Cirrus@Austlit

'The Bannerman Shortlist has been announced.

'Six authors. Six stories.

'And Gideon Bannerman is missing.' (Publication summary)

'On the eve of a major international AIDS Conference in London, the Conference chair is found dead in suspicious circumstances. Tracking down how he died reveals layers of deception, rivalry and danger for those close to him.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A collection of poems examining love, self, devotion, and opening to a wider cosmos. Whimsical, meditative, rapturous, these poems are a contemporary expression of spirit.' (Publication summary)

'The Pink Book is a memoir about sexuality, gender, and grief and loss through the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and about the influence of life’s juxtaposing forces: beauty and suffering, freedom and constraint.

'The Pink Book contains Henry von Doussa’s art, writing, and precious objects (including old family letters and photographs) to tell a story of growing up through the 80s and 90s, asking: What gives a family lift? What drags a family down? The Pink Book explores the power of creativity to understand and ease the mental ill-health that hangs as an ever-present spectre over multiple generations of an Australian family.

'The Pink Book is an exceptionally crafted, beautifully presented publication designed by award-winning book designer Sean Hogan.' (Production summary)

'While her younger sister was gifted in telling tales, Scheherazade couldn't tell a story to save her life...'

'Scheherazade and the Amber Necklace is a bold reimagining of the classic Tales of the Arabian Nights, with flying carpets, despotic rulers, secret assassins, and powerful djinns.

'Eight stories of love, friendship, and indifference. Ashley Sievwright is the author of The Shallow End, and Walter 'An impressively fresh voice in Australian fiction' ... 'evocative prose and cynical humour are Sievwight's strengths' ... 'droll observations about life, presented at a gentle pace' ... 'Well that was unexpected. Not sure if I loved it or hated it' ... 'witty and easy to read' ... Sievwright is a great wordsmith' ... 'gently poetic' ...' (Publication summary)

'From wartime Melbourne to the Greek islands to Swinging London and Oxford, Garry Kinnane's trilogy of memoirs is now published in a single volume.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Eight stories of love, friendship, and indifference.

'From teenage memories of staying with a cross-dressing cousin in Kings Cross, to estranged siblings scattering the ashes of a family member, not to mention perplexing encounters in Jordan, these eight stories reflect on family, friendship, desire and belonging and the ‘weight of inherited sorrow’ that each of us carries.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'‘What you are thinking about me is right,’ says I, ‘and it’s wonderful and beautiful, and if you make it ugly for me I’ll hate you for the rest of my life!’ So flopping down and turning my poor brave face to the wall … I’m still glad I said that.

'Raised in a Sydney family of successful older brothers and sisters, young Barbara Whitley is determined to find her own direction. Her choices are instinctive but not always wise in the cramped world of the 1930s – a degree in Classics that fitted her for no profession, bad choices in men, taking a flat on her own when she’d grown up in the warmth of a loving family, a thoughtless marriage choice. The Second World War comes, and Barbara’s struggle for selfhood is further constrained, not least by the birth of her daughter and the failure of her marriage. And yet, luck finally takes a hand, in the form of a handsome lieutenant on leave in Sydney.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'Signs of a Struggle illustrates the creative journey, from working-class North East England to the current Queer-art scene of Sydney, through the eyes of award-winning artist Guy James Whitworth.

'Uniquely using the fierce and fabulous LGBTIQ community of Sydney as a visual metaphor, Whitworth contemplates life's challenges and triumphs. With dramatic backdrops including a troubled childhood, 80s London in the midst of the AIDS crisis, and activism for global transformation in the modern world, Signs of a Struggle takes the reader on an intimate, raucous and also poignant journey through survival, queerdom, creativity and inspiration unlike any other.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

An annual periodical published by Clouds of Magellan Publishing in Melbourne. Issue 1 launched in December 2017, and issue 2 in December 2018.

'Civil war in Sydney. Half a million homeless versus the rest. A vengeful defender of the wretched poor - The Hero - fights for them ruthlessly. Meanwhile, Emma - a minor public servant - creates a scheme to house a thousand homeless in an abandoned hospital. With Adrian, the organiser, and heart-on-sleeve Nat, Emma battles to make The Quarters a safe haven for her residents. Then The Hero moves in and everything becomes too exciting and too dangerous...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In 'Time of Arrival' Garry Kinnane tells of a decade of living abroad - Greece, a war-affected Europe, London in the 60s and 70s, his involvement in the student movement, a scholarship to Oxford. His search for direction is aided by friends and the faith of his wife Jo, through the struggle to raise a family in times of hardship, and the ultimate desire to return home to Australia. It is a tale of journey and arrival - at a place, an achievement, a self-discovery.

'This is the final volume of a trilogy that began with childhood in 'Shadowed Days', and continued with youth in 'Fare Thee Well, Hoddle Grid'.' (Publication summary)

'Perth in the 1950s. After being caught wearing his mother’s yellow dress, young Victor had to hide any tendency towards gender inappropriate behaviour. But his interest in dancing and theatre (and mooning over Rudolph Nureyev on the telly) were bound to make the façade collapse at some point. Emerging sexuality and the sense of not being 'at home' in his body, let alone the world, ran alongside a search for meaning that brought him eventually to a spiritual awakening under the young guru Maharaji ...

'Part family tragedy, part existential comedy, The Boy in the Yellow Dress is a warts-and-all account of exile and the subsequent journey homewards that is less about finding a respectable place in the world than an intimate connection with the ultimate source of being. ' (Publication summary)

'266 days driving around rural, regional and urban Australia challenging homophobia. The Beyond 'That's So Gay' National Tour.

'In a 38 week road trip around Australia, Daniel Witthaus discovered what contemporary life is really like for LGBT people - life beyond the stereotypes, life 'beyond Priscilla'. Daniel's simple aim was to challenge and confront homophobia 'one cuppa at a time'. In doing so he met a wide range of individuals, all with harrowing or uplifting stories to tell of 'pride and prejudice'.

'Join Daniel as he encounters foul-mouthed police officers, transgender treasures, a billionaire's butler, gay jackaroos and straight lumberjacks looking to change.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In The Stone Garden, Diane Fahey offers a vibrant engagement with key features of County Clare’s natural environment. Starting in a cottage in the north-east, with a long view of the coast, the poet journeys into the further reaches – Lough Derg, Dromore Wood, and the Burren region with its stony but uncannily fertile landscapes, cliffs and shores.

'The Stone Garden is a resonant, meditative collection of poems presenting intimate glimpses of, and larger perspectives on, the splendours of Clare.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Come away, O human child,
human child, human child;
To the woods and waters wild,
La, la, la, la, la.

'It's hot Summer in Melbourne, but cold Winter in the Coastland, where the Caretaker faeries quietly tend the forest - but there are storms and lost dragons to deal with (as well as mid-Winter parties and walks along the beach to enjoy), as Scarlett, a young visitor from the human world, will discover.

'Join Scarlett, Emerald, Acacia, Wystie, Sedge, Flax and Redleaf for a memorable season in the land of the Winter Faeries.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.