{"title":"Prose","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"martin-harrison-music","title":"Martin Harrison, Music","description":"\u003cp\u003eMusic is a collection of poems and proses, and sometimes proses with parts of poems interspersed in their structure.  I wanted to put together a sequence of pieces which is both exciting to read and at the same spacious in feel.  The poems have quite a lot to do with spatial senses of local areas in Australia as well as to do with instants of transformation.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“What Harrison is doing here is articulating a kind of space from which poetry \u003cem\u003eemerges\u003c\/em\u003e, a space of poem fragments and drifting, poetic monologues….\u003cem\u003eMusic\u003c\/em\u003e is a splash in a pond, a beautiful dispersion of language and of moment.”  Stuart Cooke, \u003cem\u003eJacket\u003c\/em\u003e 28.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMartin Harrison was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1949. He studied at the University of Cambridge. After living for three years in New Zealand, he settled in Sydney in 1978. He worked as producer and broadcaster for the ABC and currently teaches writing, poetry and sound studies at the University of Technology in Sydney.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e2005. 32pp.  ISBN 0-9751506-7-7\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eLimited print run of 200.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":240974953,"sku":"","price":15.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/products\/harrison_music.jpg?v=1347950304"},{"product_id":"noel-rowe-ethical-investigations-essays-on-australian-literature-and-poetics","title":"Noel Rowe, Ethical Investigations: Essays on Australian Literature and Poetics","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the 2009 Walter McRae Russell Prize \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“Ethical Investigations \u003c\/em\u003ecomprises twelve essays written by Noel Rowe between 1986 and 2007, and edited after Noel’s death by Bernadette Brennan. It was awarded the 2009 Walter McRae Russell Prize for the best work of literary scholarship on an Australian subject. The collection combines both published and previously unpublished essays. It reflects and documents the work of one of Australia’s finest literary critics, bringing together insights and reflections developed over an all too brief scholarly life. When she launched this collection at the University of Sydney in 2009, Elizabeth McMahon spoke eloquently of the gift that it constitutes, not only as an invaluable resource for scholars of Australian literature, but also as an uncompromising reminder of what she called ‘the value’ of Rowe’s critical attention: ‘a habit of attention to words, to the world, to the nuance of a moment, that refuses to deflect its gaze from the business of observation, assessment, subtlety and precision.’ This collection reminds us that critical work at its best draws us into an ethical relation with the world, a relation that reconstrues our sense of both poetry and terror, of the gaps and the links between artistic responsibility and what Rowe calls the writer’s ‘duty of learning’.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBrigitta Olubas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNoel Rowe\u003c\/strong\u003e (20 June 1951 – 11 July 2007) was a poet who lived in Sydney, Australia, and was Senior Lecturer in Australian Literature at the University of Sydney where he was also awarded the University Medal (1984) and doctorate (1989). His books include \u003cem\u003ePerhaps, After All\u003c\/em\u003e (Vagabond, 2000), \u003cem\u003eNext to Nothing\u003c\/em\u003e (Vagabond Stray Dog, 2004) and \u003cem\u003eTouching the Hem\u003c\/em\u003e (Vagabond, 2006). He was co-editor of the literary journal \u003cem\u003eSoutherly\u003c\/em\u003e. He also, with Vivian Smith, edited \u003cem\u003eWindchimes: Asia in Australian Poetry\u003c\/em\u003e(Pandanus Books, 2006). In 2005, Rowe was awarded the \u003cem\u003eWilliam Baylebridge Memorial Prize\u003c\/em\u003e for poetry. He was also invited to read his poetry at International Festivals in Rotterdam (2005) and Jerusalem (2006). He had particular interest in the interrelationship between literature, theology and ethics. Rowe died on 11 July 2007, after being ill for two years. He is deeply missed by the Sydney poetry community he did so much to support and encourage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEdited by Bernadette Brennan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2008. 240pp. ISBN 978-0-9805113-1-4.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ciframe style=\"width:550px;height:350px\" src=\"https:\/\/online.anyflip.com\/wuapt\/akdv\/index.html\" seamless=\"seamless\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":240983613,"sku":"","price":30.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/products\/rowe_essays.jpg?v=1347955092"},{"product_id":"kyoko-yoshida-disorientalism","title":"Kyoko Yoshida, Disorientalism","description":"\u003cp\u003eKyoko Yoshida’s debut collection Disorientalism brings together nineteen short stories that systematically smash the boundaries of the real and its imagining. Told with a deadpan, visceral humour these stories unsettle and surprise, leading the reader into alternate realities at once comic and nightmarishly beautiful and human. This is contemporary surrealism at its best—mischievous, dissonant, dystopic, bewildering. Disorientalism introduces to Japanese and international readers alike a significant new voice in transnational literature.\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Hilarious and lovable short pieces! Yoshida’s stories astonish you with their strangeness, and wise you up to the strangeness actually happening in the world.” Kyoko Nakajima\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Throughout the remarkable short stories of Disorientalism, a world familiar by consensus shifts along the hairline cracks of Kyoko Yoshida’s peculiarizing imagination. Philosophical, international in orientation, structurally innovative, and fantastical in their crisp, sensual details, Yoshida’s stories might have been conceived through some wormhole conflation of Jorge Luis Borges and Bruno Schulz. She is that good and the stories are that intense. Her consistently understated endings are like slow-mo detonations. Long after you put her book down, her words will be turning the ordinary upside down. And commonplace animals, dear reader, will never look quite the same to you.” Forrest Gander\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKyoko Yoshida is a fiction writer and translator living in Kyoto. Her translation, with Forrest Gander, of Kiwao Nomura’s Spectacle \u0026amp; Pigsty won the 2012 Best Translated Book Award in Poetry in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKyoko Yoshida\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eDisorientalism\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVagabond Press. 192pp. RRP$24.95\u003cbr\u003eISBN 978-1-922181-17-6\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCover image: ©Takanori Ishizuka ©Dokuro Kogyo Untitled, 2013, 240 x 280 x 300 cm, urethane, latex, TV monitor and others at Dokuyo Stationery shop, Tokyo. Courtesy of nca | nichido contemporary art  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ciframe style=\"width:550px;height:350px\" src=\"https:\/\/online.anyflip.com\/wuapt\/xdsa\/index.html\" seamless=\"seamless\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":610511697,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/products\/Yoshida_front_cover.jpg?v=1394604481"},{"product_id":"louis-armand-abacus","title":"Louis Armand, Abacus","description":"\u003cp\u003eLong-listed for the Guardian's Not The Booker Award 2015.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA decade-by-decade portrait of 20th-century Australia through the prism of one family. \u003cem\u003eAbacus\u003c\/em\u003e is a novel about the end times, of generational violence and the instinct for survival by one of Australia’s leading contemporary poets.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"The cumulative effect of 'Abacus' is intriguing. While none of the characters really stands out individually, it’s fascinating to see the shifting patterns of opportunity and obligation and the interaction of individual constitutions with this across a century of Australian history. As a historical fiction, it’s certainly a welcome corrective to worn-out narrative tropes such as the discovery of lost diaries \u003cspan class=\"text_exposed_show\"\u003eand the recrudescence of family secrets.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"text_exposed_show\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArmand writes with an admirable laconic economy. For example: “Afterwards, when Clarice Foley told him she was marrying a foreigner, George Luscombe was beside himself, as was Mrs Casey and the other girls in the choir, and all the rest of the congregation. They wanted to know who this foreigner was, what he was, how they’d met, did he speak English? When she told them he was a German, they just looked at each other not knowing what to say. But George Luscombe knew what to say, he’d served at El Alamein. ‘Ought to be ashamed of herself,’ his wife decided. He’d shrugged. He’d grown fond of the girl.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat follows shows that George doesn’t reflect his fellow parishioners’ xenophobia. One of the real strengths of Abacus is the way Armand captures these tense and defining moments in Australian history, while the narrative sweep also shows their dissolution in time.\" Ed Wright, \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theaustralian.com.au\/arts\/review\/australian-fiction-reviews-ward-mchugh-young-armand\/news-story\/7bd9d6d24e5db9eecbf403f1f5e2c1c7?nk=35afb42eaa29ab3b5c2de3b1f9621022-1455420032\"\u003eThe Australian\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLouis Armand\u003c\/strong\u003e is a Sydney-bornwriter who has lived in Prague since1994. He is the author of six novels, including \u003cem\u003eBreakfast at Midnight\u003c\/em\u003e (2012),described by 3AM magazine’s Richard Marshall as “a perfectmodern noir,” and \u003cem\u003eCairo\u003c\/em\u003e, shortlistedfor the Guardian newspaper’s 2014 Not-the-Booker Prize (both from Equus, London). His most recentcollections of poetry are \u003cem\u003eIndirect Objects\u003c\/em\u003e (Vagabond, 2014) and \u003cem\u003eSynopticon\u003c\/em\u003e (with John Kinsella; LPB,2012). His work has been included in the \u003cem\u003ePenguin Anthology of Australian Poetry\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eBest Australian Poems\u003c\/em\u003e. His screenplay,\u003cem\u003e Clair Obscur\u003c\/em\u003e, received honourable mention at the 2009 Alpe Adria TriesteInternational Film Festival. He directs the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory in the Philosophy Faculty of Charles University where he also edits the international arts magazine VLAK. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e220pp. 2015. ISBN 978-1-922181-49-7. \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eAustralian release: July 2015.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eUK \u0026amp; USA release: May 2016.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eCritics on \u003cem\u003eBreakfast at Midnight\u003c\/em\u003e:\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e“A twisted, brilliantly savage acid noir.” – Benjamin Woodard, Numéro Cinq \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e“Armand has done for Prague what Genet achieves in Our Lady of the Flowers .” – Jim Ruland, San Diego City Beat \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eCritics on \u003cem\u003eCanicule\u003c\/em\u003e:\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e“Baudelaire’s mellow ‘living proof of our immortality’ done in the high pulpstyle.” – Richard Marshall, 3:AM Magazine \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e“Armand uses language to paint a picture just as vividly as if we werewatching it unfold on screen.” – Kristen Valentine, Black Heart Review \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eCritics on \u003cem\u003eCairo\u003c\/em\u003e :“A genre defying anti-novel… Like communism it is the movement ofvast majorities unfettered by a state!” – Stewart Home, author of BloodRites of the Bourgeoisie \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e“Unflinching in its portrayal of human greed.” – Sam Jordison, The Guardian\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":1934163588,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/products\/Armand_Abacus_front_cover.jpg?v=1432004786"},{"product_id":"eliza-vitri-handayani-from-now-on-everything-will-be-different","title":"Eliza Vitri Handayani, From Now On Everything Will Be Different","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs democratic reforms swept Indonesia in the late nineties, the nation’s young generation asked themselves: what does it mean to be free? Spanning fifteen years, this novel follows the struggles and hopes, loves and disappointments of two young Indonesians who came of age during Reformasi. Following the entwined paths of Julita and Rizky as they struggle to break free from a pattern of repeated disappointments and define themselves, Handayani presents a portrait of the changing and complex reality of contemporary Indonesia, and of the younger generation born out of revolution. From Now On Everything Will Be Different is a compelling study of freedom and love, community and conformity, told with humour, sensuality and a subtly sharp political intelligence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Handayani represents a new dawn of the Indonesian novel.”\u003cbr\u003e—Manneke Budiman\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“A finely choreographed love story that shadows the larger changes and challenges of life in contemporary Indonesia. It charts the fever and the friction of a relationship, exploring conflicted identities in a complex world, where social pressures push against emerging independence and new freedoms. Sharply designed, intoxicating, reverberant.” —Nicholas Jose\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The protagonists are complicated and full of life, a boy and a girl becoming a man and a woman, and struggling to do it with as much honesty as they can. This novel is about what it is like to come of age at the end of a revolution.” —Ruby J. Murray\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The novel is set against the uncertain politics of contemporary Indonesia, the excesses and failures of which lend a poignant urgency to the characters’ equally clumsy attempts at forging an honest and enduring relationship; as democracy goes (or remains elusive), so does love.”—Jose Dalisay Jr.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEliza Vitri Handayani on the Ubud launch being banned and censorship in \u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.insideindonesia.org\/after-98-censorship-compromises-and-resistance\"\u003eInside Indonesia\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\nEliza Vitri Handayani\u003cbr\u003eFROM NOW ON EVERYTHING WILL BE DIFFERENT\u003cbr\u003e160pp. ISBN 978-1-922181-47-3.  Release date October 2015. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/files\/Eliza_Vitri_Handayani_medium.jpg?14853142074908453507\" style=\"margin-right: 2px; float: left;\"\u003eThis is \u003cstrong\u003eEliza Vitri Handayani\u003c\/strong\u003e’s first novel to be published in English. She has published short stories, essays and translations in leading Indonesian literary outlets as well as in the Asia Literary Review, Griffith Review and Asymptote Journal. In 2004 she won an Anugerah Adikarya from the Indonesian Publishers Association, for best young-adult book. She is the founder of InterSastra, an Indonesian literary translation initiative.\n\n\u003ciframe style=\"width:550px;height:350px\" src=\"https:\/\/online.anyflip.com\/wuapt\/nekq\/index.html\" seamless=\"seamless\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":3246945476,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/products\/9781922181473-Perfect_front.jpg?v=1435021566"},{"product_id":"adam-aitken-100-letters-home","title":"Adam Aitken, One Hundred Letters Home","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the 2021 Patrick White Literary Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeautifully written, tightly structured, \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e is as profoundly moving as it is intelligent and playful. There is the experience here of time's shifting nature, the way me\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"text_exposed_show\"\u003emory, need and desire work across the layers of narrative that shape a life, told, untold, remembered, misremembered and forgotten. Memory's work rolls through Aitken's perfectly measured storytelling, vivid and mesmerising in its detail, in the detours and return, in a work that is as aware socially and politically, as it is compassionate and vulnerable. This is a rare work of memoir, expansive in its cultural scope, in the precision of detail and acceptance of the failures of memory, self and family, common to all of us in their variation. Between laughter and tears, the underlying emotional grit and relentlessness of \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e shifts things, changes you, as Aitken calls to account the past's ongoing presence in how we are to ourselves and each other.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Aitken’s memoir is less about obsessive, biographical exactitude, and more a movement towards excavation and piecing-together fragments into a distinct identity. The book’s rawness is a manifestation of his remembering and recollecting, like a story torn from an old newspaper, or a confession inside a much-folded letter.' Adam Aitken's\u003cem\u003e One Hundred Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e reviewed by Ivy Alvarez in \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/southerlyjournal.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ALVAREZ-of-Aitken-One-Hundred-Letters-Home.pdf\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSoutherly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Adam Aitken’s evocative memoir probes the reasons his father married his mother, an ‘Asian woman’, by researching family history, experimenting with Plots A, B, and C, and intertextual references to Christopher Koch’s 1995 novel \u003cem\u003eHighways to a War\u003c\/em\u003e, Graham Greene’s \u003cem\u003eThe Quiet American\u003c\/em\u003e, and Marcel Proust’s ‘Swann’s Way’ translated into Thai by his uncle. He tests the construction of his hybridity, the notion of his Asian ‘face’ and where it might be welcome, and where and with whom a trans-Asian citizen belongs.\" Gay Lynch, Transnational Literature\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"There is no labyrinth more difficult to thread, no enigma more baffling, than that represented by our own parents; nor any quest for understanding more seductive, indeed necessary, to attempt. In \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e Adam Aitken has accomplished the impossible with grace, acumen, humour, pathos and a beautiful sense of when to stand back and let the story tell—or not tell—itself. He has also given us a unique insight into the Asian-Australian milieu of the second half of the twentieth century. And something else as well: a passionate excursion amongst the perils and illuminations of soul-making.\" Martin Edmond\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'\u003ci\u003eOne Hundred Letters Home\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautiful story that charts what is lost, and what is carried through our chaotic, multi-faceted lives. Always, home is a destination that forms a reference point, while remaining a permanent space of longing, forgiveness and recognition.' \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.compulsivereader.com\/2021\/05\/05\/a-review-of-one-hundred-letters-home-by-adam-aitken\/\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eCompulsive Reader.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.4;\"\u003eAdam Aitken, \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.4;\"\u003e2016. 304pp. ISBN 978-1-922181-04-6. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.4;\"\u003eRelease date: April 2016.\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.4;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/files\/AdamAitken_medium.jpg?7961921651604523270\" style=\"margin-right: 2px; float: left;\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAdam Aitken\u003c\/strong\u003e is a London-born teacher and writer who migrated to Sydney after spending his early childhood in Thailand and Malaysia. He has published five full length collections of poetry. \u003cem\u003eIn One House\u003c\/em\u003e, nominated in the Australian as one of the best poetry collections for 1996;  \u003cem\u003eRomeo and Juliet in Subtitles\u003c\/em\u003e shortlisted for the John Bray South Australian Literary Festival Award, and runner-up for The Age Book of the Year poetry prize; \u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eEighth Habitation\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e (Giramondo Publishing) shortlisted for the same award in 2010, and most recently Archipelago, shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Award for 2018. In 2021, Adam Aitken received the Patrick White Literary Award.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis writing shows a deep interest in contemporary cultural issues, especially issues of Asian-Australian identity and cultural hybridity.  His work has been translated into French, Swedish, German, Polish, Malay and Mandarin, and is published internationally. In 2010-11 he spend time as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Hawaii, and Poet in Residence at the Keesing Studio in Paris. He co-edited the contemporary Asian Australian Poets anthology (Puncher \u0026amp; Wattmann) in 2013. His creative non-fiction work includes \u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e (Vagabond Press 2016). \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":3247077380,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/products\/AitkenFC.jpg?v=1435022789"},{"product_id":"beth-yahp-the-red-pearl-other-stories","title":"Beth Yahp, The Red Pearl and Other Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eThe Red Pearl and Other Stories \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eis an invitation from an idiosyncratic but endearing bunch of misfits and outsiders to travel to emotional sites just beyond our GPS coordinates. Welcome to Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Namche Bazaar – but also to unnamed, weirdly recognizable spaces of desire, anxiety or nightmare. Here, race riots unfold in 1960s Malaysia; an ‘Asian’ student faces ‘Go home’ graffiti on incessant train rides around Sydney; dogs in love twirl and tumble in the high mountains of Nepal. Here, too, is the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eparallel Gothic world of the Shanghai Bar, where an Orientalist seductress bites back; and the concrete world of expatriate Kuala Lumpur where Dragon Princes and spirit travellers can also be found. Here is a vision of Sydney at its mythical best: golden, shaded in jacaranda blossoms and offering benevolent asylum to an array of newcomers and old hands. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMoving between genres and cultures, the stories in this collection capture moments of intensity and yearning, points of turbulence or rest in the lives of characters who inhabit a globalised world. Their quest is for new arrangements of family, home, friendship and workplaces; new ways of living and loving in a rapidly changing world. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Red Pearl and Other Stories \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis award-winning novelist Beth Yahp’s first collection of short stories.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Beth Yahp is one of the finest contemporary writers and an important voice from the Asia-Pacific region. She is a rich and accomplished stylist—something unusual in Australian writing—an enticing storyteller and a deft conjurer of marvellous complex worlds, part real, part remembered or imagined. Yahp’s settings range widely—Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Paris—as do her characters, whose stories reach far back in time as the protagonists in successive generations traverse extraordinary personal and social change. They are travellers, writers, lovers, sailors, ancestors, young women stepping out into the world and remaking themselves, often under pressure and in the face of societal hostility. Like the sailor in ‘The Red Pearl’, this author is ‘voluptuous with the stories in [her] head’. In this collection she shares those stories with the reader, with a high degree of art, innovation and witty, passionate critique. She has an exceptional capacity for revealing observation and detail. Publication of Beth Yahp’s stories in book form in the ideal context of Vagabond Press promises to introduce her to a new generation of readers, many of them young people who are themselves experiencing the issues of identity, dislocation and divided belonging that the author explores.” – Nicholas Jose\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReviews of Beth's memoir \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.randomhouse.com.au\/authors\/beth-yahp.aspx\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eEat first, talk later\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e out from Penguin Random House 2015:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Remember the promising young Sydney writer who in 1993 produced a spirit-haunted story of three generations of women in Malaya, Malaysia and Australia? What became of her? Beth Yahp went walkabout, reappearing occasionally in short fiction, journalism, editing, broadcasting, and opera libretto; teaching, travelling in south-east Asia and living in Europe. Now, surely too young to write a memoir, she’s back with a full-length book, yet still excavating the generation gap. Sharpened by her travels, her wit perforates the hot air balloons of history and politics in Australia and Malaysia. Promoted as a foodie, travel, family book, this is a cut above them [… filled with] many meals Yahp lovingly describes. Family histories fascinate if they are about people you know or would like to, and whose voices you can hear, as with Yahp’s. [… Her] sentimental journey with her ageing parents meets neither her expectations, nor theirs, nor those of readers hoping for a foodie travelogue. What she is really seeking is more complex: her place as a citizen of the multiracial world, a chosen companion, and their chosen country.\" – Alison Broinowski, \u003cem\u003eSydney Morning Herald\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"This sprawling memoir is a bit of a buffet - a huge array, beautifully dished up. You wander back and forth through the simultaneous storylines: Yahp's own life and lovers, her parents' enduring relationship, life on the Malay Peninsula since WWII and the development of the modern state. Yahp has lived and worked in Malaysia, Paris and Sydney, but can't seem to define her home, although she wants to follow her tastebuds. The best course is when she dishes up some home truths about our northern neighbour, on corruption and the public peace that is achieved through repression of individuals and information. The contrast with the careless freedoms of Australian society are enough to make you feel queasy.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e– Robyn Douglass, \u003cem\u003eAdelaide Advertiser\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Beth Yahp’s beautifully crafted memoir of her ancestors, her parents, and herself is shaped around journeys criss-crossing the Malay Peninsula where her Siamese-speaking Eurasian mother and her Hakka Chinese father met and married in 1961. […] Yahp persuades her ageing parents to return home to Kuala Lumpur from Honolulu for a road trip around their country so that she can begin to decode their lives and, along the way, bring her own into focus. She illuminates a world where Malaysian politics are increasingly corrupt, where censorship is rife and activism dangerous. […] \u003cem\u003eEat First, Talk Later\u003c\/em\u003e ranges widely across the region’s long and troubled history and politics, its gloriously multifaceted culture, each segment vivid and packed with information. This is also a book about writing a book. We watch Yahp nutting out various drafts, jotting down scraps of talk, writing her version of her parents’ lives, driving through the traffic of the Peninsula, managing her turbulent love life and episodes of activism in Sydney and Kuala Lumpur over meals and good talk – […] all skillfully weighted like a brilliant patchwork. – Hilary McPhee, \u003cem\u003eAustralian Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘\u003c\/strong\u003eIt has been a good year for memoirs that expand into philosophy and history, without losing the inflection of personal experience. […]Beth Yahp's \u003cem\u003eEat First, Talk Later\u003c\/em\u003e (Random House) returns Beth to Malaysia where she invites her parents on a road trip that becomes an untangling of stories: family, political, historical, personal. Three absorbing reads.’ – Drusilla Modjeska, \u003cem\u003eCanberra Times, \u003c\/em\u003e‘The Books We Loved’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBeth Yahp\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in Malaysia and came to Australia in 1984. She has lived in Sydney, Kuala Lumpur and Paris. Her novel \u003cem\u003eThe Crocodile Fury\u003c\/em\u003e won the Victorian Premier’s Prize for First Fiction and the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission Award in Australia, and was translated and published in several European languages. Beth wrote the libretto for composer Liza Lim’s contemporary opera \u003cem\u003eMoon Spirit Feasting\u003c\/em\u003e, which won the APRA award for Best Classical Composition in 2002. Her short fiction, essays and articles have appeared in Australia, South-east Asia and Europe, and she has edited or co-edited several collections of stories and essays. Beth has taught creative writing for many years, and currently lectures in the Creative Writing program at the University of Sydney. She presented \u003cem\u003eElsewhere,\u003c\/em\u003e a radio program for travellers on ABC Radio National (2010-11) and founded the popular Memoir Club at the Randwick Literary Institute in Sydney. Her hybrid memoir \u003cem\u003eEat First, Talk Later \u003c\/em\u003ewas published by Penguin Random House in 2015.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Beth Yahp, \u003cem\u003eThe Red Pearl and Other Stories\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2017. 224pp. ISBN 978-1-922181-51-0\u003cbr\u003eRelease date: July 15, 2017.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"page\" title=\"Page 13\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"layoutArea\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"column\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/files\/aca_logo_horizontal_large_rgb-543227504d3b3_medium.jpg?v=1501372188\" style=\"float: none;\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ciframe style=\"width:550px;height:350px\" src=\"https:\/\/online.anyflip.com\/wuapt\/mubw\/index.html\" seamless=\"seamless\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":14399666116,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/products\/9781922181510-Perfect_Yahp_TRP_Front.jpg?v=1494829553"},{"product_id":"copy-of-beth-yahp-the-red-pearl-other-stories","title":"Beth Yahp, The Crocodile Fury","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eVagabond Press are proud to re-release Beth Yahp's first novel \u003cem\u003eThe Crocodile Fury\u003c\/em\u003e in 2017.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSet in a convent school on a jungle-covered hill on the outskirts of a Southeast Asian city, \u003cem\u003eThe Crocodile Fury\u003c\/em\u003e follows the fortunes of three generations: the grandmother who was a bonded servant when the convent was a rich man's mansion; the mother who works each day in the convent laundry; and the girl who tells the story. Filled with naughty convent girls, a ‘ghostchasing’ grandmother and stories of mysterious sea creatures and a Lizard Boy who grows into a fierce anti-colonial jungle fighter, Yahp’s novel was first published in Australia in 1992. ‘Serpentine and lithe… distinguished by Yahp's mischievous wit and wondrously spirited storytelling’ \u003cem\u003e(The Age),\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Crocodile Fury\u003c\/em\u003e is also ‘a novel of wonders... rich with magic, secrets, dragons, curses, ghosts and most importantly stories’\u003cem\u003e(Australian Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e). It won the Victorian Premier’s Prize for First Fiction and the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission Award and has been translated into several languages.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Yahp skillfully spins a yarn about her native Malaysia. The tale recounts the lives of three generations of women in a family—the narrator, a cloistered convent school girl; the girl's unlucky mother, who does laundry for the convent; and the girl's grandmother, a servant to the rich man who had lived in the mansion that later became the convent. The grandmother stars in this tale, and shares her expertise on the topic of 'ghostchasing', with her granddaughter: 'Never fit your body into the natural curves and hollows of the earth or rocks or trees for these are the resting places of spirits, who won't appreciate being sat on, or coming back to find you there.' Yahp's lyrical novel blends sensory impressions and superstitious lore. While facts are repeated without moving the plot forward and aspects of the plot go unexplained (why is the girl's bullying school pal so important to the grandmother?), the story vividly and rhythmically evokes a society where Eastern traditions continuously clash with those imposed by the West. Muses the girl about her history, \"The stories we unearth are like the ruined fountains and garden statues we stumble over, showing only their broken pieces, their missing bits.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'A novel of wonders... rich with magic, secrets, dragons, curses, ghosts and most importantly, stories’ \u003ci\u003eAustralian Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003e'Yahp's storytelling is serpentine and lithe... Stories rise, tease, then slip away, only to resurface later. As the interlocking stories edge forward, together they become a grand narrative front moving to an elaborate choreography... Distinguished by Yahp's mischievous wit and wondrously spirited storytelling of unearthly things.’ \u003ci\u003eThe Age\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003e‘Yahp’s first novel is a knock-out.’ \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eSydney Morning Herald\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'A beautiful piece of writing’ \u003ci\u003eThe Australian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003e'A chimera of story spiralling into other stories... blurs the lines between memory and proof, between Gothic Romance and magic realism... Sinewy yet succulent; demanding but rewarding—a book to be relished.’ \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eScotland on Sunday\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This rich, evocative and slowly unravelling tale has much of the flavour and style of Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. If you like them, you’ll love Beth Yahp’s first novel.’ \u003ci\u003eAustralian Women’s Forum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘I’ve gotten word-drunk on Beth Yahp’s \u003ci\u003eThe Crocodile Fury\u003c\/i\u003e... (Its) offbeat sensibilities and the chewiness of language have a marked affinity with E. Annie Proulx’ \u003ci\u003eSeattle Union Record\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Le projet de Yahp n’est pas d’un historien, mais bien d’un écrivain passionné… L’allégorie, ici, ce sont les spectres, un outil, attesté par toute la littérature fantastique et que l’auteur utilise avec une maîtrise exceptionnelle…cette œuvre considérable et brillamment traduite—(est) une leçon sur l’usage du merveilleux en littérature…’ \u003ci\u003eLe Monde\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Magnifique premier roman… Beth Yahp déroule ce beau récit à la poésie âpre et violente, mêlé d’humour et de noirceur, gorgé d’images, d’odeurs et de murmures.’ \u003ci\u003eLes Inrockuptibles\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeth Yahp was born in Malaysia and came to Australia in 1984. She has lived in Sydney, Kuala Lumpur and Paris. Her novel \u003cem\u003eThe Crocodile Fury\u003c\/em\u003e won the Victorian Premier’s Prize for First Fiction and the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission Award in Australia, and was translated and published in several European languages. Beth wrote the libretto for composer Liza Lim’s contemporary opera \u003cem\u003eMoon Spirit Feasting\u003c\/em\u003e, which won the APRA award for Best Classical Composition in 2002. Her short fiction, essays and articles have appeared in Australia, South-east Asia and Europe, and she has edited or co-edited several collections of stories and essays. Beth has taught creative writing for many years, and currently lectures in the Creative Writing program at the University of Sydney. She presented \u003cem\u003eElsewhere,\u003c\/em\u003e a radio program for travellers on ABC Radio National (2010-11) and founded the popular Memoir Club at the Randwick Literary Institute in Sydney. Her hybrid memoir \u003cem\u003eEat First, Talk Later \u003c\/em\u003ewas published by Penguin Random House in 2015.\u003c\/p\u003e\nBeth Yahp, \u003cem\u003eThe Crocodile Fury\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2017. 416pp. ISBN 978-1-922181-33-6\u003cbr\u003eRelease date: July 15.\n\n\u003ciframe style=\"width:550px;height:350px\" src=\"https:\/\/online.anyflip.com\/wuapt\/upeb\/index.html\" seamless=\"seamless\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":14399688196,"sku":"","price":30.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/products\/9781922181336-_Yahp_TCF_front_6.jpg?v=1494829602"},{"product_id":"sybille-smith-mothertongue","title":"Sybille Smith, Mothertongue","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom street dogs of Buenos Aires to street cars of Vienna, from Sydney in the1940’s to the puzzles of return journeys and the enigmas of ageing, these precisely observed and finely crafted essays are by turns moving, funny and profound.  More than a memoir, they are an investigation of the act of remembering and the intricate part language plays in retrieving the past:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThere is a sort of continuous band of surface memory, registering daily events and able to deliver a printout at any time. There is a deeper level of archival data, which you can scroll through for a specific piece of information. And there is cutting a hole in the ice and lowering a line into the black water.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese pieces are both entertaining and thought-provoking, and reveal a unique voice among contemporary essayists.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSybille Gottwald was born in Vienna and came to Sydney in 1938 with her family. They settled on a small block of land in West Pennant Hills. From Hornsby Girls’ High School she attended the University of Sydney, where she studied German and English Literature. She was subsequently appointed  lecturer in German at the University of Tasmania, where she met her husband, the poet Vivian Smith. She lived in Hobart until she returned in the late 1960s to live in Sydney with her husband  and their three children. Her study, \u003ci\u003eInside Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e, appeared in 1985, and a long essay, Art and the Experience of Randomness, was published in the collection \u003ci\u003eOn Being Human\u003c\/i\u003e in 1990. Over the years various essays and reviews have appeared in the Hobart Mercury, the \u003ci\u003eSydney Bulletin, Quadrant, Southerly\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eBest Australian Essays \u003c\/i\u003e2013 and 2014.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eMemoir\/Essays\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e2016 | ISBN 9781922181909 | \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e203 x 133 mm\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e | 100 pp  \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ciframe style=\"width:550px;height:350px\" src=\"https:\/\/online.anyflip.com\/wuapt\/roem\/index.html\" seamless=\"seamless\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":20468208132,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/products\/9781922181909_Front_Smith.jpg?v=1466036522"},{"product_id":"marian-macken-our-concealed-ballast","title":"Marian Macken, Our Concealed Ballast","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Situated in ‘a strange liminal time between a death and a birth’,\u003cem\u003e Our Concealed Ballast \u003c\/em\u003eis a bracingly hybrid work that combines elements of memoir, personal essay and art criticism. Built from a series of discontinuous passages, Marian Macken’s book reinvigorates what it means to ‘hold space’ for others — as a parent and an architect — in the wake of bereavement. Yet it is also a work concerned with time, chronicling the ways that grief and anticipation texture the present’s ongoingness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a significant achievement to introduce, as this book does, a new spatio-temporal vocabulary for understanding and processing the experience of loss. This includes its formal fragmentation: each of its passages provides a temporary habitation, while the cuts between them activate a sense of dislocation and unmooring — as well as the possibility of another chronology. With poise and imagination, Macken has probed an almost unbearable gulf between moving and moving on.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the 2024 NSW Premier's Literary Awards\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDouglas Stewart Award for Non-Fiction Judges' comments\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The opening of this book slaps the reader in the face with an impossible loss, a giant yet stealthy explosion. The shrapnel of grief caused by this event scatters throughout the rest of the book’s pages. Macken is interested in motherhood, in people, places, and spaces. How we shape the world around us and are shaped by it.’ \u003cbr\u003eELIZABETH ALLEN in \u003cem\u003eThe Village Observer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003ci style=\"caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.666667px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.666667px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: black;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"color: black;\"\u003eOur Concealed Ballast \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none; color: black;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none; color: black;\"\u003eweaves together reflections on motherhood, grief, attachment, and the moments that mark our movements through the world. It is a study of loss, its dimensions and atmosphere, and how these change over decades. A house on the river with a frangipani; an archive of drawings; a photograph taken by a father; a post office in West Harlem – the book pins together intimate moments and places which resonate to become a way of relating to the world. Renewing the memoir form within a spatial logic, passages communicating elusive ideas are precisely placed; these gather to deliver an emotionally taut reading across each spread of facing pages. Macken’s voice is direct and sparse, visceral and passionate, as she digs into the meaning and structure of the personal archive that we carry through life – the ballast of emotion and solace which keeps us steady. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A profound exploration of subjectivity and space, relatedness and grief. Macken’s prose is a controlled—and clarifying—burn.’\u003cbr\u003eSARAH KRASNOSTEIN\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A brave reckoning with unimaginable loss interspersed with vignettes of art, architecture, books and the unpacking of memory. Its intricate construction of place, time and grief is profoundly moving.’\u003cbr\u003eCHRIS BARTON\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMarian Macken\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a writer, researcher, educator and artist \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003etrained in architecture, landscape architecture and visual art\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. Born in Sydney, Australia, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMacken is Associate Professor at Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWaipapa Taumata Rau \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eUniversity of Auckland, New Zealand.  Her creative practice research and writing\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e primarily focus on architectural drawing. Her work has been acquired by various international public collections of artists’ books and she has undertaken funded artist residencies and exhibited internationally. Her book \u003cem\u003eBinding Space: The Book as Spatial Practice\u003c\/em\u003e was published as part of the Routledge Design Research in Architecture series in 2018. Her next book,\u003cem\u003e Bodies and Space in Architectural Drawing: Line, Movement and Scale\u003c\/em\u003e, co-authored with Carl Douglas, will be published as part of Bloomsbury’s Drawing In series.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMarian Macken, Our Concealed Ballast\u003cbr\u003eAugust 2023. 148mm x 210mm. 112pp. \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eISBN 978-1-925735-51-2\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis project has been assisted by Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/files\/UoALogoWhite4ColLandscape_240x240.png?v=1687231617\" style=\"margin-bottom: 16px; float: none;\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42833115480221,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/files\/Macken_cover.jpg?v=1687819378"},{"product_id":"caitlin-farrugia-search-histories","title":"Caitlin Farrugia, Search Histories","description":"\u003cp\u003eGoogle is our friend, our guide and our priest. With 8.5 billion Google searches everyday, 99,000 happening right this second, we are a symphony of the stressed and self-pitying, constantly asking for validation and reassurance. This collection is what it means to be alive today even if it’s, \u003cem\u003eWhere will my money go if I have no family?\u003c\/em\u003e or \u003cem\u003eEd Sheeran hair\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGenre-defying, raucous and elliptical, \u003cem\u003eSearch Histories\u003c\/em\u003e is a collection of short (short) prose about what people google in a specific time of their lives, however significant or mundane. Epigrammatic, wicked, and hilarious, composed only of what people might have typed into Google, this book is a look at our fears, existential wonders, suffering and inconsequential streams of consciousness. This collection of vignettes shows just how boring but funny the monotony of everyday life is through characters dealing with identity struggle, loneliness, burnout, financial stress, strained relationships, spiralling worry, sadness and desperation. \u003cem\u003eSearch Histories\u003c\/em\u003e is all about humanity’s insecurities, \u003cem\u003eDo chicks like dudes in leather jackets\u003c\/em\u003e, curiosities, \u003cem\u003epics of boobs women\u003c\/em\u003e, and vulnerabilities, \u003cem\u003eHas anyone else said sorry to a chair leg before reddit\u003c\/em\u003e. In a time of capitalising on our hobbies and incessant self-curation, private Google searches are perhaps the closest we get to a real portrayal of a person. Mostly funny, at times sad because it’s true, \u003cem\u003eSearch Histories\u003c\/em\u003e shows that people today are chronic overthinkers desperately hunting for the answers to: Who am I and is it ok?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThere is the laughter of recognition as insecurities and oddities pop up that many of us have either searched for online or thought about searching. There is the utter delight of wild searches from people we will never know but about whose lives we gain hilarious insight. The collection is equally moving. Mini narratives around loss and grief, anxiety and hope are heart-achingly poignant. Yet there is nothing sentimental or saccharine in this work. It is a documentation of human yearning and our very real vulnerabilities. \u003cstrong\u003eEmilie Collyer\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCaitlin Farrugia is a dark comedy writer and school teacher for education reform. Fascinated by people’s choices, behaviours, and (lack of) self-awareness, as well as intergenerational everything and absurdism. Her work is always about people and their everyday experiences that are often mundane but relatable. Mostly everything is funny, mostly everything is sad. Search Histories is her debut collection.\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCaitlin Farrugia, \u003cem\u003eSearch Histories\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2024. 148mm x 210mm. 112pp.\u003cbr\u003eISBN 978-1-925735-63-5\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/files\/CreativeAustraliaLogo_HorizontalBlack_Medium_306d6307-95f0-44ae-b87e-e933241d9921_480x480.png?v=1701428706\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44163406528669,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/files\/Farrugia_SearchHistories.png?v=1701428304"},{"product_id":"d-frederick-thomas-exhibition-text","title":"D.Frederick Thomas, Exhibition Text","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor readers out of Australia, especially the US, you might want to order via \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Exhibition-Text-Frederick-D-Thomas\/dp\/1925735737\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1K565YY5UDMI9\u0026amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8rLdzgwu5Db1fO7rDRX7dyn7dcTeEJ29xp9w1OPxPEU38cXtdy4escH4GRf7DnjM6m0fKPrR6zUvKaBafLyPJJW42DWB-irLZ_dVpH96_g2dO91zMsx6yajctqkdY07Ujzfygs_MOKJ_gqkaY6eyssMRFgd3yzBunbbgVCzR5X9zeoZUWzH-ZlmchDougK_zf3Kh6pGjIo7GqZQvEKcBFX8avZ3KrTSvRUIKj8LSF4Y.qVd7uA-yY40H3nSUdcfS82ih0H3Z24jH_Ni9mtj56Ho\u0026amp;dib_tag=se\u0026amp;keywords=D.+Frederick+Thomas\u0026amp;qid=1728700957\u0026amp;sprefix=d.+frederick+thom%2Cspecialty-aps%2C323\u0026amp;sr=8-1\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/a.co\/d\/9yEOFHt\"\u003eAmazon\u003c\/a\u003e to save on postage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInvited by a formerly estranged friend to write about her enigmatic new artwork for an upcoming show, an unnamed narrator makes the journey from Brisbane to Baltimore hoping to make sense of things both past and present. Following the strange logic of a Möbius strip, Thomas’s debut grapples with the question of how to move through the world when one’s sense of self is suddenly and fundamentally fractured. Recalling the early work of poet-novelist Paul Auster, and coupled with rare vulnerability, humour and great charm, \u003cem\u003eExhibition Text\u003c\/em\u003e is a deeply layered investigation into the nature of self, reality, art and perception. Thomas magically balances contemporary anxiety and a deep existential curiosity to conjure moments of radiant insight and a profound, very human beauty in a debut that will quickly establish Thomas as a unique and essential voice among the emerging generation of Australian writers of experimental fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOriginally from Philadelphia, D.Frederick Thomas is a Brisbane-based Australian writer and artist whose work has appeared in publications such as \u003cem\u003eFence, Heavy Feather Review \u003c\/em\u003eand\u003cem\u003e Island\u003c\/em\u003e. In 2023, Thomas’s collection Work Poems was shortlisted for the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eD.Frederick Thomas, \u003cem\u003eExhibition Text\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOctober 2024. 129mm x 198mm. 96pp.\u003cbr\u003eISBN 978-1-925735-73-4\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\" data-mce-style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"margin-bottom: 16px; float: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/files\/CreativeAustraliaLogo_HorizontalBlack_Medium_306d6307-95f0-44ae-b87e-e933241d9921_480x480.png?v=1701428706\" data-mce-style=\"margin-bottom: 16px; float: none;\" data-mce-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/files\/CreativeAustraliaLogo_HorizontalBlack_Medium_306d6307-95f0-44ae-b87e-e933241d9921_480x480.png?v=1701428706\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45741661028509,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/files\/Thomascover.png?v=1721773818"}],"url":"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/ja\/collections\/prose.oembed","provider":"Vagabond Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}