'In 1961, fed up with being ignored, poet Gwen Harwood sent two acrostic sonnets to The Bulletin under a male pseudonym, spelling out: “so long bulletin”, “fuck all editors”. The scandal made headlines – not only because The Bulletin was duped, but because a woman dared to use such an obscenity. Harwood’s recollection that one friend declared her “cut off from decent motherhood” inspired Edwina Preston’s latest novel, Bad Art Mother.' (Introduction)