'nguluman ... If the river ever gets going, it's only running a little, and the whole thing is never deep enough to fill the wetland and then trickle into the waterhole. They call that one Poisoned Waterholes Creek.' - Tara June Winch, The Yield.
'FourW thirty-one was made possible by a community arts grant from Riverina Water - brokered by our clever Claire Baker - so, as many of you know, the contents has a (non-exclusive) preoccupation with water in some sense - literally or metaphorically. Water can be a source, an end (life & death), a medium, indicative of intense or attenuated pain, pleasure, leakage, (ful)filment ... Geographically, cosmically, emotionally, politically, mathematically, botanically (I could go on ...) water metaphorises the depths, currents, fluidity, typhoons and tsunamis of the human condition. Certainly this has provided a stimulating prompt for writing workshops and both poetic and prosaic experimentation ... The teacher in me wants to invite readers to see how many water motifs, images, references (direct and implied) they can find in the contents. We thank Riverina Water for its commitment to and support for the creative well-being of our regional (writing) communities.' (David Gilbey, Editorial introduction)
