Cirrus@Austlit

'Four years on from the Uluru Statement from the Heart, there’s a clear divide between the groundswell of popular support to recognise the rightful place of First Nations people in Australia’s democratic life and ongoing political inertia in the same space. Tensions remain between long denials and new possibilities: is Australia ready to heal its brutal legacy of settler colonialism? How can we begin to imagine a better future without a full recognition of the past and a full recognition of the moral force of First Nations? And how can this examination and exchange – or reckoning in any context – take place in an era of quick assumptions and divides, alternative facts and cancellations?

'Griffith Review 76: Acts of Reckoning is a wide-ranging discussion of the multifaceted issues at play in Australia’s fraught journey towards a full settlement with Indigenous peoples. Can its leaders take up the generous offer from Australia’s Aboriginal nations to walk together to forge change through dialogue? What might be possible for Australia’s narrative when reconciliation between the world’s oldest continuing culture and one of its newest nation states is achieved? What actions are necessary to move beyond words and achieve real-world transformations – in indigenous-settler relations as in other crucial arenas of recalibration?

'Examining questions of history, truth-telling and decolonisation, and revisiting colonial figures and their ongoing legacies, Acts of Reckoning reframes the past in order to form new futures – and celebrates how much work is already underway.

'Contributing Editor Teela Reid joins Editor Ashley Hay as Griffith Review 76: Acts of Reckoning opens a dialogue for diverse voices, opportunities and perspectives to be articulated, examined and assessed. (Editorial)

'From the winner of the Russell Prize for Humour Writing. David Cohen's most wryly humorous and disturbing work of fiction yet.

'A public memorial’s name is changed to avoid any mention of the tragedy it has been set up to commemorate. Two attention-seeking activists campaign against exclusionary policies adopted by the gift shop at a suburban shopping mall. A customer service representative becomes obsessed with a colleague who has worked from home for so long, nobody in the company remembers her. A middle-aged father loses his marriage and falls in love again with a cherished but damaged childhood toy. An academic’s research into roadside memorials takes a peculiar turn.

'David Cohen’s sometimes bizarre yet pitch-perfect stories capture everyday horrors but are always shot through with a profound empathy and generosity.

'The Terrible Event delivers not just one terrible event, but many events of varying degrees of terrible-ness. Death, destruction, disappearance, decline, defeat – it has something for everyone.'