Alexis Wright

In a fractious Aboriginal community in northern Queensland, the powerful Phantom family copes with cyclones, eccentric characters and a long standing feud. They retain the sovereignty over the land that sets the Pricklebush people into factions. In the neighbouring towns' white officials and miners are trying to hide violence and murder.

Carpentaria

The new novel by Alexis Wright, whose previous novel Carpentaria won the Miles Franklin Award and four other major prizes including the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year Award. The Swan Book is set in the future, with Aboriginals still living under the Intervention in the north, in an environment fundamentally altered by climate change. It follows the life of a mute teenager called Oblivia, the victim of gang-rape by petrol-sniffing youths, from the displaced community where she lives in a hulk, in a swamp filled with rusting boats, and thousands of black swans driven from other parts of the country, to her marriage to Warren Finch, the first Aboriginal president of Australia, and her elevation to the position of First Lady, confined to a tower in a flooded and lawless southern city. The Swan Book has all the qualities which made Wright's previous novel, Carpentaria, a prize-winning best-seller. It offers an intimate awareness of the realities facing Aboriginal people; the wild energy and humour in her writing finds hope in the bleakest situations; and the remarkable combination of storytelling elements, drawn from myth and legend and fairy tale.

The Swan Book

An astonishing and monumental masterpiece from the towering Australian writer Alexis Wright whose "words explode from the page" (The Monthly)

Praiseworthy

Praiseworthy is an epic set in the north of Australia, told with the richness of language and scale of imagery for which Alexis Wright has become renowned. In a small town dominated by a haze cloud, which heralds both an ecological catastrophe and a gathering of the ancestors, a crazed visionary seeks out donkeys as the solution to the global climate crisis and the economic dependency of the Aboriginal people. His wife seeks solace from his madness in following the dance of butterflies and scouring the internet to find out how she can seek repatriation for her Aboriginal/Chinese family to China. One of their sons, called Aboriginal Sovereignty, is determined to commit suicide. The other, Tommyhawk, wishes his brother dead so that he can pursue his dream of becoming white and powerful. This is a novel which pushes allegory and language to its limits, a cry of outrage against oppression and disadvantage, and a fable for the end of days.

In this brilliant debut novel, Alexis Wright evokes city and outback, deepening our understanding of human ambition and failure, and making the timeless heart and soul of this country pulsate on the page. black and white cultures collide in a thousand ways as Aboriginal spirituality clashes with the complex brutality of colonisation at St Dominic's mission. With her political awareness raised by work wit the city-based Aboriginal Coalition, Mary visits the old mission in the northern Gulf country, place of her mother's and grand-mother's suffering. Mary's return re-ignites community anxieties, and the Council of Elders again turn to their spirit world.

Plains of Promise

Grog War

The new novel from the internationally acclaimed, award-winning Australian author Alexis Wright. Praiseworthy is an epic set in the north of Australia, told with the richness of language and scale of imagery for which Alexis Wright has become renowned. In a small town dominated by a haze cloud, which heralds both an ecological catastrophe and a gathering of the ancestors, a crazed visionary seeks out donkeys as the solution to the global climate crisis and the economic dependency of the Aboriginal people. His wife seeks solace from his madness in following the dance of butterflies and scouring the internet to find out how she can seek repatriation for her Aboriginal/Chinese family to China. One of their sons, called Aboriginal Sovereignty, is determined to commit suicide. The other, Tommyhawk, wishes his brother dead so that he can pursue his dream of becoming white and powerful. This is a novel which pushes allegory and language to its limits, a cry of outrage against oppression and disadvantage, and a fable for the end of days. Praise for Alexis Wright: ‘The writing is the best in the country, some of the best in the world; we call to mind Alexis Wright when they talk about our country’s great literary voice.’ — Tara June Winch ‘I’m awed by the range, experiment and political intelligence of [Alexis Wright’s] work, from fiction such as Carpentaria and The Swan Book, to her “collective memoir” of an Aboriginal elder in Tracker. As essayist, activist, novelist and oral historian she is vital on the subject of land and people.’ — Robert Macfarlane, New York Times Book Review

Set in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance, Carpentaria is the unforgettable portrait of the powerful Phantom family, leader of the Westend Pricklebush people, and its battles with old Joseph Midnights renegade Eastend mob on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other.By turns operatic and surreal, Wrights stunning and richly imagined storytelling is a blend of myth and scripture, farce and politics. Her extraordinary characters Elias Smith the outcast saviour, the religious zealot Mozzie Fishman, the murderous mayor Stan Bruiser, the moth-ridden Captain Nicoli Finn, the activist and prodigal son Will Phantom, and above all, the rulers of the family, the queen of the rubbish-dump and the fish-embalming king of time, Angel Day and Normal Phantom stride like giants in this storm-swept world.

A collective memoir of the charismatic Aboriginal leader, political thinker and entrepreneur Tracker Tilmouth, who died in Darwin in 2015 at the age of 62. Taken from his family as a child and brought up in a mission on Croker Island, Tracker Tilmouth worked tirelessly for Aboriginal self-determination, creating opportunities for land use and economic development in his many roles, including Director of the Central Land Council of the Northern Territory. Tracker was a visionary, a strategist and a projector of ideas, renowned for his irreverent humour and his determination to tell things the way he saw them. Having known him for many years, Alexis Wright interviewed Tracker, along with family, friends, colleagues, and the politicians he influenced, weaving his and their stories together in a manner reminiscent of the work of Nobel Prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich. The book is as much a testament to the powerful role played by storytelling in contemporary Aboriginal life as it is to the legacy of an extraordinary man.

Tracker Tilmouth: the Vision Splendid

IN the sparsely populated northern Queensland town of Desperance, battle lines have been drawn in the disputes among the powerful Phantom family of the Westend Pricklebush, Joseph Midnight’s renegade Eastend mob, and the white officials of neighboring towns. Trapped between politics and principle, past and present, the indigenous tribes fight to protect their natural resources, sacred sites, and, above all, their people. Steeped in myth and magical realism, Wright’s hypnotic storytelling exposes the heartbreaking realities of Aboriginal life. Carpentaria teems with extraordinary, larger-than-life characters who transcend their circumstances and challenge assumptions about the downtrodden "other." The novel "bursts with life" (Daily Telegraph) as Alexis Wright re-creates the land and its people with mysticism, stark reality, and pointed imagination.

A Novel

Alexis Wright is one of Australia’s finest Aboriginal writers. Carpentaria is her second novel, a soaring epic set in the Gulf country of north-western Queensland, from where her people come. Carpentaria’s portrait of life in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance centres on the powerful Phantom family, whose members are the leaders of the Pricklebush people, and their battles with old Joseph Midnight’s tearaway Eastend mob on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other.

The new novel from the internationally acclaimed, award-winning Australian author Alexis Wright. Accompanied by new editions of Wright's classic novels, Carpentaria and The Swan Book, to be released by Giramondo in May 2023. Praiseworthy is an epic set in the north of Australia, told with the richness of language and scale of imagery for which Alexis Wright has become renowned. In a small town dominated by a haze cloud, which heralds both an ecological catastrophe and a gathering of the ancestors, a crazed visionary seeks out donkeys as the solution to the global climate crisis and the economic dependency of the Aboriginal people. His wife seeks solace from his madness in following the dance of butterflies and scouring the internet to find out how she can seek repatriation for her Aboriginal/Chinese family to China. One of their sons, called Aboriginal Sovereignty, is determined to commit suicide after being labelled a paedophile. The other, Tommyhawk, wishes his brother dead so that he can pursue his dream of becoming white and powerful. When the town is overrun by donkeys, the residents and their strange religious sects react with anger, led by the Mayor, the albino Aboriginal named Ice Pick, and his outlandishly dressed Ice Queens. This is a novel which pushes allegory and language to its limits, a cry of outrage against oppression and disadvantage, and a fable for the end of days. Praise for Alexis Wright: 'The writing is the best in the country, some of the best in the world; we call to mind Alexis Wright when they talk about our country's great literary voice.' -- Tara June Winch 'I'm awed by the range, experiment and political intelligence of [Alexis Wright's] work, from fiction such as Carpentaria and The Swan Book, to her "collective memoir" of an Aboriginal elder in Tracker. As essayist, activist, novelist and oral historian she is vital on the subject of land and people.' -- Robert Macfarlane, New York Times Book Review

A revamped Magabala classic by Miles Franklin award-winning author Alexis Wright.First published in 1997, this vivid portrayal of how the Indigenous people of Tennant Creek worked together to achieve community-wide alcohol restrictions, is more relevant now than ever. A searing account of what transpired over 25 years ago, Grog War provides historical context and Indigenous-led solutions to the challenges still confronting communities and towns throughout Australia.In the '90s, Wright was commissioned by the Julalikari Council of Tennant Creek to write Grog War, to document how Aboriginal Elders and leaders dealt with the invasion of grog on Warumungu land and the enormous struggle it took to introduce simple alcohol restrictions in the town. Grog War traces an Indigenous-led movement of self-determination that shifted the blame from Aboriginal people for public drunkenness to looking at the way grog is pushed and sold, in turn challenging the town and government to share responsibility.Aboriginal Elders and community advisors in Tennant Creek fought for years to put alcohol restrictions in place and they are still fighting. Their courage and tenacity is an inspiration for other towns in Australia who are battling against the tide of alcohol abuse and resistance from licencees and the broader community.Grog War is essential reading for all those working towards and interested in Indigenous self-determination, for community leaders, legislators, health workers, social workers - and for our young people - so that all Australian children might grow up with a better understanding of what Indigenous people have fought hard to achieve in this country.

Grog War is the epic saga of an Indigenous human rights crusade and a war waged against the effects of alcohol abuse. Award-winning author, Alexis Wright paints an honest picture of the battles fought in an outback town when Aboriginal Elders refuse to accept the insidious intrusion of grog on their Homelands. In a strategic campaign they shifted the debate from public drunkenness to how grog was marketed and distributed, and challenged townspeople and government bureau crats to share responsibility. This battle is raging throughout all communities across Australia. It is a controversial and highly emotional conversation. Should the sale of alcohol be controlled, and whose decision is it to make? With many regional towns, outstations and remote communities now debating the implementation of alcohol restrictions, this campaign stands out as one of Australia's most powerful contemporary models of Indigenous self-determination.

Christos Tsiolkas

Gideon Haigh

Three acclaimed writers explore the crucial issues facing contemporary Australia: fear, prejudice and tolerance.

Sydney Pen Voices The 3 Writers project

Tolerance, Prejudice and Fear

Winner of the 2018 Stella Prize A collective memoir of one of Aboriginal Australia’s most charismatic leaders and an epic portrait of a period in the life of a country, reminiscent in its scale and intimacy of the work of Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Svetlana Alexievich. Miles Franklin Award-winning novelist Alexis Wright returns to non-fiction in her new book, Tracker, a collective memoir of the charismatic Aboriginal leader, political thinker, and entrepreneur who died in Darwin in 2015. Taken from his family as a child and brought up in a mission on Croker Island, Tracker Tilmouth returned home to transform the world of Aboriginal politics. He worked tirelessly for Aboriginal self-determination, creating opportunities for land use and economic development in his many roles, including Director of the Central Land Council. He was a visionary and a projector of ideas, renowned for his irreverent humour and his anecdotes. His memoir has been composed by Wright from interviews with Tilmouth himself, as well as with his family, friends, and colleagues, weaving his and their stories together into a book that is as much a tribute to the role played by storytelling in contemporary Aboriginal life as it is to the legacy of a remarkable man. ‘A magnificent work of collaborative storytelling…It paints a vision of action and possibility for this continent that makes it required reading for all Australians and all those interested in this land.’ — Sydney Morning Herald ‘Wright builds, as much as anyone is able to in writing, a detailed portrait of a complex man, whose vision “to sculpt land, country and people into a brilliant future on a grand scale” is inevitably accompanied by an irrepressible humour and suspicion of authority.’ — The Guardian ‘Tilmouth was a man who worked through conversation and yarn more than with paper and pen, and this is a book about the place of the story in Indigenous culture and politics as much as it is about Tracker himself.’ — The Monthly ‘[Wright] enacts the complex relationship between self and community that a Western biography could not…There is a cumulative power in the repetitions, backtrackings and digressions the formula necessitates: a sinuous, elegant accommodation of selves. It is a book as epical in form and ambition as the life it describes.’ — The Australian ‘Wright’s brace of ineffable, awkward, uncanny novels will be unravelled and enjoyed by readers when other contemporary fiction is forgotten. Tracker, a book performed by a folk ensemble rather than a solo virtuoso, adds to her enduring non-fiction oeuvre that captures the unique ground-level realpolitik of Aboriginal Australia.’ — Australian Book Review ‘Alexis Wright is one of the most important voices in our literary landscape…This is a landmark work – epic in its scope and empathy.’ — Readings

Tracker

Desperance, ville perdue de l'outback australien où cohabitent blancs paumés et aborigènes deshérités est le cadre de luttes sociales, des délires mystiques et d'extrêmes météorologiques.

Alexis Wright

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