'This current issue of Antipodes fittingly represents the work of the three editors who have guided the journal's production in the past year or so. Volume 32 (2018), a double issue, marked the official end of Nicholas Birns's eighteen-year tenure as editor of Antipodes, and as that volume came to production, Belinda Wheeler lent a diligent hand and a keen eye to the publication of the double issue. An essay or two approved by Nicholas has made its way into the current issue (33.1), with Belinda acquiring many of the essays in this issue. Belinda also provided the editorial guidance for the special section on the work of Alexis Wright. It is from the capable hands of Nicholas and Belinda that I take the reins of the journal Antipodes, with a well-mapped path behind and an open road ahead.' (Brenda Machosky, Editorial introduction)
'This issue of Antipodes includes essays about several works written by the leading Waanyi author Alexis Wright (1950–). Wright's growing canon is continuing to make a major impression on both Australian literature and the global canon. Wright's novels have won numerous awards, including Australia's highest literary award, the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award. She won the award in 2006 for her breakthrough novel Carpentaria, and in 2013 her novel The Swan Book was shortlisted for the award. In 2018, her latest contribution, Tracker, a five-hundredplus-page tribute to the Indigenous Australian activist Leigh Bruce, won the Stella Prize, an award specifically for female authors that is also in honor of Stella Maria Sarah "Miles" Franklin. In addition to the accolades Wright has received for her work, her books are often published by international publishing houses (Carpentaria with Atria Press, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, for example) or Australian publishers with international distribution. Wright has also published in other literary genres including short stories and essays. Several of Wright's works have also been written primarily for a French audience, as was the case with Croire en l'incroyable and Le pacte du serpent arc-en ciel, the subject of several essays included here.' (Introduction)
'This quotation, which appears as an epigraph on the title page of part 1 of Alexis Wright's 1997 book Grog War, immediately frames the problems associated with alcohol in Aboriginal communities as belonging to the legacies of colonialism. Grog is not a passive killer. Poison and guns were killers in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries; nowadays, alcohol is being used to destroy Aboriginal people, families, and whole communities. Grog is contextualized here, at the beginning of Wright's narrative, as an active force in the continuing destruction of communities, a legacy of colonial control and oppression. And if grog is a legacy of colonialism, then both the colonizer and the colonized are compelled to address its destructive force in postcolonial times. A whole community response is needed to address this historical, structural, and social problem. There is no attempt here either to reinforce victimhood or to elude responsibility in relation to the misuse of alcohol. On the contrary, Grog War tells the story of an Aboriginal community's preparedness to face up to the problems of alcohol abuse, to take initiative in working toward solutions, and to encourage a shared sense of responsibility for managing misuse in one Northern Territory town.' (Introduction)
'In order to better understand and appreciate Alexis Wright's publishing history, it is important to first place it in the context of the publishing history of Australian Aboriginal literature. Only then can one properly situate it in the larger context of Australian literature. Finally, for full effect, Wright's publishing history should be placed in the context of the international literary marketplace.' (Introduction)