Cirrus@Austlit

'Australia led the world in the achievement of woman's suffrage and the nation's cultural history reflects this ambitious and progressive atmosphere. The impressive achievements of suffrage feminists in Australian theatre, however, are an untold story, as is their contribution to the development of international women's theatre of the time. A Splendid Adventure brings these experiences and experiments to light through a group biography exploring the theatrical careers of Katharine Susannah Prichard, Stella Miles Franklin, and Inez Isabel Bensusan. Chosen because of their expatriate involvement in the women's movement, their international profile as enfranchised Australian women, and their exceptional contribution to both the development of Australian drama and international feminist theatre, these women embody the energies and passions of Australian suffrage playwrights. The biographies of these major figures are accompanied by the dramatic stories of the New Women playwrights, the theatrical endeavours of women university students, and a consideration of international feminist theatre on tour in Australia, including the work of migrant suffragette Adela Pankhurst. The volume also includes the full text of a play by each playwright. Australian suffrage playwrights emerge from this study as exceptional feminists, expatriates, and theatre workers, whose "splendid adventures" have considerable implications for international women's theatre, feminist dramatic criticism, and Australian theatre historiography.' (Publication summary)

'…nothing has changed then since high school, since Sydney in the 1980s with its garage bands and women’s marches and university bars and hungover Sunday recovery meals at the Malaya when it was still by Central Station, before we all became solid.'

'From the Afterword:

'Gladland is a poetic tale of what heartbreak can and can’t do to a modern woman. Set to a 1970s psychosonic soundtrack, and staged in various cities from Detroit to Rome and Perth, these poems are glamrock operettas of everyday life, well-versed in its romantic absurdities and glories.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'Stevie Nicks once wrote in her celebrated song Dreams, “Have you any dreams you’d like to sell?” As a lyricist, she gathered up stories and told them back to us so that we might all contemplate (“In the stillness of remembering what you had/And what you lost”) who we really are. If secrets were spilt, and terror ensued, it was for the greater good of better knowing ourselves: as Nicks sings, “You will know, you will know”.' (Introduction)

'An autoethnography of a marriage and its demise, this work relies on the reflective modality of the lyric essay to consider the role of memory in love, heartbreak, and reconciliation. Examining two characters from different cultures whose ancestors fought for opposing sides during World War II, this story wonders if their marriage was doomed by history and the silences of intergenerational shame that emerged in Germany particularly during the post-war occupation period. Using the methodology of the witnessing imagination this essay also argues that creative writing gives shape to traumatic historical events and allows remarkable access to complex processes of recovery. Two poets—Kenneth Slessor and Joseph Brodsky—are employed as metaphoric soldiers fighting over the terrain of memory alongside the ‘witness’ author, interrogating personal issues about the on-going heartbreak of a failed marriage which come to symbolise larger concerns of social and political reconciliation. The notion of memory’s integrity to acts of reconciliation is explored through storytelling which relies on the ethical foundations of bibliotherapy as a creative practice devoted to healing trauma. This account of love and its subsequent heartbreak in a post-traumatic, ‘occupied space’ suggests that lyrical interventions afford distinctive opportunities for enhanced understandings to emerge.' (Abstract)

'Autoethnographic memoirs as a genre form part of the experience economy, and as an art form are also spiritually anchored to storytelling’s role in forming community. In the contemporary university and elsewhere, however, accounting systems for productivity do not always nurture or are able to calculate the value of abstract forms of mentorship afforded by the simple act of sharing story. Shared reflexivity about practice – such as storytelling – is essential to Creative Writing pedagogy because it allows congenial opportunities for formative development of emerging writers. This essay argues for the simple importance of mentorship through shared, spoken stories – micro-memoirs – of ‘the writing life’ to the work of fostering systems of belief in emerging writers. Such sharing develops trust and conviction which in turn promotes a professional commitment to the Creative Industries. Autoethnographic revelations of the practitioner-teacher in the creative workshop – through acts of disclosure exploring the complex ways of ‘becoming a writer’ – thus constitute a significant form of knowledge transfer. '  (Publication abstract)
 

'This is a memoir of a woman turning 50 who forgot to have a party. It takes you on road trips, into psych wards, into the chambers of marriage and through epic failures, brilliant ideas and back to kingdoms of chaos and castles of hilarity. There’s a lot of bitching and loving, a lot of fights and great nights. It’s Orwellian in its frank and unforgiving expedition through life’s hardships and glories. If you thought you needed Little Golden Books when you were young then think no more about trading up to the solid gold of The Screaming Middle: the novel cure we all need.' (Publication summary)

'Three mothers, three daughters, a girl on fire. Female butchers and bloody poets. Flight after flight into history. Dressing, all dressing for the end of the world. An astonishing volume. – John Schad, Professor of Modern Literature, Lancaster University

'Susan Bradley Smith presses at the limits of poetry, not in the sense of formal experimentation but in poetry’s capacity to embrace the lives of others. – Paul Kane Professor of English, Vassar College

'This is a rich and evocative exploration of relations between daughters and mothers, daughters and absent fathers, and between the poet and her literary (and intellectual) ancestors. – Jennifer Warrzinek Professor of English, Freie Universität Berlin

'As a poet, Susan Bradley Smith has perfect pitch: metrical, musical, imagistic… I would put her in the small and select category of poets who never let the violence of emotion interfere with poetic rigour. – Janette Turner Hospital' (Publication summary)