan Hartas was only seven when he saw his father beat his mother so badly that she was taken away in an ambulance. He never saw her again. He thought things couldn't get much worse, but then he and his brothers were sent to Neerkol, an infamous Queensland orphanage west of Rockhampton. He knew he was in trouble when on his first day he saw kids digging in the dirt and eating the roots of small weeds. Bryan is just one of many Forgotten Australians who suffered horrific ongoing abuse as children in state care. What they lived through should never be repeated. Bryan's story is a testament to the human spirit, to a child's love for his mother, and the capacity of the heart to rise, and rise again.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In 1880 three hundred Italian peasants abandon the fields of Veneto to follow a dream. They join an expedition to establish a utopian colony in the islands of the Pacific. Wealth, independence and liberty await them.

'The venture is a disaster. The expedition leaders abandon them, the dream disintegrates. Struggling to survive in the jungles of New Guinea, the Italians are desperate to escape. Australia beckons but unseen events threaten to frustrate their quest for liberty.

'The story is told through the eyes of two children in the context of the poverty of 1880s Italy, and the final days of the Great War in 1918. It is a tale of emigrant hope, betrayal and resilience, and Australia’s response to a group of 19th Century refugees.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Anne Richards’ new book about growing up radical in a conservative family, in a state ruled by a reactionary government, in an era of profound cultural and political upheaval.

'A Book of Doors is Anne’s story of reaching adulthood as Australia and the Western world were reaching a turning point––when the personal was recognised as political, when oppressed people were demanding their fundamental rights, and young people were calling for a new society.

'People took to the streets to demand peace and freedom, to end the war in Vietnam, to dismantle Apartheid, to unwind patriarchy, and to make sure their voices were heard.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest story of 2020, causing severe and sudden changes that many people could never have imagined. Our Inside Voices is a collection of creative writing that looks beyond quick journalism or abstract statistics to offer deeper reflection on the cultural and social dimensions of the pandemic.

'Writers reflect on how the disease dramatically shaped our ways of living and dying: the abrupt, sometimes subtle, often challenging, changes brought to cultural, economic, and social aspects of everyday life during a global health emergency. Australians at home and abroad, stunned by a sudden shift in priorities as routine habits and occupations were fundamentally disrupted, faced so many changes that even time seemed inconstant.

'Pandemics are biological events with cultural and social implications. We hope (although, in mid-2020, we don’t yet know) that this virus will soon be managed by curative or preventative technologies, but the disease will have infected and killed millions before it is rendered harmless. 

'The voices gathered here are diverse and eloquent, capturing a vivid portrait of the COVID-19 pandemic as it grows towards its initial peak. They also capture various creative ways in which Australians adapt to rapidly changing realities.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Anthology of short stories by various writers about the 'Spanish Flu' epidemic in Queensland. Each story is based on real people in real places. The first stories are about Queenslanders who died of the 'Flu' before the disease reached Queensland--including a soldier from Maryborough who died in France, an Italian from North Queensland who caught the disease in New Zealand and died at Sydney, and a nurse who lost her life while treating soldiers at Fremantle. There are stories from quarantine camps at Tenterfield, Wallangarra, and Lytton, as well as hospitals in Brisbane, Ipswich, and Toowoomba. Some of the stories are about medical professionals, but other stories are about ordinary people doing extraordinary work fighting the dangerous Flu in their own families or communities. The characters embody the courageous spirit with which so many Australians fought the pandemic in their own local areas. The final story is from Thursday Island, one of the last places on earth to suffer an outbreak of the Flu in early 1920.' (Publication summary)

'More than 300 people died in Brisbane from the Flu, making it the city’s worst natural disaster. The population in 1919 was around 190 000, so scaling that mortality to Brisbane in 2019 would mean more than 2000 fatalities in a period of six or eight weeks.

'The story of the impact of the Spanish Flu in Brisbane has been documented in City in Masks: How Brisbane fought the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1919, written by Brisbane author Matthew Wengert. City in Masks is a narrative history of Brisbane’s experience during the Pneumonic Influenza epidemic in 1919. It is the story of one small city’s fight against the biggest outbreak of infectious disease in history. 

'The Research for this book was funded by Brisbane City Council’s Lord Mayor’s Helen Taylor History Research Award, which Matthew received in 2018. The book will launch on 9 February at the Museum of Brisbane bookshop.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'Bjelke Blues gives heart and soul to the remembrances of the men and women who were at the end of police batons... at the front line fighting for justice and decency.’ Matthew Condon, journalist and author of Three Crooked Kings, Jacks and Jokers, All Fall Down and The Night Dragon

'With stories by: Nick Earls, Melissa Lucashenko, Bob Weatherall, Sam Watson, Raymond Evans, Anne Jones, John Willsteed, Matt Mawson, David Margan, Dan O’Neill, Mandy Nolan, Andrea Baldwin, Sean Mee & many more.' (Publication summary)

'Within/Without These Walls is an anthology of short stories and poems set in and around iconic Brisbane buildings. This companion book to the live story-telling program (during Brisbane Open House weekend) includes stories ranging from the convict era to present day, and crossing various genres including historical non-fiction, imaginative fiction, and lyrical memoirs. The writers are as diverse as their stories, from a high school student to a career journalist, with a mix of emerging and experienced authors.'   (Publication summary)