Cirrus@Austlit

'In Australia, the field of contemporary creative representation of asylum is enriched by diverse non-professional and community-based work, including self-narratives by asylum seekers and refugees. This essay situates three Australian asylum anthologies as products of heterogeneous community engagements and dialogues...In each anthology, a range of subject types - men, women and children from different ethnic, cultural, religious and educational backgrounds - coalesces so that a diversity of voices is presented within the privileged space of the book. Drawing lines of rhizomatic connection between autonomous sections of society, the texts map the grassroots structures of support, advocacy and community within which relations between asylum seekers, refugees and Australians operate. In each, writers engage in acts of speaking across the borders of language, culture, education and power, claiming a subaltern stake in cosmopolitan conversation.' (Author's abstract p. 285)