Blessed are
the booksellers, especially at this dastardly time of year, where the Christmas
retail spirit leaches every echo of goodwill from your shopping laden pores.
Consider them, hauling tonnes of books, displaying them beautifully, finding
your perfect gift and wrapping until their fingers are shredded and paper
stained. And smiling throughout. Blessed are the booksellers.
2016 has
been a devastating riot for many, with the death of a lot of pop stars, and Bob
Dylan being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It has also been a year of
fantastic new books and new reading discoveries. Some quick highlights from me include
a baptism by fire into the world of comics and graphic novels, notably JW
Clennett’s alt history of Tasmania, The
Diemenois, Lydia Davis, a US writer and translator whose short stories and
novels astound me with their simplicity and weirdness is a new favourite writer
and Roberto Calasso’s gorgeous little book The
Art of Publishing touched and inspired me.
Personally
I’ve met some excellent writers both in Tasmania and around the region and I
look forward to continuing my work with writers from Iran, India, Tasmania and
Burma in particular. There is some astonishing contemporary work coming from
these areas. At Transportation Press, Tasmania’s newest publisher (and close to
my heart, as I am Editor in Chief) we will be announcing two excellent projects
early in the new year, but as a teaser; Of
Wine and Words will riff off the ancient Persian connection between wine
and poetry, and Smoke, an
international microfiction competition, generously sponsored by FullersBookshop will be launched.
Around
Tasmania in December, as the darling booksellers cower under piles of your
Christmas shopping lists, a number of events are still going ahead.
On December
6 at Fullers in Hobart, Musquito,
Brutality and Exile by Michael Powell will be launched by eminent historian
Henry Reynolds at 5.30. Musquito, a legendary Aboriginal man was transported
first to Norfolk Island then Van Diemen’s Land and became well known for
organising against white settlers. He was hanged in his part in the murders at
Grindstone Bay in 1825. This book offers excellent insight into Aboriginal
resistance in NSW and Van Diemen’s Land. (pictured).
On December 14
also at Fullers Bookshop, Francesca Haig will be chatting with me about the
second novel in her Fire Sermon trilogy. These books are richly imagined and
action packed post-apocalyptic thrillers. Kirkus Review said of the first two
that they “poised to become the next must-read
hit”. I’m looking forward to this, especially in the face of the burgeoning new
genre ‘CliFi’ – climate change fiction, generally post apocalyptic. Other
notables in this genre include Clade
by James Bradley, The World Without Us by
Mireille Juchau and Briohny Doyle’s wicked The
Island Will Sink.
On December 15, again at Fullers, the
2nd edition of The Abels, Tasmania’s
finest mountains, each over 1100m high. Hear from the crack team of bushwalkers
that has bagged every peak as they give a studied portrayal of each mountain.
Learn the best routes to take, how and when to take them, and find intricate
notes on mountain nomenclature and history.
The
Hobart Bookshop is hosting the launch of Hani Abdile’s I Will Rise on December
16 at 5.30pm. Hani is a Somali asylum seeker who came to Australia by boat when
she was only 17 years old. She is an award winning slam poet and you can hear her at the Bankstown Slam here.
Celebrate
Tasmanian books another way this Christmas with Tassie Books on Facebook. It’s
an excellent way to interact with local writers and to buy local. Thoughtfully
managed by author Anne Morgan, this page offers direct links to writers andpublishers.
Some
excellent news from Island, one of
Australia’s leading lit mags. Not only was their Poetry Editor, Sarah
Holland-Batt, listed as a finalist for her poetry collection The
Hazards (UQP 2015), she won. As well, David Ireland’s The
World Repair Video Game, published in Island in serial
form and subsequently published by Island as a limited-edition
hardback, was short listed as a finalist in the Fiction category.
Tasmania’sbiggest and most recognised publisher, Forty South have some new books out, Shadows in Suriname by Margaretta Pos
tells her family’s history in Suriname. Anne Blythe-Cooper was runner up in the
Erica Bell Manuscript Prize and this has manifested as The Shape of Water, a fictionalised account of Sophia Degraves, the
wife of the same Degraves who started Cascade Brewery and was responsible for
Australia’s olden theatre, The Theatre Royal in Hobart. They have also just
released a new book by Adele Ogier Jones called The Coffee Palace.
A new book, Big Stake by SJ Brown, the third in the DI Mahoney series is out.
It is a cop drama set in Hobart. This book turns the spotlight on the damage
inflicted by the prevalence of gambling in modern Australia.
Blessed are the
booksellers and consider them, sweating under the stench of desperation and
sticky tape. I wish you all beautiful summers of reading, learning and yarning.
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