Author Archives: Maddy Sexton

ANNOUNCEMENT: Nunga Anthology, A new opportunity for First Nations creatives

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(Alt image ID: white text on an abstract background of swirling colour. Text reads: Announcing a new opportunity for First Nations creatives. Nunga Anthology: Poetry, short stories, graphic stories. Edited by Karen Wyld and Dominic Guerrera. Submissions close Monday 18 September 2023. For more information, visit www.wakefieldpress.com.au/blog)

(Alt image ID: white text on an abstract background of swirling colour. Text reads: Announcing a new opportunity for First Nations creatives. Nunga Anthology: Poetry, short stories, graphic stories. Edited by Karen Wyld and Dominic Guerrera. Submissions close Monday 18 September 2023. For more information, visit www.wakefieldpress.com.au/blog)

Editors Dominic Guerrera and Karen Wyld invite Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander storytellers to submit poetry, fiction and graphic stories for an upcoming Wakefield Press anthology (currently untitled). This anthology is supported by a grant from the Australian Council for the Arts.

Dominic and Karen envision that this collection will be a boundless chorus of profundity, intuity, and sovereignty, with works writing back to the archives, staunchly calling for justice, listening to ancestors or speaking to future kin.

Through this anthology, Wakefield Press’ vision is to nurture Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writers, supporting them to grow careers with longevity.

Continue reading below for submission details and key information.

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GUEST POST: Susan Arthure, Rage and Resistance

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The History Council of South Australia Wakefield Press Essay Prize is awarded to the author of an essay that deals substantially with some aspect of South Australian history. This year’s prize was awarded to Susan Arthure, for her essay ‘Rage and Resistance: Remembering the Women of Baker’s Flat’.

The judges of the prize note that the essay is a ‘powerful and thoroughly researched revelation of the Irish women who fiercely defended their homes at Baker’s Flat in the late 1800s. This original research provides a refreshing new insight into the names, lives and circumstances of these often anonymous women, as they successfully contested the power of the dominant male establishment figures. An important new perspective on property rights, gender and the Irish diaspora in South Australian history.’

Susan Arthure is no stranger to the winner’s podium: she won the History Council of South Australia’s Wakefield Press Essay Prize in 2020, for her essay titled ‘Kapunda’s Irish Connections’. This essay was an excerpt from Irish South Australia: New histories and insights, a collection which Susan also edited, along with Fidelma Breen, Stephanie James, and Dymphna Lonergan.

This new essay will be published in an upcoming title from Wakefield Press – Irish Women in the Antipodes: Foregrounded. It is one of 16 essays focusing on the lives, adventures and achievements of Irish women across Australasia, also edited by Susan, Fidelma, Stephanie and Dymphna.

Read Susan’s winning essay below.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Valerie Volk wins the March WWWC!

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reading the tea leaves

We’re pleased to announce the winner of the March WWWC: Valerie Volk! Responding to the prompt ‘reading the tea leaves’, Valerie’s ‘Tea Time’ follows a woman who practices in unusual healing methods confronted by the angry spouse of a former client.

Read Valerie’s winning story below.

Content warning: this story discusses mental health and suicide.

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GUEST POST: In the Archives with Nicolas Baudin

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In the archives with Baudin

Edited by Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby ‘Roaming Freely Throughout the Universe’: Nicolas Baudin’s voyage to Australia and the pursuit of science is a collection of essays written in the context of the French explorers’ belief that studying in situ was the only way for science to move forward.

Drawing on a range of archival sources, the essays presented here offer fresh perspectives on Baudin’s scientific voyagers, their work and its legacy. What emerges is a deeper appreciation of the Baudin expedition’s contribution to the pursuit of science, and of those who pursued it.

In a special three-part guest series on the blog, John West-Sooby discusses how the book came to be, and the discoveries made along the way. In this first instalment, we discover the important role that historical archives played in shedding light on the voyage.

Read on below.

Banner image: Terre De Diemen: Ile Maria. Tombeaux des Naturels, (detail) by Charles-Alexandre Lesueur

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Cheryl Williss wins the April WWWC!

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lift

We’re pleased to announce the winner of the April WWWC: Cheryl Williss! Cheryl’s response to the prompt ‘I started a joke’ is a light-hearted tale of misfortune in an elevator. In Cheryl’s winning story, ‘Going Up’, a young woman rushing to a job interview runs into a strange roadblock.

This is the second time that Cheryl has won the WWWC – read her first winning entry, responding to the prompt ‘moving around’, here.

Cheryl has generously opted to donate her $250 voucher to the Fleurieu Peninsula Family History Group, which is incredibly generous of her.

Read Cheryl’s winning entry below.

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GUEST POST: Noris Ioannou on Thylacines, Dingoes, and the Eureka Flag

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Drawing on the research he conducted for Vernacular Visions: A Folklife History of Australia – art, diversity, storytelling, Noris Ioannou discusses the links between thylacines and dingoes, and the way that modern media mirrors the past.

In this special guest post, learn about how the extinction of the Tasmanian tiger is linked to the plight of dingoes in our current times; how the earliest Australian women’s communal artwork is under threat, and how it all links back to folk art.

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