Cirrus@Austlit

'The genesis of Anam came just over twenty years ago, when I was fifteen and stumbled across an Amnesty International newsletter with a photo of my grandfather on the cover. Reading that newsletter, I discovered that Amnesty had adopted my grandfather, Dao Van, as a prisoner of conscience. At the time of the newsletter, my grandfather had been in prison without charge or trial for four years. It was another six years before he was released.'  (Introduction)

'Nam Le’s long-awaited follow-up to The Boat is restless in its craft – a book that understands both form and identity to be in constant motion.'

'What is the relationship between writing—so often a lonely pursuit—and the nation, that slippery idea that is supposed to contain us all? And isn’t there something missing here, something between writing and the nation?' (Introduction)

'Anam is a novel about memory and inheritance, colonialism and belonging, home and exile.

'A grandson tries to learn the family story. But what kind of story is it? Is it a prison memoir, about the grandfather imprisoned without charge or trial by a revolutionary government? Is it an oral history of the grandmother left behind to look after the children? Or is it a love story, or a detective tale?

'Moving from 1930s Hanoi through a series of never-ending wars and displacements to Saigon, Paris, Melbourne and Cambridge, Anam is a novel about memory and inheritance, colonialism and belonging, home and exile.

'Andre Dao mines his family and personal stories to turnover ideas that resonate with all of us around place and home, family legacy and expectations, ambition and sacrifice.

'Anam blends fiction and essay, theory and everyday life to imagine that which has been repressed, left out, and forgotten by archives and by families. As the grandson sifts through letters, photographs, government documents and memories, he has his own family to think about- a partner and an infant daughter. Is there a way to remember the past that creates a future for them as well? Or does coming home always involve a certain amount of forgetting?' (Publication summary)

'Surely human rights abuse is something experienced by people overseas, in far-away countries, but not in Australia, not anymore.

'Poetic Justice is a collection of essays, fiction, poetry and visual art about human rights issues in Australia—issues that haven’t gone away, or gone elsewhere. From asylum seekers to Indigenous land rights; from the surveillance state to police racism, this anthology chronicles contemporary Australian debates about social justice. Each of the works is an exercise in compassion as Poetic Justice seeks to recover the humanity too often lost in our discussions of human rights.

'Poetic Justice is also an anthology of work published by Right Now, a not-for-profit media organisation with a focus on human rights issues in Australia. Since 2005 we have covered human rights issues through accessible and engaging online, print and radio media.' (Publication summary)

'Writing doesn’t just happen – it needs nurturing, stimulation and space to grow. The Emerging Writer is an insider’s guide to the craft, philosophy and politics of being a writer. Whether you’re facing your first blank page or negotiating a publishing contract, this book is full of indispensable advice for any emerging writer hoping to turn their seedling of an idea into a mighty tree.' (Publisher's blurb)

 (Publication abstract)