After a decade of ragged, terror-driven politics many people’s dreams of and for Australia are looking battered, but the dreaming continues. Essays and other contributions here reflect the wide range and complexity of a nation’s dreaming. Calls for a fairer economy, a more direct democracy, animal rights, a more subtle and respectful understanding of the rights and rites of place; reflections upon the dreams of migrant communities; examinations of the dream factories of our poetry and cinema. Lost dreams, shattered dreams, strangled dreams, stranded dreams, even a few that might be coming true. Some of the best new work from some of the finest writers of the region, new and established, and our customary contingent of reviews of poetry and fiction.
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL 6
ESSAYS AND MEMOIR
Stephen Sewell, ‘Dreams of Australia’ 15
Boi Huyen Ngo, ‘The uniting of pieces: Sewing Vietnamese Australian women’s identities’ 36
Mudrooroo Nyoongah, ‘The House with the Yellow Door’ 62
John Kinsella, ‘Replacing “Place”: Towards a Theology of Presence’ 133
J.H. Crone, ‘Dreaming Verse: C.J. Dennis and the Anzac Tradition’ 158
Sandra Hajda, ‘Catholic Guilt and Schoolgirl Sluts’ 198
Anna Poletti and Ali Alizadeh, ‘The Dream of Love in Tsiolkas’ The Slap’ 212
INTERVIEW
Patty Mark in conversation with Teja B. Pribac, ‘Dreams and Beyond’ 102
POETRY
Kerry Reed-Gilbert, ‘Sacrifice’, ‘The Bible’, 14
Peter Minter, ‘The Eggs’, ‘Lost Residence’ 21
Tamara Lazaroff, ‘To Praise is the Thing (Fruit-picking, W.A.)’ 33
Jenni Nixon, ‘Under Canvas’ 51
Yu Jian (trans. Naikan Tao and Simon Patten), ‘Goldfish’, ‘Church Visit’ 52
John Tranter, ‘Three Lemons’, ‘A Pompeiian Aristocrat Considers the Future’ 77
Michael Sharkey, ‘The Consolation of Philosophy’ 117
Michael Farrell, ‘The Keatsian Marketplace’ 131
Mudrooroo Nyoongah, ‘Present Sir’, ‘Some People I Declare’ 150
Judith Beveridge, ‘To My Neighbour’s Hens’ 157
Stephen Edgar, ‘All Hail’ 181
Deon Calleja, ‘Mysterious ways’ 197
Noel Jeffs, ‘Of the Doll—’ 211
Lea McInerney, ‘Studio by the Sea, Falmouth’ 226
FICTION
Michelle Hamadache, ‘The Sea Swallows’ 23
Christopher Cyrill, ‘Les Cahiers’ 81
Ariella van Luyn, ‘St Helena’ 120
Tadhg Muller, ‘When Rain Fell’ 152
John A. Scott, ‘Picasso: A Shorter Life’ 183
REVIEWS
Alison Broinowski, of Mark Henshaw, The Snow Kimono 227
Michelle Cahill, of Judith Beveridge, Devadatta’s Poems 230
Josh Mei-Ling Dubrau, of Kim Cheng Boey, Clear Brightness and Danijela Kambaskovic, Internal Monologues 236
Tessa Lunney, of Omar Musa, Here Come the Dogs 241
Tracy Ryan, of Cath Kenneally, eaten cold 247
Phillip Salom, of Fiona Hile, Novelties and Rae Desmond Jones, It Comes from All Directions 252
Vivian Smith, of Geoffrey Lehman, Poems 1957-2013 262
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 266
And in the Long Paddock…
ESSAYS AND MEMOIR
Roberta Lowing, ‘After the Dream, the Awakening: 100 Years of Australian Celluloid Aspirations’
Donna Ward, ‘An Inch at a Time’
POETRY
a.j. carruthers, ‘Axis’
Michael Farrell, ‘Some Problems With The Page As Terra Nullius’
Toby Fitch, ‘Villboard’
Mudrooroo Nyoongah, ‘Why Whatever Sadness’
FICTION
Maureen Cashman, ‘The Amber Bird’
Michael Crane, ‘The Seven Days of Anna’
Melanie Kinsman, ‘Sucker’
Soren Tae Smith, ‘Wandjina’
REVIEWS
Shaun Bell, of Kenneth Mackenzie, The Young Desire It
Alison Broinowski, of Sheng Keyi, Death Fugue (trans. Shelly Bryant)
Margaret Bradstock, of Sarah Day, Tempo and John Upton, Embracing the Razor
Jessica Brooks, of Vanessa Berry, Ninety 9
Melinda Bufton, of Julie Chevalier, Darger: his girls
Sally Evans, of Carol Jenkins, Xn and Tricia Dearborn, The Ringing World
Sam Franzway, of Fiona Woods, Wildlife
Duncan Bruce Hose, of Laurie Duggan, The Collected Blue Hills
Aashish Kaul, of John A. Scott, N
Kate Livett, of Tanya Dalziell and Paul Genoni, eds, Telling Stories: Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012
Selina Samuels, of Felicity Castagna, The Incredible Here and Now
COVER: Photo credit: Nicholas Walton-Healey
