An authoritative and comprehensive survey of Australian literary writing, from beginningless time to the present, in all genres. This is an essential reference for anyone interested in Australian literary history.

In a political system that renders them largely voiceless, Australia's Aboriginal people have used the written word as a powerful tool for over two hundred years. Anthology of Australian Aboriginal Literature presents a rich panorama of Aboriginal culture, history, and life through the writings of some of the great Australian Aboriginal authors. From Bennelong's 1796 letter to contemporary writing, Anita Heiss and Peter Minter have selected works that represent the range and depth of Aboriginal writing in English. Journalism, petitions, and political letters from both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are brought together with major works of poetry, prose, and drama from the mid-twentieth century onward. These works voice not only the ongoing suffering of dispossession but the resilience of Australia's Aboriginal people, their hope and joy. Presenting some of the best, most distinctive writing produced in Australia, this groundbreaking anthology will captivate anyone interested in Aboriginal writing and culture.

Chi Vu takes the central figure in a traditional Buddhist folktale, a deranged killer who wears his victims’ fingers in a garland around his neck, and turns him into a menacing abbatoir worker who carries bloody chunks of meat home to his lodgings in plastic bags, in this suburban Gothic tale set in 1980s Melbourne, when the flight of Vietnamese refugees to Australia was at its height. The novella gives a compelling insight into the relations formed between refugees who have been displaced from their families or their communities, and lead isolated lives haunted by suspicion and fear. At the same time the novella’s macabre humour and surreal effects point to redemptive possibilities, in demonstrating how these old fears are played out and resolved in their new settings.

A magic pudding who changes from steak and kidney to jam roll and apple dumpling in seconds. A walking, talking dessert that never runs out of pleasing things to eat. A koala bear, named Bunyip Bluegum, A sailor named Bill Barnacle, and Sam Sawnoff the penguin have a wonderful hilarious magical adventure defending the Pudding against thieves who want it for themselves.

"Unprecedented in the breadth of what it offers from both the ancient and the recent literature of my country."--Thomas Keneally, from the foreword

Nicholas Jose was Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in Beijing from 1987 to 1990, at a vital moment in China’s history, and has played an important role in artistic relations between the two countries since then. The title of his new collection of stories refers to an unusual kind of Chinese painting, that tricks the eye into thinking it sees a collage of fragments. Bapo means ‘eight broken’, where eight is a Chinese lucky number and ‘broken’ suggests that luck has run out, though there’s another kind of luck in simply surviving and holding it all together, less glorious maybe, but not so bad in the long run. The stories feature a cast of characters, artists, diplomats, entrepreneurs, refugees, families at the crossroads. They are all held by the past in some way, its hope, idealism, romance, adventure – and aware of its susceptibility to corruption, disappointment or manipulation.

The story of an urban-based high achieving Wiradyuri woman working to break down stereotypes and build bridges between black and white Australia. I'm Aboriginal. I'm just not the Aboriginal person a lot of people want or expect me to be. What does it mean to be Aboriginal? Why is Australia so obsessed with notions of identity? Anita Heiss, successful author and passionate advocate for Aboriginal literacy, rights and representation, was born a member of the Wiradyuri nation of central New South Wales but was raised in the suburbs of Sydney and educated at the local Catholic school. In this heartfelt and revealing memoir, told in her distinctive, wry style, with large doses of humour, Anita Heiss gives a firsthand account of her experiences as a woman with a Wiradyuri mother and Austrian father. Anita explains the development of her activist consciousness, how she strives to be happy and healthy, and the work she undertakes every day to ensure the world she leaves behind will be more equitable and understanding than it is today.

From award-winning Wiradyuri author, Anita Heiss, comes a fun, light-hearted and empowering story featuring a deadly Koori heroine who is forced to choose between her dream job and the man of her dreams. Lauren is a curator at the National Aboriginal Gallery in Canberra. She's good at her job, passionate about the arts, and focused on her work – that is, when she's not focusing on Adam, halfback for the Canberra Cockatoos. But Adam is a player, both on and off the field. Lauren knows he's the one, but he doesn't seem to feel the same way about her. If she just waits long enough, though, surely he'll realise how much he needs her? Then her boss offers her the chance of a lifetime – a fellowship at the Smithsonian in New York. Lauren has to make some big decisions: the man or Manhattan?

An important contribution to our understanding of autobiography, its history and the Australian experience.

‘I am deadly, desirable and delicious!’ This is Alice's mantra as she hilariously negotiates her way through the rocky terrain of singledom. Alice Aigner is successful, independent and a confirmed serial dater – but at her ten-year school reunion she has a sudden change of heart. Bored rigid by her married, mortgaged and motherly former classmates, Alice decides to prove that a woman can have it all: a man, marriage, career, kids and a mind of her own. She sets herself a goal: meet the perfect man and marry him before her thirtieth birthday, just under two years away. Together with her best friends Dannie, Liza and Peta, Alice draws up a ten-point plan. Then, with a little help from her family and friends, she sets out to find Mr Right. Unfortunately for Alice, it's not quite as easy as she imagines … Who could not fall in love with our Koori heroine as she dates (among others): Renan, whose career goal is to be the world's best moonwalker and male hula dancer; Tufu the commitment-phobic Samoan football player; scary Simon the one-night stand; and Paul - Mr Dreamboat, but perhaps too good to be true. All the while, Alice skilfully avoids dating Cliff, son of her mum's friend and confirmed bachelor who isn't likely to settle down with a woman anytime soon.