Essays

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I’m not Racist, But …

by Anita Heiss
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genre Essays · Literary Fiction · Poetry

An award-winning collection of poetry and prose from acclaimed Indigenous writer and advocate Anita Heiss. By turns witty, angry, eloquent, moving and insightful, I’m Not Racist But… includes Advance Australia Unfair, Pieces for Children, My 10 Point Plan for a Better Australia, Who’s Truth, I Don’t Hate You, But… , Treaty, The A-Z of First Contact, Being Aboriginal and Proud to be A Koori.

‘Anita Heiss writes from the heart … her poems are an angry and eloquent call for justice for Indigenous Australian people.’ Rosie Scott

First published in 2007, the collection won the Scanlon Prize for Poetry in the same year.

Anita Heiss, a member of the Wiradjuri nation of central New South Wales, is one of Australia’s best known Indigenous authors and advocates, and has won and been shortlisted for multiple awards. Professor of Communication at the University of Queensland, a board member of the State Library of Queensland and Lifetime Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, she’s written poetry, novels, short stories, children’s books and, in 2004, a memoir, Am I Black Enough for You? She co-edited The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature with Peter Minter. Her most recent book is the historical novel, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (2021). Visit her website at https://www.anitaheiss.com.


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The Strength of Us As Women

by Kerry Reed-Gilbert
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genre Anthology · Essays · Poetry

A ground-breaking collection of poetry and prose from some of Australia’s best known Indigenous women writers. Compiled by Kerry Reed-Gilbert and first published in 2000.

‘If you want to know the reality of inside Black Australia, this book is for you. The women who speak within these pages allow you, the reader, to look into their hearts, minds, bodies and souls. Share with them their journey, the journey of life.’ — Kerry Reed-Gilbert, editor.

The Strength of Us As Women includes work from Kerry Reed-Gilbert, Yasmin Johnson, Ruby Langford Ginibi, Rosemary Plummer, Barbara Nicholson, Lorraine McGee-Sippel, Anita Heiss, Nellie Green, Christine Simpson, Kathy Malera-Bandjalan, Melanie Williams, Lisa Bellear, Rosemary van den Berg, Rebecca McNaboe, Noeline Briggs-Smith, Kostane Strong, Dorothy Williams, Judy Kirby and Vicki-Ann M. Speechley-Golden.


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Behind the Banana Curtain

by Hugh Lunn
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genre Essays · Non-fiction

Travel back the 1970s and north to Australia’s sunshine state with bestselling author Hugh Lunn. ‘Many people – both inside and outside Queensland – have asked me what it is that makes this expanding northern state so distinctive,’ he writes in the introduction to Behind the Banana Curtain. ‘And while everyone in Australia, it seems, has an opinion on Queensland, few have any idea at all what really goes on there.’ As The Australian’s Queensland-based features writer, his job was to reveal what went on there to the rest of the country. And in this collection of odd, funny and sometimes disturbing pieces, he does so with relish.

 

First published in 1980, the collection includes ‘The Battle of Ballymore’ which won the 1979 National Press Club Award for Best Sporting Feature.

 

Hugh Lunn is a Walkley Award-winning journalist and the bestselling author of Over the Top with Jim (1989) and Vietnam: A Reporter’s War (1985), winner of The Age Book of the Year Award for Non-Fiction.


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A Little More

by Margaret Scott
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genre Anthology · Essays · Poetry · Short Stories

In 1999, Margaret Scott contributed an essay to 40 Degrees South magazine. It began, ‘If The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald are to be believed, I have, late in life, changed from being “a little known poet” to a “cultural icon”.’ This collection of her essays, poetry, extracts from her books and tributes from her friends celebrates a woman comedian Mikey Robins describes as ‘a bloody legend’.

A Little More was first published in 2005, shortly after Margaret Scott passed away. She was involved in the selection of the pieces.

Margaret Scott (1934–2005) was an award-winning poet, academic, novelist and non-fiction writer. She was awarded the Centenary Medal for outstanding contribution to Tasmanian literature.