CONGRATULATIONS



Spinifex is proud to announce that Lara Fergus's novel My Sister Chaos, won the Publishing Triangle's Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction!

FORTHCOMING: MAY



The Unfinished Revolution: Voices from the Global Fight for Women's Rights edited by Minky Worden, tells the story of the global struggle to secure basic rights for women and girls, including in the Middle East where the Arab Spring raised high hopes, but the political revolutions are so far insufficient to guarantee progress. In The Unfinished Revolution we hear over 30 voices - Nobel Prize Laureate, leading activists, top policy makers, and former victims, offering bold new approaches to problems affecting hundreds of millions of women.



The Lace Makers of Narsapur by Marie Mies, is a sensitive and ground-breaking study of women at the beginning of the process of globalisation. Maria Mies in this book, first published in 1982, looks at the way in which women are dispossessed by producing luxury goods for the Western market and simultaneously not counted as workers or producers in their fragmented workplaces. Instead they are defined as ‘non-working housewives’ and their work as ‘leisure-time activity’. The rates of pay are far below acceptable levels resulting in accelerating pauperisation and a rapid deterioration in their position in Indian society.

EVENTS

As part of the University of Wollongong's Faculty of Creative Arts Public Event Series, Spinifex Director Susan Hawthorne will be presenting a postgraduate lecture-reading: Writing the Body and Ecology.
When: 3-4.30pm, April 24th
Where: University of Wollongong, Room 25, 163
For further information please contact the University of Wollongong

Lara Fergus will be reading from her Lambda-nominated novel, My Sister Chaos at the San Francisco Public Library on April 24, reception starts at 5pm and author readings at 6pm.

Francesca Rendle-Short, author of Bite Your Tongue, will be taking part in the 2012 Emerging Writers' Festival, in a discussion with fellow memoirist Luke Ryan. Francesca and Luke will be talking about the challenges and opportunities of 'life writing', their publishing journeys and answering audience questions at the end of their discussion.
When: 12.30pm, Sunday May 27th
Cost: $75 and a conference pass
For more details, check the EWF website

Dr. Susan Hawthorne will be part of the Independent Publishing Panel at the 2012 Emerging Writers' Festival.
When: 4-6pm, Wednesday 30th May
For more details, check the EWF website



Tongues in Flight: Unravelling Mother Stories and Convent Mysteries
Conversation with Francesca Rendle-Short and Patricia Sykes at Glen Eira Town Hall. In this unique event, two Spinifex authors will read from their latest works and share their experiences of finding their story telling voices through poetry and fiction, interspersed with memoir.
When: Saturday June 23rd, 2pm Glen Eira Town Hall Theatrette
Keep checking the Glen Eira City Council website for more information and booking details

Radio National's Poetica program will be conducting a poetry reading from The Abbotsford Mysteries, followed by an interview with poet Patricia Sykes.
When: 12th May, 3pm

Melinda Tankard Reist will be speaking at Mumbrella360 (Mumbrella observes and comments on "everything under Australia’s media, marketing & entertainment umbrella"). Melinda will be trying to persuade the audience that too much advertising crosses the line.
When: Mumbrella360 takes place on June 6 and 7
Tickets: Earlybird tickets are available on the conference website until the end of next week

NEWS WRAP

Sue Terry from Whispering Gums book blog reviewed Merlinda Bobis's Fish-Hair Woman.

Fish-Hair Woman also received a wonderful review from Verity La, who called Bobis "a talented, passionate writer who is unafraid of exploring the storytelling potential of the novel."

Merlinda Bobis appeared on Pilipino SBS radio, you can now listen to the interview.

Melinda Tankard Reist wrote a powerful opinion piece for the National Times, 'Sex Sells, but we're selling out our children'. In the piece, Melinda argued that "children are absorbing distorted messages about their bodies, sexuality and gender roles because the Advertising Standards Board does not consider objectification of women contrary to prohibitions on discrimination and vilification."

BLOGS

Check out our blogs page for some thought provoking reading. Gail Jones piece is taken from her launch speech for Fish-Hair Woman, showing a deep understanding and appreciation of the book.

Pat Rosier in her piece 'God, the mother and the book' looks at both the similarities and the different styles in Francesca Rendle Shorts Bite Your Tongue and Jeanette Winterson's Why be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

In Helen Lobato's piece 'The Precariat', she examines the meaning of the word the precariat, a term she first came across in Maria Mies book The Lace Makers of Narsapur and the situation that many Australians face in the workforce today.

New Spinifex intern, Veronica Sullivan, wrote a blog weighing in on the axing of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. She interviewed Francesca Rendle-Short, whose book, Bite Your Tongue, is all about growing up during Queensland's last conservative, art-less era under Bjelke-Petersen. Read 'Writers refuse to bite their tongues'.


HUNGRY FOR MORE?

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