Susan Hawthorne, author of last year's Earth's Breath, will be giving two readings in San Francisco this month.

Solo event at The Sitting Room, 16 June

Susan will be giving poetry reading, discussion on feminist publishing and more. The Sitting Room is a semi-private library devoted to women's writings and a community center for writers and reader.

The Sitting Room: A Community Library
l70 E. Cotati Ave. Cotati CA 94931
Potluck food from 6 p.m. Event begins at 7 p.m. 

Montclair Women's Cultural Arts Club, 17 June

Susan is speaking as part of the program at the Montclair Women's Cultural Arts Club on the night of the 17 June.

Montclair Women's Cultural Arts Club
1650 Mountain Blvd. Oakland, CA. 94611
Tel: 510-339-1832
Doors open 7.00 pm, event begins 7.30 p.m.

Lesley Thomson's book A Kind of Vanishing is a finalist for the People's Book Prize! We at Spinifex are crossing our fingers for her.

Voting for the prize is open, and if you fancy you can vote here.

Getting Real editor Melinda Tankard Reist has written a blogpost on Maggie Hamilton's new book What's Happening to Our Boys?. Maggie contributed a chapter to Getting Real entitled, "The Seducation of Girls: The Human Cost".

Ariel Salleh, editor of Eco-Sufficiency & Global Justice, has a new article up on On Line Opinion about Labor's proposed resource tax. Ariel asks, 'Could Labor's proposed resource tax open the door for a “green new deal” or even “a new social contract” for Australians?'

You can read the article, 'Resource tax? Green new deal? Or new social contract?' on the On Line Opinion website.

Spinifex author Kathleen Barry has written on the Israeli flotilla for On Line Opinion. Kathleen's forthcoming book, Unmaking War, Remaking Men will be available as a print and eBook in October.

Read the latest editorial from Meanjin's Sophie Cunningham, inspired by hearing Luce Irigaray and reflecting on the women's voices, images and thoughts being ignored in contemporary Australian life and culture. Re-posted at our blog.

Betty McClellan discusses her new book, Unspeakable: A Feminist Ethic of Speech with Spinifex director, Susan Hawthorne at Readings Carlton on Mon 24 May, 6.30pm. For more details visit the Readings website. Unspeakable is published as a print book by OtherWise Publishing and as an eBook by Spinifex - out next month!

Where eBooks tread, metadata will follow. We've been writing lots of metadata for all of our books recently, and Susan Hawthorne has written a poem about it. You can find it at our blog.

Congratulations to Jordie Albiston for winning the 2010 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry for the collection, The Sonnet According to 'M'.

Jordie's Body in Time/Nervous Arcs garnered wonderful reviews when it was published by Spinifex in 1995, such as this one from Janette Turner Hospital: ‘Jordie Albiston writes with sharp intelligence, lyrical grace and moral passion.’

Spinifex authors Melinda Tankard Reist and Ariel Salleh are both featured in this month's Arena magazine.

In an editorial on pornification, Alison Caddick states, "The term ‘pornification’ has recently been given prominence in books by Melinda Tankard Reist and others" referring to Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls, edited by Tankard Reist.

Elsewhere in the magazine, Ariel Salleh, author of Eco-Sufficiency & Global Justice evaluates "green deals" asking if they are a new way of doing business or just business as usual.