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JUNE
2009
Mischa
Merz
Bruising: A Boxer's Story
$32.95
9780977504794 (pbk.)
Click
here to buy
Bruising
___________________
I
regard having someone try and hit me in the head as almost a
friendly gesture. In fact I have made some friends that way
and really only lost them when we stopped hitting each other.
Mischa
Merz
Bruising
is the story of Merz’s long love affair with the art of
boxing - from throwing and receiving her first punches - to
competing in an Australian amateur title fight and beyond. Boxing
opens her to new ideas about what it means to be a woman, it
tests her courage as well as her physical limitations and connects
her with others in unexpected ways. It provides her with the
thrilling and often hilarious background against which to examine
myths about feminine virtue and physical weakness.
Bruising,
which was short listed for the Dobbie Award in 2001, and this
latest edition is updated with new material based on a trip
to New York where Merz spent time training with the women at
one of America’s oldest and most famous boxing gyms.
Mischa
Merz is a journalist and author of both fiction and non-fiction.
She has worked for newspapers and magazines for twenty years.
Bruising, originally published by Picador Australia, has been
reissued with updated material, by Vulgar Press. She lives in
Melbourne with her husband Peter.
www.mischamerz.com
Click
here to buy
Bruising
Bruising
takes us deep into the illicit realities of female anger and
aggression, and then by way of the male stronghold of the
boxing gym into the ring . . . Merz makes her own body, discipline
and courage her subjects of experiment as she explores the
terrors and the exhilarations of the female capacity for violence
with startling honesty. You can almost smell the sweat.
Inga
Clendinnen
Author of Tiger’s Eye
Every
now and then a book comes along that invites you to shake
off your dusty old prejudices, and stop thinking along dichotomous
lines . . . it's a gripping read and a timely call to re-examine
both sanctioned and unsanctioned violence.
Sian
Prior
The Age
The
work fits comfortably within the stylish non-fiction popularised
by writers such as Dava Sobel, Helen Garner and Janet Malcolm.
Mary Rose Liverani
The Australian
I
like writing that explores experience in a naked way. I
particularly like it when the writer uses words with the
fidelity of a harp string. This is a book about a young
woman with an intellectual orientation to life who takes
up boxing. I can honestly say I have never read anything
like it.
Martin Flanagan
The Age
FEBRUARY
2009
Enza
Gandolfo and Marty Grace
It keeps me sane: Women, craft, wellbeing
$29.95
978-0-9775047-8-7

This book
is has its origins in the The Everyday Creativity of Women Craftmakers,
a narrative research project exploring the roles and meanings
of craftmaking in women’s lives. This research aims to
document and communicate contemporary women’s stories
of their engagement with craftwork; and to explore the links
that women perceive between their engagement in craftmaking
and their wellbeing. The research was funded by Victoria University
and Spotlight Pty Ltd, a large Australian retailer of fabrics,
wool and craft supplies.
In the book
we explore the meaning of craft and craftmaking to women and
the key themes that have emerged from the research including:
creative and self expression, wellbeing, community and intergenerational
links and pleasure and passion for the craft itself. There are
15 individual women and one group highlighted in the book with
images of their craftwork and their stories and ideas about
the meaning of craft to them.
OCTOBER
2008
Graham
Perrett
The Twelfth Fish
$ 32.95
978-0-9775047-6-3
In
the small rural Queensland town of Lawson,
where the people are still reeling from
the arrival of the 1990s and modernity, surfie teacher Lawrence
Lalor is condemned to servitude by the Catholic Education League.
From his veranda and the pub, he quickly learns the secrets
of life in the bush.
While Lawson
is just another ‘dead- kangaroo-on-the-side- of-the-road’
country town with its streets named after saints, Lawrence is
quick to learn that beneath its simple surface, it is a town
of depth and deception.
Drunken
mistakes, accidental friendships, adultery, love, murder and
the arcane practice of fish counting lead Lawrence to the discovery
that courage and dignity are more rare than precious. Lawrence
Lalor’s journey through Lawson – the jewel of the
west – gouges a scar on his emotional landscape that will
stay with him forever.
The
author
Born in
St George, Queensland in 1966, Graham Perrett was the seventh
of ten children. He’s been counting the numbers ever since.
In
1985, he received a diploma for teaching with which he taught
for three years in Darling Downs and far north Queensland and
for a further eight years in Brisbane.
In 1993,
Graham was awarded with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours through
the University of Queensland and completed his thesis on The
Autobiography of Malcolm X. He began his law degree
in 1995 and completed it in 1999 through the Queensland University
of Technology. During the same year he became a solicitor of
the Supreme Court of Queensland.
After working
with the Queensland Independent Education Union as an organiser
Graham was admitted as a Senior Policy Advisor with the Queensland
Government. He was the ALP candidate for Moreton in the 2004
Federal Election and was elected
to the Commonwealth House of Representatives in November 2007.
Having played
in a band – Once I Killed a Gopher with a Stick –
throughout his teaching days, Graham remains a keen fan of music
and literature and also enjoys writing and bushwalking. He now
lives in Southern Brisbane with his wife Lea and son Stanley.
Sue
Dodd and Enza Gandolfo
Inventory: on op shops
$ 29.95
978-0-9775047-5-6
I
op Therefore I am
(blog site response to Inventory)
Op shops
are places of mystery and adventure that inspire ‘treasure
hunting’. They are ‘museums’ displaying cultural
artifacts – objects, clothes, books—that often bring
back lost memories. They are places that trigger many emotions—including
nostalgia, longing and passion. Op shops are crowded with narratives
that are lined up on shelves, piled into boxes, hanging on racks—lost
personal and cultural narratives waiting to be told.
There has
been very little written about op shops in Australia—hardly
surprising as op shops are predominantly staffed by volunteers,
the majority of them women over 65; they are run by charities
who are inevitably more focused on the programs run with the
money raised by these shops; and they tend to be frequented,
though this is changing, predominantly by those in the margins—single
mothers, the unemployed, the elderly and others whose limited
income means they cannot afford to buy from commercial retail
stores.
Yet most
local shopping centres have an op shop or two and they have
been part of our communities for over 50 years. Sue Dodd and
Enza Gandolfo, have spent several months in op shops interviewing
volunteers, staff and customers. Inventory: on op shops tells
the story of that exploration. It is polyphonic work–
textual, visual, and performative—that explores the role
and meaning of op shops to individuals and communities.
The original
project, Op Shopping: More than Retail Therapy, was a collaborative
arts project that utilized a mixed-media and multi-disciplinary
approach. The project was funded by Arts Victoria through the
Art for Communities program and supported by Victoria University
and the Living Museum of the West. The exhibition opens 13th
September 2007 at the Living Museum.
Enza
Gandolfo is a lecturer in Professional Writing
at Victoria University. Her short fiction, essays, autobiographical
pieces, reviews and academic articles are published in a variety
of literary magazines and journals including: Overland,
Tirra Lirra, Hecate, Outskirts,
Going Down Swinging, TEXT,
JAS Review of Books, and Australian
Women’s Book Review. Recent publications include:
‘The Robust Imagination’ in TEXT
2006 and ‘Fiction Making: A dialogue’ in Art-Based
Research: a proper thesis? Edited by Elaine Martin
and Judith Booth 2006 Common Ground Melbourne
Sue
Dodd has developed an artistic practice that incorporates
simultaneously performance, video and installation. Her performances
and video work are an acutely post-modern reflection on contemporary
life. Dodd is part of the performative group Gossip Pop (with
Phil Dodd) which employs an amalgam of performance and video
to create a simulacrum of pop and celebrity culture, and serious
performance art. Gossip Pop utilizes sampling, displacement
and deconstruction in the tradition of beat poetry, feminist
performance and karaoke. Dodd has performed and exhibited in
widely in Melbourne and throughout Australia. She has recently
returned from a residency in China. Sue is currently lecturing
at Victoria University and completing Phd research in Creative
Arts at RMIT.
Glenn
D'Cruz
Class Act: Melbourne Workers' Theatre 1987-2007
$ 39.95
978-0-9775047-3-2
Review
in Age
The
Melbourne Workers Theatre is one of this town’s great
successes. Not only has it nurtured talent […] it has
also expanded a long way from its origins. It is a tribute
to the strength of Melbourne’s theatrical tradition
that this company is thriving as it begins its 16th year.
Robin Usher, Arts Editor, The Age, 5 May
2002
With a few
notable exceptions, middle-class themes and middle-class personnel
dominate professional theatre in Australia. Melbourne Workers
Theatre (MWT), which celebrates its twentieth anniversary in
2007, has redressed this imbalance by creating high quality
theatre that represents the lives of the most disadvantaged
members of our community. In short, the company has made a major
contribution to Australian theatre culture by giving voice to
marginalised Melburnians including people from impoverished
backgrounds, indigenous communities, various migrant groups
and persecuted minorities like asylum seekers.
Class
Act celebrates the Company’s artistic achievements
and successes over the last two decades through interviews,
essays and high quality images of key productions. It recounts
its history, its evolving relationship with the embattled trade
union movement, and its on-going engagement with working class,
indigenous and migrant communities.
Class
Act is more than a history of a theatre company.
It documents a particularly turbulent period in Melbourne’s
history that witnessed consistent attacks on trade unions, asylum
seekers, aboriginal and working class people by state and federal
governments, and the forces of globalisation. In an era when
the very concept of ‘class’ has been discredited,
Melbourne Workers Theatre remains committed to principles of
social justice and revels in using theatre as a form of political
activism and protest.
The
book contains new interviews with founding members of the company
and key artistic personnel, including Patricia Cornelius, Irine
Vella, Andrew Bovell, Andrea James, Julian Meyrick, and Christos
Tsiolkas. It also includes production images drawn from the
company’s extensive archives, and essays that document
the company’s history and analyse its landmark productions
such as Who’s Afraid of the Working Class,
Yanagai Yanagai, and Tower
of Light.
Mark
Phillips
Radio City: The First 30 Years of RRR
0 9775047 1 9
$ 39.95
see
feature article in Age on RRR and Radio City
It's
been proven by some of the greatest observers and researchers
in the world that the secret to the economic and business success
of a city is its creative heart. Whilst businesses at 101 Collins
Street don't even fucking know it, the reason why they are succeeding
is because up the road in Nicholson Street is a radio station
that is beating a heartbeat through this city that is unique
in the world.
James 'Hound Dog' Young
We
are not a would-be commercial station and our presenters should
not be would-be disc jockeys. We should offer a real alternative
to the inanity of high-powered and raucous commercial presentation.
Sue Mathews, the first station manager of 3RRR-FM
Over
the course of three decades, 3RRR-FM has become an indispensable
part of Melbourne’s cultural fabric, a vital hub of the
city’s renowned music and arts scenes and an independent
voice among a chorus of repetition.
But it wasn’t always so. Born in 1976, the product of
an experiment in public radio just as the DIY spirit of punk
music was hitting the streets, much of Triple R’s existence
was fraught and surrounded by chaos.
Released to coincide with Triple R's 30th anniversary this November,
Radio City is the unvarnished history
of Australia’s most innovative and successful community
radio station, a jewel in the junk heap that has spawned talent
like Greig Pickhaver, the Coodabeen Champions, Kate Langbroek,
John Safran, Lawyers, Guns and Money, and Leaping Larry L.
Uncovered are the behind-the-scenes tales of crisis, fighting
and perpetual money struggles along with the back stories of
the much-loved program presenters who have called the station
a home.
Melbourne journalist Mark Phillips spent two years piecing together
the previously untold story of how Triple R came about and developed
its unique ethos and ground-breaking style. In the process he
learnt a little more about what makes Melbourne tick.
A vivid account told in the words of those who were there and
chock full of illustrations, Radio City
reveals how community radio holds the key to discovering alternative
music, films, arts and political topics that would otherwise
be left in the dark.
Appealing to Triple R listeners and those interested in the
history of alternative culture alike, Radio City
is the riveting story of how a radio station became part of
a city’s soul.
But
mum . . . It’s educational!
Sean
Scalmer
The Little History of Australian Unionism
0 9580794 7 1
rrp $9.95
Fiona
Capp's review from the Age
Rowan Cahill's review from Workers
Online
One
of the reasons a good number of Australians don’t know
their own history is the failure of publishers to publish good,
readable histories in a form and price that makes them accessible
to all. Sean Scalmer’s, The Little History
of Australian Unionism is published with this
in mind.
A
compact, complete and up-to-date history, The Little
History of Australian Unionism tells
the story of the development of
Australian unions over the past 200 years.
With the support of 13 Australian unions, including major sponsorship
by the ETU and CFMEU, the
book is aimed at everyone interested in the history of Australian
society and the formation of its values and institutions and
particularly at students of history as well as unionised and
yet-to-be-unionised workers, old and young.
Scalmer provides a history of trade unions that is clear, accurate
and engaging. He records their achievements, explains how they
were won, and provides an invaluable context for the urgent
defence of the union movement.
Priced at $9.95, and printed in pocket-sized format, The
Little History of Australian Unionism is an affordale
and portable lesson in the history of a movement that is vital
to the future of a decent and compassionate Australian society.
Sean Scalmer's incisive and engaging account shows how
trade unions have made a vital contribution to the improvement
of workers' lives and a fairer Australia. He provides invaluable
support in the present struggle to maintain the rights of
unions to organise and represent workers.
The history of trade unions is more than
a record of sacrifice and achievement; it is an account of
the lessons of that experience, and a precious resource in
mobilising support for the union move-ment as it responds
to the present attack on their very rights to organise and
represent workers.
Professor Stuart Macintyre
click
here for author interview
Adam
Muyt
Maroon & Blue: Recollections and Tales of the Fitzroy
Football Club
0 9580795 9 5
$39.95
In
1996, the Fitzroy Football Club, the Roys, played their final
game of AFL football after more than a hundred and ten years
in the competition.
Maroon & Blue is a social and
oral history that captures the rich story of the Roys in the
words of those who played for, supported and loved the club.
It celebrates various aspects of the club’s roots, culture
and traditions, captures the passion and joy for all things
Roy, and offers heartfelt observations on the sacrifice of the
club at the altar of corporate AFL football.
Lovingly
crafted from hundreds of hours of interviews and archival research,
Maroon & Blue features the words
and voices of: Paul Roos, Jonathan Brown, Chris Johnson, Martin
Pike, Bill Stephen, George Coates, Ron Alexander, Jamie Cooper,
Bill Jacobs, Greg Champion, Barry Dickins, Martin Flanagan,
John Blackman, Peter Temple, Jas H. Duke, Ken Morgan and many
more.
About the Author Adam Muyt became a Royboy
when he moved from Sydney to Melbourne in the early 1980s. Along
with the joys of following them, he, along with all Fitzroy
barrackers, suffered terribly through their final years. Since
1997, he’s barracked for the Brisbane Lions and is thankful
he was there at the MCG to witness each premiership of their
triple flag triumph, particularly as he was surrounded by lots
of other Royboys and Roygirls. Adam now lives in Canberra and
works in native vegetation management. He is the author of Bush
Invaders of South-east Australia, undoubtedly the only
weed book to feature footy references and people weeding in
Fitzroy jerseys. He will always be a Royboy.
Fitzroy
Reds Football Club, as part of its commitment to celebrate
community football in the heart of Fitzroy, is proud to support
the publication of this memorial to the people who loved and
love the Fitzroy Football Club.
 
A.L. McCann 0 9580795 6 0 rrp $29.95
1977.
The fibro-belt suburbs of Melbourne’s south. The names
of West German terrorists crackle through the white noise of
television news, but barely penetrate the soundtrack of the
seventies. Endless summers, mass-market pornography, sport,
and a sexual freedom precariously close, yet always just out
of reach. Only when Julian meets Martin Bernhard, a ratbag of
a kid who smokes, drinks and shoots model soldiers with his
air-rifle, does the world start to look a bit larger, and a
bit more dangerous. And once you get a passport and a plane
ticket, it seems, you can be anything you want to be.
This
is a novel of ideas, ideas that are fascinating and troubling.
The writing style is that rare combination, punchy and elegant.
You can smell the suburbs – the asphalt, the boredom
and the beer breath. There is a truth in the friendship between
Martin and Julian. It is honest, funny and bitter. It is a
real story of the petty betrayals that so many of us have
committed but are too scared to write or talk about. So we
make up lies.
There’s a lot going on in this novel and we bloody
need that; it doesn’t disappear into thin air the way
so much writing does these days. Christos
Tsiolkas
The
best novels speak the truth, literally or figuratively, and
Subtopia resonates with the stuff. A bitter truth, sure, but
one that needs airing. Subtopia is astutely observed and neatly
delivered. Full of intelligence and sensitivity, this is the
best Australian novel I've read in quite some time. Sacha
Molitorisz, Sydney
Morning Herald
The
precariousness of mental states is frighteningly imagined
by McCann. Subtopia – which takes
on so much – has the courage of its ambitions, and realises
most of them. Its range makes most contemporary Australian
fiction seem parochial. The momentum is nervous, hurried,
but sustained to the last words: Julian's benediction for
his lost companion, “already long gone, perhaps never really
there”. Intelligently alert to the politics, literature and
failed beliefs that inform his novel, McCann's is a name to
be watched. Peter Pierce, The
Bulletin
A.L.
McCann’s first novel, The White Body of Evening,
was published in 2002 by HarperCollins
Australia.
Andrew
McCann (A.L. McCann) has published extensively
on British and Australian literature in a wide range of
local and international journals.
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