Metals gleam, and so does water. In reflecting and refracting impressions, memory and imagi-nation blur into each other. I often think of Toni Morrison’s writing on the attempts to straighten the Mississippi River, and how the water inevitably returns. Morrison writes:
‘Floods is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. Remem-bering where it used to be. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, that valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It is emotional memory—what the nerves and the skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of imagination is our “flooding”.’
(Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn, Editorial introduction)
Only literary material by Australian authors individually indexed. Other material in this issue includes:
Bento Lunch by B Fanlin (毕方翎)
'There are no working clocks left in Shoalwrest. On the seventh day after the last person leaves, you go around with a hammer and smash all those ticking glass interfaces in hopes that the retreat of the estuary shoreline will stop. By now, the cars and kookaburras have all left, and even Sapphie has stopped coming back to visit. You don't think you've heard your own name in months...'(Introduction)
'A black bust of Beethoven sits atop the piano in my grandmother's home. On weekend visits as a young child, I would practice my scales under his stern gaze. The furrowed brows and unruly hair held the suggestion that this w as a man I would never impress, no matter how hard I practised or improved. Week after week, my fingers would run up and down the piano - strong, sure and mechanical.'(Introduction)
'In every piece of writing, I am always looking for that moment that forces me to put the words down, close my eyes and take a deep breath. A single moment of reflection that allows me to appreciate what the author is saying, but also why they are saying it. In Eda Gunaydin's 'Root and Branch', I found that moment in the essay titled 'Kalitsal'.' (Introduction)
