Paul Ashton Paul Ashton i(A66329 works by)
Born: Established: 1959 ;
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 y separately published work icon If It's Not True It Should Be If It’s Not True, It Should Be: Writing Creative Non-Fiction History for Adults and Children Paul Ashton , Ultimo : Halstead Press , 2024 27378696 2024 multi chapter work criticism 'Paul Ashton's If it's Not True It Should Be centers around the state of Australian historical fiction and is comprised of several pieces which illustrate the way in which history and literature relate to each other. Whilst history grounds creativity, creative non-fiction allows readers to connect with, and immerse themselves in, historical events. As well as being immersive, this work is also accurate, thereby informing the reader and bridging the gap between creativity and historical accuracy. Ten of the contributors are academically trained historians, whilst the other six are eminent writers of historical fiction. This ensures that a balance is achieved between imagination and precision, providing appropriate context and methodology that informs whilst inviting the reader to visualise and personally connect with the events in question. Apart from being passionate about history, the contributors in this book all share a desire to harness the past in their creative writing practices: to draw on historical sources, both traditional and promiscuous; to develop well grounded historical imaginations which allow them to fill cracks, gaps or chasms in what are invariably incomplete, invented or censored archives; to look through the eyes of others; to read historical landscapes on the ground and in the mind; and to look to history for inspiration. Like all good creative non-fiction history and historical fiction, it's engaging, evocative of time and place, deals with significant events and issues--however large or small--shows different perspectives and is well researched. This book is significant in that it conveys the notion that historians need to think of themselves as writers, as the utilisation of literary forms allows them to widen their audience and contribute towards the increasing accessibility of history.' 

(Publication summary)
1 y separately published work icon Once Upon a Time : Australian Writers on Using the Past Paul Ashton (editor), Anna Clark (editor), Robert Crawford (editor), North Melbourne : Australian Scholarly Publishing , 2016 21964351 2016 anthology criticism 'Writers cannot escape the past. Whether they are novelists, speechwriters, scriptwriters, biographers or historians, writers, like everyone else, draw constantly on the past in both the practice of everyday life and in doing their creative work. They operate in sensory landscapes which stimulate embodied and situated knowledge. Memories can be evoked by sound, smell, touch, sight and taste through objects, places and rituals. We are all permanently living the past in the present. But the past is not history. History is an ensemble of practices that use the past to make meaning today.

'This book brings together sixteen well-known writers from diverse backgrounds: Debra Adelaide, Paul Ashton, Anna Clark, Robert Crawford, John Dale, Ross Gibson, Bridget Griffen-Foley, Lucinda Holdforth, Julia Horne, Paul Kiem, John Maynard, Betty O’Neill, Penny Russell, Janis Wilton, Garry Wotherspoon and Clare Wright. It looks at how history – a discipline which generally strives for critical distance – and the past – a concept which is open-ended and useful in the present – are used in a range of genres from historical and ‘true crime’ novels to family history and memoir.' (Publisher's blurb)
1 Introduction : The Politics and Passions of the Suburban Oasis Paula Hamilton , Paul Ashton , 2013 single work essay
— Appears in: Locating Suburbia 2013; (p. 1-5)
1 y separately published work icon Locating Suburbia Paula Hamilton (editor), Paul Ashton (editor), Broadway : UTS Press , 2013 7694529 2013 anthology single work essay prose autobiography

'Suburbia has been satirised and mocked by the best of them from George Orwell’s 1939 caricature in Coming up for Air to Dame Edna Everidge from the 1960s and TV’s Kath and Kim in twentieth-first century Australia. For many of the generation growing up in the twentieth century, suburbia is, on the one hand, the remembered nightmare from which the human chrysallis escaped to experience adulthood and its pleasures elsewhere – he stifling, conformist sameness which nonetheless hid evil deeds like murder. Others hold dear the wistful nostalgic memories about growing up in a domesticated cosy world of backyard games so effectively mobilised by conservative Prime Minister John Howard during the 1990s in relation to Earlwood, a suburb of Sydney.' (Authors introduction)
1 The Whole is More than the Sum of its Parts Shanan Lang , Paul Ashton , 2009-2010 single work column
— Appears in: Inscribe , Summer no. 1 2009-2010; (p. 8)
1 Who Owns History? Paul Ashton , Paul Hamilton , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: Newswrite : The NSW Writers' Centre Magazine , August/September no. 186 2009; (p. 17-19)
1 y separately published work icon Australian Cultural History Papers on Australian Cultural History no. 20 Paul Ashton (editor), Bridget Griffen-Foley (editor), 2001 Z941666 2001 periodical issue
1 y separately published work icon Journal of Australian Studies JAS no. 69 Bridget Griffen-Foley (editor), Paul Ashton (editor), 2001 Z941656 2001 periodical issue
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