Cirrus@Austlit

'The unique collection explores the sea change in Australian life today. Two years before the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games the nation is witness to transformations of all types, whether they are radical, magical, sexual or political. In this especially-commissioned anthology, twenty-five of Australia's finest writers and photographers take up the challenge of exploring that theme, including David Malouf, Lily brett, Robert Drewe, Beth Yahp, Robert Dessaix, Tracey Moffatt, Anne Zhalka and William Yang.

This unusual anthology conterpoints essays and photographic images, short stories and the cartoons of Matthew Martin to challenge, surprise and entertain.' (Source: Back cover)

'This anthology, unprecedented for its subject, gathers together twenty-nine of the sharpest and most entertaining stories written by Australian women from the early nineteenth century to the late 1990s. Selected by acclaimed critic and writer Kerryn Goldsworthy--editor of the highly successful Australian Love Stories--the stories cover a wide range of styles and subject matter. Included in the collection are the works of well-known writers such as Henry Handel Richardson and Christina Stead, those of contemporary authors Elizabeth Jolley, Beverley Farmer, Kate Grenville, Carmel Bird, and Beth Yahp, and a generous selection from the work of Asian, Aboriginal, and European Australian writers. With a strong local or regional emphasis the volume vividly moves readers from Thea Astley's North Queensland and Carmel Bird's Tasmania to Helen Garner's Carlton and Fitzroy. This volume is sure to be the definitive introduction for years to come to the rich and accomplished tradition of fiction by Australian women.' (Publication summary) 

'Drawing on a wide range of Indigenous cultures and artistic traditions from Canada, the United States, Australia and Aotearoa - New Zealand, skins is an exciting new addition to Indigenous literature in print. Among celebrated names like Maria Campbell (Halfbreed), Alootook Ipellie (Arctic Dreams and Nightmares), Sally Morgan (My Place), Patricia Grace (Potiki), Sherman Alexie (Smoke Signals), Linda Hogan (Seeing through the Sun and Mean Spirit), Thomas King (Green Grass, Running Water), Louise Erdrich (Tracks) and Witi Ihimaera (Bulibasha), Skins also presents some of the brightest emerging Indigenous talent from around the world. These writers have given us classic works and daring innovation; they are marking out new trails for the writers who will follow. And, as these pages show, they are producing some of the most inspiring beautiful and provocative writing anywhere.

Le serpent arc-en-ciel rampe sous le bush stérile du Nord de l’Australie lointaine. Il est pour les Aborigènes le serpent de la Création, celui qui unit les hommes et le monde qu’ils habitent. Et, quand ce monde est remodelé, détruit par des colons qui se le sont approprié, le sort des Aborigènes n’est plus que perte d’identité.

C’est une déchéance qui est dite ici. Sous forme de portraits, de scènes de vie, Alexis Wright brosse le quotidien peu reluisant de gens qui bien souvent n’ont le choix qu’entre prison, centre de désintoxication ou suicide.

Tel le serpent qui pourrait bien ressortir de terre et raconter la véritable histoire, Alexis Wright parle pour ceux qui n’ont plus de voix, décrypte le réel en scrutant les âmes et charge son écriture de toute la force d’un imaginaire ancestral. (Source: Actes Sud website)

English Translation:

'The rainbow snake slithers under the sterile bush of distant Northern Australia. For the Aboriginal people, he is the snake of Creation, the one who unites men and the world they inhabit. And when this world is remodelled, destroyed by the settlers who have reclaimed it, the fate of Aborigines is reduced to a loss of their identity.'

'A tale of degradation is told here. Through the use of portraits, of scenes of life, Alexis Wright paints the everyday life of people who often only have a choice between jail, a detox centre or suicide.'

'Like the snake who could well come out of the earth once more and recount the true story, Alexis Wright speaks for those who no longer have a voice, decrypts the reality by scrutinising the souls and charges her writing with all the strength of an ancestral imagination.' (English translation by Maelle Farquhar, 2013)