'Leading Australian writers respond to the challenges of 2020, to create a vital cultural record of these extraordinary times.
'Writers, scientists, historians, journalists and commentators consider subjects as broad as culture and the arts, working as a doctor, travel, domestic violence, security, immigration, the death of a loved one, geopolitics, distance and zoom to ensure we never forget the experience of this pile-on of a year.
'Including original pieces from Lenore Taylor, Nyadol Nuon, Christos Tsiolkas, Melissa Lucashenko, Billy Griffiths, Jess Hill, Kim Scott, Brenda Walker, Jane Rawson, Omar Sakr, Richard McGregor, Jennifer Mills, Gabrielle Chan, John Birmingham, Tim Flannery, Rebecca Giggs, Kate Cole-Adams, George Megalogenis, James Bradley, Alison Croggan, Melanie Cheng, Kirsten Tranter, Tom Griffiths, Joelle Gergis and Delia Falconer.' (Publication summary)
'The global story unfolding is not only about microbes; it is also about culture, politics and history. The spread of disease is not without responsibility.'
'For one brief shining moment it seemed humanity’s inability to imagine much beyond our lived experience was irrelevant. Covid was coming for us all.'
'‘Stop the world’ the musical hero said whenever things went wrong. I’ve been feeling this way for a few years now.'
'It seems that every problem that has rumbled beneath our feet for the past 60 years has hit crisis point, all at once.'
'If there was a moment of true emergency in the fight to preserve our climate, it is now.'
'The overarching project of my life has been making myself safe. But what is the point if everyone else is drowning and burning and starving?'
'A hole has opened up in the system that takes pride of place in the Australian identity – our ability to bring produce to market. But change is coming.'
'I try to make sense of her sudden absence but every hour, every minute, brings some new and usually terrifying development.'
'For most Australians, two events of biblical solemnity will define this year: fire and plague. How should we respond?'
'We have a sense of what it means to live in disturbing times, to live under threat. We should not forget the many people who have known this all their lives.'
'In a world without coronavirus, there are conversations that might never have happened. Their nature, too, is different'
'While we struggle with COVID and global warming narratives, Fire Flood Plague offers news perspectives on what has happened to the world around us.'
'On the second day of 2020, my partner and I caught a train through the suburbs of Munich to Dachau, then a bus to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. It was bitterly cold, the morning air nipping our cheeks. Frost crunched beneath our feet and weak sunlight drifted through clouds. At the site, we passed beneath the grim words ‘Arbeit macht frei’, soldered onto the entrance gates (as they also were in Auschwitz and other concentration camps). We moved slowly through the rectangular buildings, reading squares of information about the inhumane treatment of the prisoners. By the time we emerged from the last building, we were weighed down with horror.' (Introduction)
'On the second day of 2020, my partner and I caught a train through the suburbs of Munich to Dachau, then a bus to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. It was bitterly cold, the morning air nipping our cheeks. Frost crunched beneath our feet and weak sunlight drifted through clouds. At the site, we passed beneath the grim words ‘Arbeit macht frei’, soldered onto the entrance gates (as they also were in Auschwitz and other concentration camps). We moved slowly through the rectangular buildings, reading squares of information about the inhumane treatment of the prisoners. By the time we emerged from the last building, we were weighed down with horror.' (Introduction)
'While we struggle with COVID and global warming narratives, Fire Flood Plague offers news perspectives on what has happened to the world around us.'