Cirrus@Austlit

'Last summer, all the colour was stolen.

"We need green!" said Mum.

So we went to the hidden garden

and poked and scattered and pressed and patted ...

'Inspired by the stories of recovery after the Black Summer bushfires Letting the Summer Go follows the journey of a mother and her child rediscovery their garden after the devastation of wildfire. With colour unfurling from the earth, sunlight, a disgruntled hen, and the conscious act of letting a terrible the summer go, this illustrated children's story is about resilience in the face of large-scale natural disaster.

'Letting the Summer Go is aimed at parents of children between 3 and 8, who are interested in speaking with their children about disaster and loss (in particular, but not exclusively, through wildfires) as well as the impact of major tragic events. There is a strong garden and nature narrative throughout the text and illustrations.' (Publication summary)

'Evie is a spirit girl. When her island home is devastated by bushfire, she emerges from the shelter of her cave to discover her community has lost all hope. But Evie refuses to believe that hope can be destroyed alongside homes and livelihoods. ‘The fire may have taken many things, but the fire can never take everything’ she says.

'Finally, Evie finds a glimmer of hope in the eyes of a young boy named Tom even though he teeters on the brink of grief and despair. Evie helps Tom find new inner strength, ‘Are you listening to the earth Tom?’ Her eyes sparkle. ‘Listen to the earth, the fire, the water, the air. They are part of you,’ and together they guide their community towards hope again.

'Inspired by bushfires that have affected many Australians, Evie and the Bushfire is a moving and sensitive story of surviving a natural disaster, narrated through the eyes of children.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'‘The aftershocks from 1996 continued, year after year, often in the life of the individual more devastating than the Port Arthur massacre itself. Yet always the subsequent tragedies could be traced back to that unspeakable Sunday.’

'Coming home to Tasman Peninsula with her Northern Irish partner, Ruth journeys into her own psychic trauma as well as that projected onto the raw, monumental coast. When Ruth’s brother John helps his fourteen-year-old son apply for a firearm’s permit—almost two and a half decades after Port Arthur—they risk condemning those who do not remember the past to repeat it.

'A Port Arthur survivor, Marina has returned to the Peninsula with her brother Moon to pack up Doo-No-Harm, the family holiday home, after their mother’s death. Marina’s personhood was so violated by her early life experience that she has been left an angry she-wolf about to set out on the hunt. In a convoy of duck rescuers, the siblings head for a confrontation with shooters on the wetland.

'In these lives choreographed by trauma, damage and the ramifications of wilful forgetfulness, transformation can only occur after an extremely painful lesson.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'When demoralised Warren Yeats abandons his failing business, his ex-wife and his city lifestyle to embark on a road trip with more twists and turns than Sydney’s streets, he has no idea how gruelling the outback can be.

'Set during tropical Australia’s oppressively humid build-up to the annual monsoon—the Suicide Season—when tempers are short, children are constantly irritable, and adults are tight-lipped, Yeats stumbles across an illegal wildlife poaching operation, falls in love with an attractive female mechanic, and becomes an unwitting trespasser on Aboriginal land.

'Whether sharing Yeats’ admiration for an apricot-hued sunset as it soars across an aurora borealis-like sky, watching nectar-eating parrots getting tipsy on the fermenting blossoms of paper bark trees or learning how to bake damper over hot coals, odds are you have never enjoyed a journey as unique as this, following one of life’s nicest losers as he becomes a winner.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Donna only daydreams of pulling up stakes and starting a new life, until an impetuous decision catapults her on a soul-changing journey in the Amazon rainforest. Tested mentally, physically and spiritually it is hard for her to feel lost in the wilderness when pure joy pounds in her heart. Written with stirring poignancy, laugh-out-loud humour and deep compassion, Donna captures her real-life experiences of isolation, challenges, and the true beauty of the Amazon rainforest where she taps into a wordless knowledge to recognise it was her wild self who coerced her to travel over ten thousand miles so it could unleash itself.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Published in 2018, this collection of river literature compiles both classic and cutting-edge essays of twenty-one writers who draw on their wisdom, compassion, and ecological consciousness.

'Tales of the River features original writing by award winning authors including Anthony Birch, author of Ghost River, winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing, and innovative prose by Kathleen Dean Moore best known for award-winning books about our cultural and spiritual relation to wet, wild places, and fresh new voices from across the globe. All have joined to create an original and inspiring collection borne from their unique connection with the natural world.

'This association is shared in stories where, being so focused on the complexities of the river ahead makes the rest of the world completely disappear, and the smoke of a driftwood fire floats in air too thick to carry any sound but the rushing of the river. A canoe is tossed aside and rests akimbo with an aspen branch penetrating its hull, white fog flows down a river as if even the air runs to the sea, and an Aboriginal ‘slum kid’ steals a bike so he can visit a river rich in eucalypt trees that ‘old blackfellas’ had used to make bark canoes, scar trees.

'Like Eric Sevareid's Canoeing with the Cree, Hemingway's Big Two-Hearted River, and Edward Abbey's Down the River, the anthology promises glimpses into history, adventure and magic, and reminds us that the crystal-clear rivers of our childhoods are the way rivers are meant to be.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.