AUTHOR GUEST POST: Wendy Scarfe on revisiting the past

In this special guest post, Wendy Scarfe talks about her experiences writing A Mouthful of Petals with her late husband, Allan Scarfe. A Mouthful of Petals is a nonfiction account of three years working in an Indian village in the early 1960s. Previously published, it became a minor classic, and has since been re-released by Wakefield Press. This new edition includes an account of Wendy Scarfe's return trip to Sokhodeora during a famine in the late 1960s,…

GUEST POST: John Read on the lessons lockdown has to offer

John Read is used to working remotely, and often in accidental isolation. An ecologist and author, John lives on South Australia’s largest privately managed nature reserve with his wife, children and endangered malleefowl and marsupials. We asked John to write about his experiences living and working in the most remote parts of Australia, and how things have changed (if at all) as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

How to Work from Home: Poppy Nwosu's tips

Welcome to the week, and to a new blog series here at Wakefield Press! Introducing How to Work From Home: Authors talk about how they stay productive. Like many others, we’ve recently begun the transition from office work to working from home. It’s a strange transition to make, and we need some help. We’ve interviewed a collection of our favourite authors to get their best tips, tricks and truths about working from home. Next in the…

Book Launch: The First Wave

Gillian Dooley is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Flinders University, South Australia. Gillian is also a journal editor and the author of books and articles on literary subjects from Jane Austen to J.M. Coetzee. In this guest post she writes about the launch of The First Wave: Exploring early coastal contact history in Australia, and the book's importance in our understanding of Australian history. On 20 June, The First Wave: Exploring Early Coastal Contact History in Australia,…

Congratulations to Carol Lefevre!

Wakefield Press is thrilled to announce that Carol Lefevre's Quiet City: Walking through West Terrace Cemetery has been shortlisted in the Non-Fiction category of the 2018 Adelaide Festival Awards for literature. Winners in each category will be announced on Saturday 3 March in 2018 during Writers' Week. Visit the Arts SA website to see the other shortlisted titles, and for more information on SA Writers' Week. About Quiet City: I do not think that I believe…

Liz Williams: Body Language

In late September Wakefield Press had the honour of launching Liz Williams: Body Language, a beautifully photographed book dedicated to the works of the late South Australian ceramicist. Below is an excerpt from author Margot Osborne's speech at the launch. I was driven to do this book on Liz Williams to honour her lifetime of artistic achievement and to ensure that there is a record of her unique contribution to Australian ceramics. It struck me…

Invisible Mending launch

On April 17 we were excited to host the launch of Mike Ladd's new collection Invisible Mending right here at Wakefield Press. Rachael Mead had the honour of launching Mike's book. We recently hosted an exhibition of Rachael's photography alongside the launch of Cassie Flanagan Willanski's Here Where We Live, and it was a pleasure to have her back. If you weren't able to make it to the launch, don't worry we've got you covered. You can read…

The Inconsequential Tourist by Stephen Orr

A guest blog from our adventuring novelist Stephen Orr, who's currently conquering Europe. You can check out Stephen's award-winning novels here. -- Sitting on a train from Berlin to Munich, it seems a good time to ruminate (lack of cows in fields, although plenty of wind turbines) on the nature of lit-tourism. Just past Dessau, villages, birch and the fiery glare from the white-blue eyes of an old man (what? what am I doing wrong?) across…

Giles Bettison on the state of the arts

This year, Giles Bettison was the SA Living Artists Festival's featured artist and the subject of our beautiful monograph. Giles made a speech that brought the house down on opening night, and he's kindly allowed us to share a bit of it with you here … Good evening everyone. Tonight I would like to acknowledge the Kaurna people, whose land our ancestors occupied and on whose land we are standing now. It is an amazing honour to be…

Adrian Mitchell on writing our early stories

Adrian Mitchell has released two books this year, The Profilist on S.T. Gill (or someone very like him) and From Corner to Corner on Henry Colless. Adrian's written a wonderful meditation on these two characters, and he's given us kind permission to share this insightful essay with you all -- Our past is full of old stories, the kind that go wandering about and are very often just out of sight, or memory. There’s a delight in retrieving these, whenever…