Swallow the Air
Dust on Waterglass
2003
St Lucia
:
University of Queensland Press
,
2006
Z1265164
2003
selected work
short story
(taught in 33 units)
Swallow the Air follows the life of 15-year-old May Gibson, an Aboriginal girl from New South Wales whose mother commits suicide. May and her brother go to live with their aunt, but eventually May travels further afield, first to Redfern's Block in Sydney, then to the Northern Territory, and finally into central New South Wales. She travels to escape, but also in pursuit of a sense of her own history, family, and identity.
A Night at the Pink Poodle
Milsons Point
:
Arrow Books
,
1995
Z565230
1995
single work
novel
(taught in 8 units)
Urayoán Noel - Hi-Density Politics (BlazeVox, 2010)
Kyung-sook Shin, Please Look After Mum (Vintage, 2011)
Damon Galgut, In a Strange Room (Allen & Unwin, 2010)
This course travels through different cultures of writing, and writing from different cultures. Focusing on contemporary literature, we will begin by examining the complex interplay between Indigenous and non-Indigenous literature and culture in Australia, before 'packing our bags' to journey across some of the most exciting and unusual literary terrains in the rest of the world. Award-winning and highly influential works of fiction, poetry and non-fiction will provide us with opportunities to study a diverse range of writing techniques, as well as a platform for critical engagement with contemporary cultures and their literatures.
