@austlit.bsky.social
AustLit is a bio-bibliographical database of stories by Australians and about Australia. https://www.austlit.edu.au/
Lists are subjective, but there's a few in this one that are my faves too. Esp love Samuel Wagan Watson's SMOKE ENCRYPTED WHISPERS!
"Australian Poetry Month: 10 essential Australian collections that will change how you read"
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
Congratulations to all those longlisted for the 2025 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award. It's very special to be on the list alongside so many extraordinary authors, including my own Bundyi author, Tasma Walton.
@austlit.bsky.social
#dirrayawadha #riseup #nibliteraryaward #longlist
Red-orange cliff-faces rise up on the left and right hand side of the cover, with a red dirt road running between them. The space between the cliffs is filled with black sky and a multitude of stars. At the end of the road, facing the viewer, is a car, with its headlights on high beam.
Today's favourite book cover: this absolute stunner from Nicolas Rothwell and Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson.
Just published!
Please join Amy Barry, Stacey McEwan, Steffanie Holmes and me for some ROMANCE WRITING REVELRY at Fullers Bookshop, Hobart on August 25. It’s going to be a blast!
Tix on sale now: www.fullersbookshop.com.au/event/romanc...
@austlit.bsky.social
#romance #romancewriting #blueskybooks #booksky
Poster for the upcoming two-day symposium: includes QR codes for registration (all information in the image, including registration, also available in the link in the text of this post).
Coming soon: a *free* two-day in-person symposium on Imaginative Literature for Children and Beyond: Australia, Japan, and the World. Author talks, translation workshops, and more. There are QR codes in the poster below, or check the link to register:
languages-cultures.uq.edu.au/event/11005/...
A brown background, with the white text Music & Language. Below, some grey parallel lines split into chaotic harmonics. The bottom line reads 'a new BlackWords information trail.
A background image looking across the Snowy Mountains from the Mount Kosciuszko lookout. A series of harmonic lines in brown are at the top and bottom of the page. Below the top set, a headline reads 'ATSIS' Music & Language Pilot Program'. The main text reads, 'The role of music in sustaining our languages and cultural practices is so important. It gives us a sense of connection. Also I think it’s that continuation of oral history that we've always done through dance, song, ceremony, lore.’ (Deline Briscoe) Funded by the Centre for Digital Societies and Cultures at the University of Queensland, this pilot project by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit (ATSIS) undertook 5 case studies with individual Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people to document the ways they are using music to preserve and sustain languages in their professional and personal lives.' Below this, the Blackwords logo of a red figure emerging from a blue wave against a green hill appears, and the text 'AustLit and the BlackWords team have created an information trail inspired by this research.'
On a brown background with pale grey harmonic lines, the cover images appear for four books: Music, Dance and the Archive; I Am Me; Words to Sing the World Alive; and Tjitiji Lullaby. The text, curved around the harmonic lines, reads, 'Taking cue from ATSIS' Music and Language Pilot Program, this trail is composed of fiction and non-fiction works on First Nations language and music. Explore now: https://www.austlit.edu.au/musicandlanguage
On a grey background with white harmonics lines, the covers of CD releases by Aboriginal bands appear: Warumpi Band's Papunya Sessions 1982, Go Bush!, and Big Name, No Blankets; Yothu Yindi's Freedom and Tribal Voice; Kuckles' Bran Nue Day; and Us Mob and No Fixed Address's Wrong Side of the Road. Text reads 'discover more @ austlit.edu.au'
New on AustLit: a new BlackWords information trail drawing on the ATSIS Unit at UQ's Music & Language pilot program on the role of music in language reclamation.
Explore at: www.austlit.edu.au/musicandlang...
This trail was developed by AustLit intern Clare Glassock, as were these lovely tiles!
Elevate: First Nations Storytelling and Literature Fund
$10,000 grant for career development, open to Australian First Nations writers, poets, editors, illustrators, journalists, arts workers, and groups in the literature sector.
creative.gov.au/investments-...
First Nations writers! Have you seen Magabala Books' callout for a First Nations romance anthology? Edited by BlackWords Coordinator Melanie Saward, Ambelin Kwaymullina, and Kate Cuthbert.
Details below. Submissions due by 31 October 2025.
magabala.com.au/blogs/news/s...
Proud to be a contributor to Rivers Flow: Reflections on the songs of Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter
Edited by Kim Scott & Casey Mulder. Published by Fremantle Press, with book club notes. Released this coming October.
You can pre-order now
fremantlepress.com.au/books/rivers...
@austlit.bsky.social
It's launch day for these two deadly titles! 🤩
🖤 'Cloudmaker' by Helen Milroy
🖤 'Old Days Imanka nurna laakinha nitjaarta' by Marjorie ‘Nunga’ Williams
Congrats to both 📚
Cover image of Mitch Tambo's picture book I Am Me, showing Mitch Tambo dancing in the centre of the image, with a young Aboriginal girl dancing on either side of him.
NAIDOC spotlight: the most recent work added to BlackWords is Mitch Tambo's forthcoming picture book (pub. Sept. 2025), I Am Me, which was indexed yesterday morning.
08.07.2025 21:52 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0We witnessed the line dancing at the UQ launch, so we are here to endorse that there will definitely be line dancing!
08.07.2025 06:20 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
On a brown background, the cover images for Everywhen: Australia and the Language of Deep History, Ceremony, and This All Come Back Now, as well as the logo for ABC's Little Yarns, and a small screencap from Big J and Little Cuz. The text reads '50 Years of NAIDOC. Strength and sharing culture.'
On a green background, the cover images for Edenglassie, Weaving Country, Moonlight and Dust, Our Flag, Our Story, and part of Drop Bear. The text reads, '50 Years of NAIDOC. Vision in Looking Forward'.
On a blue blackground, the covers of Yarn Quest, Dirrayawadha, and Words to Sing the World Alive, as well as small images from two theatrical performances, and a banner image of the First Nations Classics from UQP. Text reads, '50 Years of NAIDOC. Legacy when looking back'.
New for NAIDOC Week: a BlackWords information trail exploring strength (and sharing culture), vision (in looking forward), and legacy (when looking back). This trail was compiled by current winter scholar Clare Glassock, who also created these lovely slides.
www.austlit.edu.au/naidoc2025
Cover of Lystra Rose's novel The Upwelling. Black background with a swirl in different colours of blue, overlaid with white and blue drawings.
Cover of Lystra Rose's Washpool. Two young Aboriginal girls, one in profile and one in three-quarter profile, looking out to the right-hand side of the cover, on a pale pink background.
The cover for Jasmin McGaughey's Moonlight and Dust. A young Torres Strait Islander girl, who appears to have lightning running under or across her skin, looks directly at the viewer. Behind her is an enormous full moon, with three palm trees silhouetted against it. The cover is in shades of purple.
A young Aboriginal girl stares directly at the viewer: her head is lowered so she is looking up from under her eyebrows, and only half her face is visible. At the bottom of the cover are three silhouettes of leaves in brown and white.
NAIDOC spotlight: young-adult fantasy and speculative fiction from First Nations authors. One of our favourite genres--and one which is incredibly rich and rewarding right now! These are the merest sampling: check BlackWords for more.
07.07.2025 23:20 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0Yes, and they’re incredible.
07.07.2025 06:25 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0This is tomorrow! Wednesday. And we'd love you to join us as we talk First Nations storytelling and publishing and Tasma's breathtaking novel I AM NANNERTGARROOK.
It's online and free!
With thanks to the Australian Society of Authors.
NAIDOC spotlight: have you checked out Comics on Country?
Includes the Indigiverse (Dark Heart and Dreamwalker), but also much much more.
comics.org.au
Happy NAIDOC Week!
BlackWords, AustLit's single biggest dataset and one of its foundational datasets, records works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors. It has been developed and maintained for over two decades, and is at the heart of the database.
www.austlit.edu.au/blackwords
Don’t miss Qld’s first Indigenous barrister Joshua Creamer’s UQ #NAIDOC Public Lecture, Wed 9 July ‘How do we embrace the future when we can’t acknowledge the past?’ as he shares his journey in truth-telling & healing. Available in person or online at www.eventbrite.com/e/uq-naidoc-... #NAIDOC2025
06.07.2025 19:35 — 👍 7 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 1NAIDOC Week is nearly here! We'll be launching a new BlackWords trail around this year's NAIDOC theme: The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy.
And remember to check for other ways you can mark the occasion, such as Readings' 20% (!!) off Magabala titles:
www.readings.com.au/collections/...
IBBY-UNESCO Collection of Remarkable Books in Indigenous and Endangered Languages is calling for nominations for books for young readers in an Indigenous and/or endangered language. We would very much like to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors represented!
www.ibby.org/awards-activ...
The deadline for this has been extended until 14th of July! An excellent writing challenge for Queenslanders (or people who just like Queensland).
27.06.2025 04:11 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Please join me at Avid Reader Bookshop on July 10 for Murri Trivia Night raising $ for the The Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
It's always so much fun!
And you don't need a team, we can put you in one on the night.
avidreader.com.au/pages/11901-...
A very interesting (and commendable that they share it in this way) behind-the-scenes discussion among B&P staff about their dilemma when reporting on last month's Commonwealth Story Prize winning entry for the OZ region www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/202...
25.06.2025 03:22 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Remembering our national heroes, Yarri and Jacky Jacky - who saved an estimated 59 lives in the Great Flood of Gundagai, 1852. Their bravery inspired my novel BILA YARRUDHANGGALANGDHURAY www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Bila-Y... & kids' book BIDHI GALING www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Bidhi-...
24.06.2025 20:31 — 👍 13 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 1I love it! Art by Lindsey Carr, design by Christine Foltzer
23.06.2025 05:49 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Indigenising the curriculum-Prof Bunda is an educator & thought leader w/ decades of experience in the education system at all levels. Her groundbreaking work in Indigenising curricula is transforming how knowledge is taught, proving that when Aboriginal women lead, entire institutions can change.
23.06.2025 00:56 — 👍 10 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0One of our favourite covers of the year. Look at it! It's magnificent. And creepy. Magnificently creepy.
23.06.2025 01:31 — 👍 15 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
Please join me as I speak with Nicole Abadee about truth-telling in fiction. Thurs 24 July 6pm–7pm. Museum of Sydney
Before the talk, attendees are invited to a private viewing of the Seeing Sydney, Knowing Country exhibition between 5pm and 5.45pm.
#truthtelling #firstnationsliterature
The Festival of Fiction is back – bigger and better than ever, and thrilled to be part of it.
Two theatres, two massive days, 70 authors talking books – it’s going to be big!
Saturday 18 October and Sunday 19 October 2025 at Edith Cowan University
festivaloffiction.com.au
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