Cirrus@Austlit

'With writing, artwork and ideas from Charmaine Papertalk Green, Ouyang Yu, John Kinsella, Jumaana Abdu, Stephen Muecke, Andrew Sutherland, Brenda Saunders, DeWitt Henry, Michael Farrell, Wes Lee, Alan Fyfe, Gemma Nethercote Way, Luisa Mitchell, Bryant Apolonio, Kate North, Ellen Shelley, Sampurna Chattarji, Jo Langdon, Luoyang Chen, Julie Watts, Tiffany Ko, Christopher Konrad, Cass Lynch, Rachel Robertson, Helena Kadmos, Jo Pollitt, Coral Carter, Suzanne Hermanoczki, Petra White, Kathryn Hummel, Madeleine Dale and many others…' (Publication summary)

 In approaching this issue's publication, we found ourselves reflecting on a line by the poet Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, from his poem ከዋክብት መንገድ  / The Journey of Black Stars. In translation, Yirga writes, 'little things cast big shadows' (36). Small actions, In a poem, a story, or in any moment of contact, cast their ripples and edge out into the world, producing the unexpected. Contemplating the themes prominent in the works collected here, among them closeness, joy, sympathy and connection, we began to recognise one of those ripples as a possible catalyst for the works we have gathered, even if its effect wasn't noticeable at the time of curation. (Editorial introduction)

'With writing, artwork and ideas from Kerry Greer, Aileen Walsh, Kimberly L. Becker, Philip Mead, Jackson, Daniel Ray, Rikki Santer, John Saul, Kristin Sanders, Peter D. Mathews, Pidj Flavell, Emily Tsokos Purtill, Josephine Wilson, Prema Arasu, Jarad Bruinstroop, Miso Bell, Gayelene Carbis, Nathan Curnow, Jaes Bidwell and Melissa Kruger, Natalie Damjanovich- Napoleon, Shey Marque, Roseanne Dingli, the 2022 Westerly Writers’ Development Program participants and many others.' (Publication summary)

'With writing and ideas from Josephine Wilson, Mykaela Saunders, Aidan Coleman, Maddie Godfrey, and Stephen Orr, Westerly 66.1 stretches the scales of time and space, beginnings and endings. Westerly 66.1 includes poetry from our Mid-Career Fellow Maddie Godfrey, and a special ekphrastic feature after Abdul-Rahman Abdullah’s Everything Is True exhibition.' (Publication summary)

'With writing and ideas from Felicity Plunkett, Nardi Simpson, Nicholas Jose, Tracy Ryan, Kevin Brophy, and many more.

'Westerly 65.1 includes writing in support of victims of Australia’s 2020 bushfire disaster, and the latest group of emerging talent to pass through our Writers’ Development Program' (Publication abstract)

'Writing has long been recognised as a way of locating the self. As a concept, this functions in multifaceted ways, from the importance of cultural expression and representation, to philosophical and linguistic conceptualisations of subjectivity in language. Emile Benveniste wrote of the fall into language : 

'it is in and through language that man constitutes himself as a subject, because language alone establishes the concept of 'ego' in reality, it its reality which is that of the being. '

(From the Editors 8)

Presents work from the 2017 Writers' Development Program, supported by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund. 

'This issue of Westerly provides a remembrance of, and testament to, Fay Zwicky (4 July 1933 – 2 July 2017). It is far from attempting to be a rounded festschrift—time did not allow that, and we are sure that her creative and critical work will continue to attract attention in the years to come.' (Editor's introduction)

'Since its infancy, Westerly has a had a long interest in the literatures and cultures of the Indian Ocean, Southern and eastern Asia. Poised on the west coast, we are constantly looking out, facing away from mainland Australia. This space is not an empty one. It is rich with a history of movement and exchange, going back (as Sarah Ridhuan's essay in this issue reminds us) well beyond Australia's colonisation.' (Editorial introduction)

'Fay Zwicky, in her journal (NotebookXIII, August 2012), documents the experience of rage - a strange contrast with her lyrical prose and elegant hand: ' I haven't however, forgotten my fury about the illegal Iraq war. It belonged to me and I remember shouting my rage... I can still feel the surge of anger and frustration, no less urgently...' (25141, see ' surprised by in this issue). Zwicky extends her rage to list of social issues and injustices, a litany of various forms of violence in the world that sits at odds with the simplicity of the yellow Spirax notebook. This is the same journal that catches memories, poetry, anecdotes and ponderings, which notes inside its cover the Latinate name of the 'Moon Orchid carried at my wedding' as 'Phalynoxis Orchid'. The passage which records her anger is followed immediately by the memory of a childhood penpal.' (Introduction)

'It’s easy to label people or things to move a conversation along. Appropriate adjectives to truly capture the essence of someone are hard to come by. Agreeing on what these adjectives mean can be even trickier.' (Editorial introduction)

'This special issue of Westerly is a collaboration between the creative writing students of the University of Western Australia (UWA), and those from the International Poetry Studies Institute (IPSI), based at the University of Canberra (UC). It aims to showcase and celebrate the creative and critical work conducted by current or recent postgraduates, and undergraduates, at these two institutions. Reaching across the Nullarbor from west to east, this issue offers a snapshot of some of the best writing from the respective corners of Australia. In curating this material together, we aim to foreground the connections and contrasts in the stories of our students. These short stories, novel excerpts, essays and poems have been commissioned by co-editors who are also completing postgraduate study. It is, then, an issue for students and by students, and aims to give readers an insight into the exceptional standard of work being written in the postgrad study rooms, shared offices and library carrels of UWA and UC.' (Editorial introduction)