Cirrus@Austlit

'Ella’s worlds collide when her old friend Viv and new friend Mai finally meet at Ella’s birthday party – a sleepover at the zoo!

'Ella can’t wait to explore and learn about the animals, but it’s hard to have a good time when your two best friends aren't getting along. The search for an escaped animal threatens to drive them all even further apart, or can they learn to work together?' (Publication summary) 

'We are living in the moment of the essay. The past two decades have witnessed an explosion in essays that interrogate personal experience; contemporary Australian writers are using their lives to think through the ways we connect, remember, and live, whilst navigating the relationships we have with humans and nonhumans alike.

'In The Moment of the Essay, Daniel Juckes considers the strategies the essay form offers for reflection and sense-making. He also takes on the moment of encounter between reader and text, and argues that this moment provides crucial opportunity, within the incessant demands of our culture, for meeting one another.'  (Publication summary)

'A woman in my village gave me four prophecies...they have all come true, so far.

'Sia is a young Greek woman who has emigrated from Greece to Perth, Western Australia in 1945 for a better life. She carries with her four prophecies and four pieces of protective jewellery, matia, one for herself, her daughter, her granddaughter, and great-granddaughter. With a dooming prophecy hanging over each woman's head will their lives unfold as they want or are they chained to the fate that's been destined for them?

'Over four generations and three continents, linking back and forth over 125 years from Greece to Perth to New York and back to Greece, Emily Tsokos Purtill has weaved a story that is utterly captivating and deeply moving.'  (Publication summary)

'Fifteen-year-old Emma is woken up by her dad’s nightmares. Again.

'On Friday evenings they go running at East Point Reserve to escape. Escape the ripples of grief that still chase them three years after her mum’s death; escape Emma’s autism diagnosis; escape her dad’s work as an emergency room doctor.

'At school, Emma has won a spot on the beach volleyball Sports Institute program. The spot that her best friend Summer desperately wanted. And Summer’s family are moving to the other side of town. Their friendship has kept Emma going since her mum’s death but now things are changing between them – and change isn’t something Emma can outrun.

'Set in tropical Darwin, White Noise is an achingly true portrayal of girlhood, grief, and autism from the authentic and gripping voice of debut author Raelke Grimmer'  (Publication summary)

'“Did you know frogs can find their way home? It’s called a ‘homing instinct’ ... no matter where they are, they know where they belong. I think I know how frogs feel.”

'Eight-year-old Ella hates her new house. She wants to be back in her old house with her best friend Viv next door ... until one day Ella discovers a secret pond in her neighbours’ backyard with an orchestra of frogs!

'At her new school Ella meets Mai and learns about their class frog bog project. But when Ella finds out that the neighbours’ secret pond is under threat Ella and Mai must come up with a plan to save the frogs – before it's too late!' (Publication summary)

(Publication summary)

'In photography, you don’t get to have it all. You are always making choices, always making sacrifices.

'To capture the light.

'Tom’s longest-standing commitment is his run-down house Mayfield, which hasn’t been the same since Adeline. He’s stuck in the past drowning his sorrows in too many bottles of wine and an unfulfilling photography business. Unable to move on Tom is treading water in a low-commitment relationship. The only problem ― she isn’t Adeline.

'Lottie is living with her baby, Coral, in a cramped flat above a fish and chip shop. Struggling to make ends meet, all she wants is to find connection ― with her distant mother, the parent’s group, her old school friends, but Lottie straddles too many different worlds to quite fit into any of them. She doesn’t have much, but at least her and Coral have each other.

'Told through alternating perspectives, Kirsty Iltners’ debut novel examines the lives of two isolated individuals to reveal the fragility of life and the fallibility of our memories. Winner of the 2023 Dorothy Hewett Award, Depth of Field is a gripping novel in which the mechanisms of photography are allowed to falter just enough to expose how selective and unreliable our memories are, especially when parts of the truth are left out of the frame.' (Publication summary)

'Spirals is the third and final volume of John Kinsella's collected poems and dates from 2014-2023, seeing Kinsella through his fifties and without an end in sight. Spirals is not a case of a poet growing older, steadier, and more sedate but rather brings an ongoing sense of development that is also recursive and spatial. Politically, institutionally, and attitudinally, Kinsella remains an outsider.

'John Kinsella's poetry is collected in one place for the very first time and includes poems that have appeared in chapbooks, publications outside of Australia, and some that are no longer in print. In this final volume, the spiralling effects of time combined with Kinsella's probing and connections in space have brought his poetry an authority and a sense of being listened to not only with awe but with respect. And still, Kinsella renounces any inflated self. Instead of basting in a perversely satisfying white guilt, or retreating to a passive melancholy, Kinsella is active, dynamic, and even exuberant. His poetry is replete with astounding energy that is creative and forward-looking while remaining concerned about environmental damage, exploitations of neoliberalism and militarism, and the continuing illegitimacies of unacknowledged settler occupation. Kinsella's final volume marks the culmination. (Publication summary)

'War takes our names from us and turns us into numbers.

'The number displaced. The number imprisoned. The number tortured. The number dead.

'The country has been swarmed by the Invader and his army, the Pack. The city is under siege. Many have fled, while others have stayed to defend their country. Many more have died.

'Teller's family has been brutally murdered by the Pack. Only she and Daughter remain. They leave their city behind and seek refuge in a resistance cell. Here they gather with other survivors who are determined to overthrow the Invader. But will they ever be strong enough to claim back their city? Their country? Their lives?

'A journey through love, grief and, ultimately, hope. Amanda Creely's profound allegorical tale sheds light on shared human experiences of war and remembers the nameless victims. Shortlisted for the Dorothy Hewett Award, Nameless explores love in all its forms and the importance of storytelling in its capacity to both teach and heal.' (Publication summary)

'A man treads water in the Swan River, hoping to bring his friend back to shore. Three siblings gaze skyward seeking a comet among the stars. A mother and daughter grapple with their fraught relationship and an inappropriate birthday cake. Bushfires sweep a Perth suburb while a woman, still burnt from a previous relationship, lessens the divide between an individual and their community.

'In Greater City Shadows, Laurie Steed shines a light on the tremendous complexity and beauty of everyday relationships. From unrequited first love and burnt flames of the past to early parenthood stresses and tense friendships. These short stories are vulnerable and tender ― a captivating collection reminding us that to be connected is to be human.' (Publication summary)

'Jono, a city-born Indigenous teenager is trying to figure out who he really is. Life in Brisbane hasn't exactly made him feel connected to his Country or community. Luckily, he's got his best friend, Jenny, who has been by his side through their hectic days at St Lucia Private.

'After graduating, Jono and Jenny score gigs at the Aboriginal Performing Arts Centre and an incredible opportunity comes knocking - interning with a documentary crew. Their mission? To promote a big government mining project in the wild western Queensland desert. The catch? The details are sketchy, and the land is rumoured to be sacred. But who cares? Jono is stoked just to be part of something meaningful. Plus, he gets to be the lead presenter!

'Life takes a turn when they land in Gambari, a tiny rural town far from the hustle and bustle of the city. Suddenly, Jono's intuition becomes his best guide. He's haunted by an eerie omen of death, battling suffocating panic attacks, and even experiencing visions of Wudun - a malevolent spirit from the Dreaming. What's the real story behind the gas mining venture? Are the documentary crew hiding something from Jono? And could Wudun be a messenger from the land, fighting back against the invasion?

'Borderland is a heart-pounding horror gothic that follows Jono on an epic quest to find himself in the face of unbelievable challenges. Graham Akhurst, the brilliant mind behind this coming-of-age gem, is a Fulbright scholar from the Kokomini of Northern Queensland. Brace yourself for a fresh, mind-bending tale exploring Indigenous identity, the impact of colonization, and what happens when you take a stand.' (Publication summary)

'A Lady’s Pen provides the first complete and original transcripts of the surviving botanical letters of Georgiana Molloy, the first woman in Western Australia to become an internationally successful collector.

'In December 1839, Georgiana Molloy received an unexpected letter from Captain James Mangles in London asking her to collect specimens of native plants in the British settlement where she lived, on Wadandi Pibelmen country in Western Australia’s southwest. During the last six years of her life, they exchanged letters and Molloy sent Captain Mangles three exquisite collections of seeds and dried wildflowers from Taalinup and Undalup (Augusta and Busselton. Eminent gardeners and botanists considered Molloy’s specimens to be of the highest quality they had received from the ‘Swan River colony’ and the surviving specimens are still studied in herbariums around the world, today. In 1843, Georgiana Molloy died having received no payment or formal recognition for her scientific achievements.

'Bernice Barry’s A Lady’s Pen: The botanical letters of Georgiana Molloy presents the original extracts that Captain James Mangles preserved of her letters, and are considered the only significant, first-hand source of information about Georgiana Molloy’s botanical work. The historical filters within the letters are demystified and an account of Mangles’ own life helps to restore the voice missing from that long-distance conversation for 180 years.' (Publication summary)

'Elora is leaving her hometown for university. Leaving behind friends, family, and safety to follow her dream of studying theatre while she still has the chance.

'Together, Elora and her older sister, Vivienne, set out by road for the city and the upcoming semester. The relationship between them is fractured and fading, turned upside down by Eta Draconis: the violent meteor shower that has rained across Earth since the beginning of their adolescence. In a land scarred by craters and shockwaves, to travel anywhere is to risk everything. As the showering intensifies and their way forward becomes threatened, the sisters are forced to confront their relationship and recalibrate their hopes for the future. Do they return home or press on in the face of the meteors? Can life ever be normal with the world crashing down all around you?

'Eta Draconis is an epic story about two resilient sisters who are determined to live their life in a world on the brink of destruction.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Harsh Hakea is John Kinsella’s second volume of collected works dating from 2005 to 2014 capturing a career in media res. It includes poems from widely read volumes like Jam Tree Gully, which won the 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry, and ones from lesser-known volumes like Love Sonnets, which was published by the British small press, Equipage.

'For the first time, John Kinsella’s poetry is collected in one place, including poems that have appeared in chapbooks, publications outside of Australia, and those which are no longer in print. In this volume, Kinsella’s poetry exemplifies a heightened awareness of the specificity of place, but also of the perspective of being within it or removed from it, as a guest living on stolen Aboriginal land. Kinsella’s poems often begin with the personal and broaden out in their reach. Reading this second volume of the Collected forces the reader to consider questions that have no convenient answer, that remain pressing still today; questions about self-destruction, masculinity, environmentalism, mortality, violence, and protest. This is a volume that is deeply moving at times, unsettling at others, sometimes both – a landmark addition to Australian literature.' (Publication summary)

'Kia Kia, Noogiting Wirren, Minang Yorga, Minang Boodja

We acknowledge the sleeping spirit, the Minang woman, from Minang country

Bessie Flowers was Minang Noongar woman born in 1851 in King Georges Sound, Albany. She lived at Annesfield mission until she was 16 but spent most of her adult life in Victoria. She is remembered for her gifts as a pianist and singer, for her dedication to teaching, and as a strong Noongar woman who fought to keep Aboriginal families together.'  (Publication summary)

 (Publication summary)

'Funny, clever and keenly observed, Decadence is a profound musing on literature and language, that deftly skewers the would-be gatekeepers of verse. With this second collection, Thuy On has cemented herself as a vibrant, unique and captivating new voice in Australian poetry.

MAXINE BENEBA CLARKE

'In Decadence, Thuy On indulges in her love of language, assembling a unique erotics of word and punctuation, showcasing a poetry that is pure—in being about itself—but also powerfully seductive. As the poet herself puts it, this is ‘art laid bare’, performing how language works as language but also as a window onto those dark, human mysteries of being and feeling. Indeed, if On builds such a brilliantly decadent mansion out of poetry, exploiting striking imagery and playful wit, it is ultimately to provide a kind of refuge, ‘lest the cave of night swallows you.’

MARIA TAKOLANDER

'Thuy On's poems are always wry, epicurean and defiant, and this book underlines her unique place in Australian poetry. Literate yet disarmingly unpretentious, wildly playful yet leavened with complex feeling, Decadence is a surreptitious delight.

ANDY JACKSON' (Publication summary)

Entrepreneur, aviator, publisher, publicist, propagandist, playwright, songwriter, motorist, land developer, dreamer: for five brief years it seemed like there was nothing Clement John DeGaris couldn’t do. He’d talk you into investing your life savings with a promise of doubling them in a year and then, when he lost them, he’d talk you into giving him more. He was dashing, patriotic, handsome, fearless and funny: men and women adored him. He’d put a ‘second storey’ on Mildura with his marketing skills and tenacious work in the fruit, irrigation and land industries; he was going to build a new home afresh at Kendenup, Western Australia. Along the way, he wrote and sold books and plays, songs, suburbs and a host of other equally remarkable schemes. There seemed to be little that C. J. DeGaris couldn’t achieve: he was a new kind of Australian man, modern, quickwitted, unflappable.

David Nichols tells the story of this extraordinary comet in the Australian sky of a century ago with a vigour, humour and empathy appropriate to DeGaris himself. The tragedy that the man brings upon himself and his family, and the cruelty of fate, make a universal story as well as an unexplored piece of Australian history that stretches from the birth of Mildura, through to the South Australian settlement of Pyap, to the exciting creation of a new kind of ‘colony’ at Kendenup, and Melbourne’s roaring twenties.  (Publication summary)