Cirrus@Austlit

'Much more than a muse; Barbara Tucker was in fact a vital partner in the artistic success of her famed husband

'Barbara Tucker- The Art of Being presents a multifaceted view of Tucker and the life she made with her artist husband Albert. Inspired by accounts of family, friends and admirers attending her memorial, it contains speeches, essays, memoirs and a photo journal. Her nephew Darren Jones and niece Caitlin Graham-Jones give beautifully realised accounts; her godson, Justin O'Brien, rails against a world that seemed to ignore or misinterpret her life; her brother, Peter Bilcock, gives a moving eulogy. Judith Pugh's tribute evokes a marvellously vivid woman and loyal ally; Jinx Nolan's is filled with gratitude and gladness for Barbara's presence. The collection contains contributions from Heide Museum of Modern Art and other institutions that benefited from her foresight and generosity.

'Tucker emerges not just as a woman bound by the role prescribed in her times, but as a complex person with a great gift for friendship, as well as an artist's advocate, agent, defender and facilitator who should carry her own story, independently and unobscured, alongside the story of Albert Tucker and art in Australia.' (Publication summary) 

'In this poetry collection, Dodging the Relative, Hermina Burns considers the complex and tricky relationships we have with fathers, mothers, brother and sisters, step-relations and others. Her poems explore the ways in which relationships with the relative, close or distant, genealogically or in terms of the physical world, shape us even as we attempt to assert an individual and independent self. The poems contemplate the potential costs involved in our relationship with the relative. Drawing on a lifetime of memories and experience, the poems focus on moments in time revealing the interconnections. They pose important questions for us about the extent to which we can create a sense of 'self' separate from the role assigned by birth order, gender or family relationship. And what exactly does it mean that 'everyone is related always?' At the heart of this collection, her fourth, is a woman's relationship with the relative in genealogical and social terms, and with respect to the physical world.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'In this poetry collection, Crossing a Line, Hermina Burns reflects on the difficulty, the necessity, and the responsibility of loving country. At the heart of this collection, her third, is a woman's relationship through time with the landscape she inhabits, the landscape of her birth country. These poems confront obvious alterations across the Australian landscape, and evidence of human-induced changes in the climate. Drawing on a lifetime of memories and experience, these poems inquire into the human tendency to not see the consequences of clearing land and fauna; the tendency to maintain an impression of continuance despite being contradicted by reality. Some poems are elegies for aspects of our world already lost; some are lyrical about what particular landscapes still bring to our lives; others in this collection, her third, press us to attend in the present and consider, as individuals, our part in what is happening and our personal responsibility to the earth.'

Source : publisher's blurb

"...These poems shine a light on the everyday and the extraordinary to reveal the hidden lives of women.."

Source : publisher's blurb

"...Explores the inner landscape of grief..."

Source: publisher's blurb

'By the time Laurie Clancy’s second novel Perfect Love was published in 1983, Clancy had established himself as an academic, critic, short story writer and novelist. Westerly had published his first short story ‘The Wife Specialist’ in 1971. A debut novel The Collapsible Man followed in 1975, to some critical acclaim. It was to share the National Book Council Award of that year. A collection of short stories under the title of his first published short story appeared in 1978. He was already working on his Reader’s Guide to Australian Fiction, though it took a decade to complete, being published in 1992. ' (Author's introduction)