Cirrus@Austlit

'Where do you find a city's soul? Where is its pulse, its personality? When we walk across the skin of a city, do we listen for its laugh?

'Terri-ann White draws together an eclectic group of Perth people in this collection to share their insights on a rapidly evolving city. From an architect's perspective on heritage to a historian's ruminations on Perth's swampy origins; from a walk down streets that don't exist to Noongar place names; from the union movement to public art to criminal Perth to conversational Perth, this book encourages new encounters with the city.

'Perth: a guide for the curious traverses social, cultural and political spaces as the reader traverses the streets, kindling a sense of curiosity about a city by unearthing buried treasure.' (Publication summary)

'In September 2013 just before the weather turned even more intense a group of intrepid writers made their way to three Australian desert settings to work with groups and individuals wishing to write. Both Aboriginal people with a profound connection to country and residents of more recent arrival who had made the choice to live in remote places participated in workshops. You’ll read new voices and hear perspectives on living in extreme geographical and climactic regions in today’s Australia. In the variety presented here we welcome you into the vitality of remote communities often isolated but full of commitment and hope for the future.' (Publication summary)

'I'm perched ON the western edge of Australia, looking out on the buoyant and impressive Indian Ocean. The vista, if I turn back towards my city, continues to be dominated by cranes. A city transformed by capital and mining; a population that has grown faster than we've ever seen. From the time this place was a colony, population has been a struggle and particularly during the cycles of our boom times. If I put on my long-distance goggles and look north, I'd see the mining capital laid out in all of its exploration logic, and the waste left after the extraction has taken place. Laid out all over that red earth.' (Publication abstract)

'Speed Factory is experimental writing at its most inventive - a game of words played with a partner and a set of rules, each player developing a thread, or two, of another's ideas. The result is an exhilarating, playful, and sometimes contradictory reflection on the speed of contemporary life.'(Publication summary)