NEW RELEASE

 

A new poetry collection from Susan Hawthorne, Lupa and Lamb! These imagist poems combines mythology, archaeology and translation. Susan Hawthorne draws on the history and prehistory of Rome and its neighbours to explore how the past is remembered. Under the guidance of Curatrix, Director of the Musæum Matricum, and Latin poet, Sulpicia, travellers Diana and Agnese are led through the mythic archives about wolves and sheep before attending an epoch-breaking party to which they are invited by Empress Livia.

Singer/Songwriter Kavisha Mazzella says of Lupa and Lamb; "bones and museum artefacts lose their dryness, become fully fleshed and whisper their stories intimately in your ear. Here the full pagan glory of Italy meets the inquisitive and absorbing gaze of Australian poet Susan Hawthorne’s eye. Heartbreaking, sensual and unexpectedly funny." 

Lupa and Lamb will be released in August, and will be officially launched at the Melbourne Writers Festival! 

CATALOGUE



Spinifex has a new 2014-2015 catalogue! You can view it online here, or email publicity@spinifexpress.com.au and request a copy be sent to you in the mail! 

EVENTS



It's nearly that glorious time of year again - when the City of Literature rolls out the Melbourne Writers Festival! 

There are plenty of Spinifex authors in attendance this year, but you'd better snap tickets up because they're selling fast.

 

Olivera Simić will be launching her book Surviving Peace: A political memoir on Fri 22 Aug 5.30pm. Olivera will also be participating in The Morning Read on Sat 23 Aug 10am.
For details of all her events, click here.

 

Susan Hawthorne will be launching her new poetry collection, Lupa and Lamb, on Sun 24 Aug 2.30pm. Susan will also be participating in the session Three Poets, along with Terry Jaensch and Jakob Ziguras on Sun 24 Aug 1pm.
For details of all her events, click here.

 

Francesca Rendle-Short (author of Bite Your Tongue) is part of the session Writers Across Borders, a program of reciprocal cultural exchange and cultural immersion focused on writers and writing. 
For details of all her events, click here.

 

Spinifex author Kajsa Ekis Ekman will be speaking at the Sydney Opera Houses's Festival of Dangerous Ideas. 

Kajsa will do a Keynote on surrogacy (30 August) and also be on a panel on prostitution (with Lydia Cacho) on 31 August. 

Kajsa is the author of Being and Being Bought: Prostitution, Surrogacy and the Split Self, and her keynote 'Surrogacy is Child Trafficking' promises to be an enlightening and thought-provoking event: Surrogacy—or contract pregnancy—has become a global industry, growing at unprecedented speed. In India alone, this industry is valued at over US$450 million per year. Whereas the sex industry is increasingly targeted by legislators as exploitation, the surrogacy industry retains a rosy image. Helping an infertile couple to have a baby of their own is seen as a generous and compassionate gesture from a woman who can help: a sign of female empowerment and free will. In this way, everyone can have their own genetic children without having to undergo pregnancy, and poor women can earn some extra money. It looks like a win-win situation. But is it? At a closer glance, the surrogacy industry has more to do with prostitution than we might think. Not only is it exploitation of women's bodies—in fact surrogacy is nothing but baby trade.

Multipacks go on sale 30 June 
Single tickets go on sale 2 July


AUTHOR NEWS

 

khulud khamis is a forthcoming Spinifex author, her novel Haifa Fragments will be released in 2015. khulud is a Palestinian writer, born to a Slovak mother and a Palestinian father. She lives in Haifa with her daughter, and has been documenting her experiences within broader socio-political contexts on her blog Haifa Fieldnotes ... lately, of course, she has been writing about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Among her most recent entries, is a personal account of what happened when a group of Haifa feminist activists gathered for a peaceful protest march is particularly terrifying. Being pelted with large stones and hearing people chant “death to Arabs” and “death to leftists" over and over again. 

Haifa Fragments is the story of Maisoon, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who refuses to be crushed by the feeling that she is an unwelcome guest in the land of her ancestors. You can read more about this forthcoming book in our catalogue, and do keep reading khulud's Haifa Fieldnotes. 



Gail Dines, the author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, wrote a wonderful piece for the Huffington Post discussing the misleading advertising in the Fifty Shades of Grey theatrical trailer. "'Fifty Shades of Black and Blue' is a good assessment of this book now movie," writes Dines. 

Fore more commentary on the EL James book, read Susan Hawthorne's blog Shades of Grey: What now that BDSM has gone mainstream?


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