Cirrus@Austlit

'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) 

Enter the world of a murdered socialite, be consumed by rural madness, be ignited by the longings of an obsessive optometrist, engrossed by unorthodox book-binding, and moved by a heartbreaking meditation on the Oklahoma bombings. With its bewitching language, full of subtle harmonies and rhythms, The Essential Bird takes the reader on a voyage that delights, amazes and fascinates. Carmel Bird weaves fact, fantasy and history into a shimmering fabric of fiction that creates a world of hyper-reality both tender and profound. (Source: back cover)