image of person or book cover 760888333760888702.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Grimmish single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2021... 2021 Grimmish
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Pain was Joe Grim's self-expression, his livelihood and reason for being. In 1908-09 the Italian-American boxer toured Australia, losing fights but amazing crowds with his showmanship and extraordinary physical resilience. On the east coast Grim played a supporting role in the Jack Johnson-Tommy Burns Fight of the Century; on the west coast he was committed to an insane asylum. In between he played with the concept and reality of pain in a shocking manner not witnessed before or since. Award-winning writer Michael Winkler braids the story of Grim in Australia and meditations on pain with thoughts on masculinity and vulnerability, plus questionable jokes, in a haymaker of experimental non-fiction.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Notes

  • Dedication: For Z, and for J.
  • Epigraph:

    Nurse, where are we going?

    — To the morgue.

    But I haven't died yet.

    — Well, we haven't arrived yet.

  • Described as an 'experimental historical novel' and an 'exploded non-fiction novel'.
  • Shortlisted for the 2023 Christina Stead Award (NSW Premier's Literary Awards), but withdrawn by the publisher the following day, as its initial self-publication made it ineligible.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Westbourne Books , 2021 .
      image of person or book cover 760888333760888702.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 337p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 20 January 2021.
      ISBN: 9780645049602 (print), 9780645049619 (ebk)
    • Glebe, Glebe - Leichhardt - Balmain area, Sydney Inner West, Sydney, New South Wales,: Puncher and Wattmann , 2022 .
      image of person or book cover 4901162683545419533.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 208p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: 1st May 2022
      ISBN: 9781922571472
    • Toronto, Ontario,
      c
      Canada,
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Coach House Books ,
      2023 .
      image of person or book cover 5837797945018266986.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 224p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 25 April 2023.
      ISBN: 9781552454664
    • c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Peninsula Press ,
      2023 .
      image of person or book cover 7966870460143744523.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 224p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 4 May 2023.
      ISBN: 9781913512316

Works about this Work

Weird Is In Nina Culley , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , May 2023;

'Australian fiction has long been dominated by the realist novel. A new wave of writers continue the avant-garde tradition—but are experimental and offbeat stories always destined to be relegated to a literary niche? '

Something for the Pain Reuben Mackey , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , June vol. 81 no. 2 2022; (p. 208-210) Meanjin Online 2022;

— Review of Grimmish Michael Winkler , 2021 single work novel
Moving on U.P.P. Michael Winkler , 2022 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , June vol. 81 no. 2 2022; (p. 7-10) Meanjin Online 2022;

'In 'Ars Poetica', written around 19 BCE, Horace postulated 'ut pictura poesis'. This formulation, abbreviated by scholars as u.p.p., has been chewed over in the intervening two millennia. Horace's dictum translates to 'as is painting so is poetry'. U.p.p. was a restatement of the claim by Simonides of Ceos that 'poema pictura loquens, pictura poema silens' (poetry is a speaking picture, painting a silent poetry), but with the order of artforms reversed.' (Publication abstract)

A Touch of Hope After the Doom? Your Guide to the Miles Franklin 2022 Shortlist Jen Webb , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 19 July 2022;

'This year’s Miles Franklin shortlist is lyrical in voice, complex in form, and perhaps a little more hopeful than usual. The threads of shared concern across the volumes leave me wondering whether there is something in the zeitgeist.' (Introduction)

‘One Publisher Called My Book Repellent’ : The First Self-published Author up for the Miles Franklin Beejay Silcox , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 21 June 2022;
'Michael Winkler’s Grimmish has been embraced by judges of the $60,000 prize – and by readers, whose support has been ‘truly astonishing’'
Something for the Pain Reuben Mackey , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , June vol. 81 no. 2 2022; (p. 208-210) Meanjin Online 2022;

— Review of Grimmish Michael Winkler , 2021 single work novel
‘One Publisher Called My Book Repellent’ : The First Self-published Author up for the Miles Franklin Beejay Silcox , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 21 June 2022;
'Michael Winkler’s Grimmish has been embraced by judges of the $60,000 prize – and by readers, whose support has been ‘truly astonishing’'
A Touch of Hope After the Doom? Your Guide to the Miles Franklin 2022 Shortlist Jen Webb , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 19 July 2022;

'This year’s Miles Franklin shortlist is lyrical in voice, complex in form, and perhaps a little more hopeful than usual. The threads of shared concern across the volumes leave me wondering whether there is something in the zeitgeist.' (Introduction)

Moving on U.P.P. Michael Winkler , 2022 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , June vol. 81 no. 2 2022; (p. 7-10) Meanjin Online 2022;

'In 'Ars Poetica', written around 19 BCE, Horace postulated 'ut pictura poesis'. This formulation, abbreviated by scholars as u.p.p., has been chewed over in the intervening two millennia. Horace's dictum translates to 'as is painting so is poetry'. U.p.p. was a restatement of the claim by Simonides of Ceos that 'poema pictura loquens, pictura poema silens' (poetry is a speaking picture, painting a silent poetry), but with the order of artforms reversed.' (Publication abstract)

Weird Is In Nina Culley , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , May 2023;

'Australian fiction has long been dominated by the realist novel. A new wave of writers continue the avant-garde tradition—but are experimental and offbeat stories always destined to be relegated to a literary niche? '

Last amended 6 Aug 2024 16:31:48
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