'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)
'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.'
Fire, Flood and Plague – Essays about 2020
2020
Surry Hills
:
Guardian Newspapers
,
2020-
19738951
2020
series - publisher
essay
'Australian writers respond to the year's challenges.'
'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.'
