image of person or book cover 7706613464076728763.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon A Fixed Place selected work   short story  
Alternative title: A Fixed Place : The Long and Short of Story
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 A Fixed Place
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'What was it like, living through the social, cultural and political upheaval of the last fifty years of the twentieth century in this Lucky Country? With life flying forward into the future, what could be held onto, and what self (that place which is never fixed) could fix and hold the experience of those years?

'In A Fixed Place: the long and short of story, we find moments that were held – moments of stasis, of hard-won clarity, of sexuality, joy, confusion, compassion. Fallon has collected writings published across a span from the 1980’s in magazines and ephemeral publications to make a picture of the act of creation through writing.

'The collection includes pieces that span and scan more than half a lifetime: from the story a child tells herself as she struggles to come to terms with the weirdness of her extended family (A Fixed Place), to the story of a young teenager trying to comprehend tales told around the kitchen table, tales that defy interpretation (The Origins and History of Aquarelle Taffeta), to a story of violence and murder (bringing yourself to do it). They encompass the complexities of lesbian sexuality (Not Unlike the Peeling of Many Bells and International lesbians – portraits) and interracial adoption/fostering (Goat Song). Employing a range of styles and stylistic devices, the innovative language and format of each story is carefully crafted to match the subject matter.

'These stories are slippery with the grunt and sweat of hard yakka – the work of striving towards consciousness against the grain of good old she’ll-be-right complacency. Whether in slave-like conditions in quiet suburbs or in dreamlike states on the horizon of the Australian imagination, the characters and their stories are in our cultural DNA and need to be remembered.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Nedlands, Inner Perth, Perth, Western Australia,: UWA Publishing , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 7706613464076728763.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 250p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published June 2019.

      ISBN: 9781760800284

Works about this Work

Opalised Storytelling Alex Henderson , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , April vol. 24 no. 1 2020;

— Review of A Fixed Place Kathleen Mary Fallon , 2019 selected work short story
'Kathleen Mary Fallon is a multi-talented writer who has been playing with language and storytelling in poetry, stage plays, feature films, and prose since the 1980s. A fixed place: the long and short of story is a collection of short stories from across her career (and some never before published works), taking the reader on a journey through the deeply personal and messy lives of a variety of characters from contemporary Australia. The book nearly defies genre definition; it feels reductive to call it ‘a short story collection’, given that the tales swing and swoop so readily between prose, poetry, prose-poetry, scripts, song lyrics, and the occasional dreamlike dive into stream of consciousness, demonstrating Fallon’s ability to leap between genres and forms. The overall effect is a dreamlike adventure through the Australian landscape and through the many playful possibilities of language.' (Introduction)
Kathleen Mary Fallon, A Fixed Place : The Long and Short of Story Carole Ferrier , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 79 no. 1 2019; (p. 205-209)

— Review of A Fixed Place Kathleen Mary Fallon , 2019 selected work short story
'In 1989, Kathleen Mary Fallon published with Sybylla Press her novel Working Hot, described by Fiona McGregor as “a novel about dykes in Sydney, written with an experimental verve that still dazzles today” (“The Hot Desk”). Fallon was claimed by Marion May Campbell to be “the first explicitly sex-positive queer female writer in Australia” (Textual Intercourse). Working Hot was an instant hit with many second wave feminists interested in radical, subversive writing. It was also variously designated as “urban grunge” and as having affinities with the writing of Americans, Kathy Acker and Pat Califia (now Patrick Califia-Rice).' (Introduction)
Kathleen Mary Fallon, A Fixed Place : The Long and Short of Story Carole Ferrier , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 79 no. 1 2019; (p. 205-209)

— Review of A Fixed Place Kathleen Mary Fallon , 2019 selected work short story
'In 1989, Kathleen Mary Fallon published with Sybylla Press her novel Working Hot, described by Fiona McGregor as “a novel about dykes in Sydney, written with an experimental verve that still dazzles today” (“The Hot Desk”). Fallon was claimed by Marion May Campbell to be “the first explicitly sex-positive queer female writer in Australia” (Textual Intercourse). Working Hot was an instant hit with many second wave feminists interested in radical, subversive writing. It was also variously designated as “urban grunge” and as having affinities with the writing of Americans, Kathy Acker and Pat Califia (now Patrick Califia-Rice).' (Introduction)
Opalised Storytelling Alex Henderson , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , April vol. 24 no. 1 2020;

— Review of A Fixed Place Kathleen Mary Fallon , 2019 selected work short story
'Kathleen Mary Fallon is a multi-talented writer who has been playing with language and storytelling in poetry, stage plays, feature films, and prose since the 1980s. A fixed place: the long and short of story is a collection of short stories from across her career (and some never before published works), taking the reader on a journey through the deeply personal and messy lives of a variety of characters from contemporary Australia. The book nearly defies genre definition; it feels reductive to call it ‘a short story collection’, given that the tales swing and swoop so readily between prose, poetry, prose-poetry, scripts, song lyrics, and the occasional dreamlike dive into stream of consciousness, demonstrating Fallon’s ability to leap between genres and forms. The overall effect is a dreamlike adventure through the Australian landscape and through the many playful possibilities of language.' (Introduction)
Last amended 27 Sep 2019 10:51:51
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