Susan Hawthorne

A Manifesto for Independent Publishing

Bibliodiversity

The flap of a butterfly's wing in one part of the world can cause devastating storms on the other side, just as the word "lesbian"—a force full of vitality and world-changing creativity—can destroy families and bring down governments. Evoking the ancient worlds of pre-Vedic and Sapphic lovers, medieval jonglaresas, and nuns "fingering petals and hips," as well as the contemporary world of circuses, global politics, friendship, betrayal, and death, the poems in this collection fold in on themselves, exploding into concentric rings of meaning, rich in symbol and metaphor.

The Butterfly Effect

In Defence of Separatism

Renate Klein

An international anthology by feminists working in the field of electronic publishing, electronic activism, electronic data delivery, multimedia production, virtual reality creation, developing programs or products electronically, as well as those developing critiques of electronic culture. This collection explores what the possibilities are for feminists and for feminism. It also grapples with the pitfalls of the medium. The book, however, does not assume that the technology in itself is negative, but rather how it is used is open to critique. This leaves open the possibility of feminists having an impact on the way the technologies develop. The book includes connecting HTML with poetry, developing resources for Women's Studies and libraries, on-line, CD-ROM and VRML developments. The book has markets across trade and educational sectors and could be used at secondary and tertiary levels.

Connectivity, Critique and Creativity

Cyberfeminism

Cathie Dunsford

Short stories and poems, some previously published.

Lesbian Writing from Australia and New Zealand

The Exploding Frangipani

In the tradition of Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. Imagination, vision and a sense of the absurd come together and demonstrate that women can resist the power of god-like scientists who long to create monsters and angels. With contributions by writers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and USA. This book should head the reading list of any course in ethics and reproductive technology.

Angels of Power and Other Reproductive Creations

What was it like to participate in the Women's Liberation Movement? What made millions of women step forward from the 1960s onwards and join it in different ways? Many of the fifty women in this book were there. They describe how they have contributed in multitudinous ways across politics, the arts, health, education, environmentalism, economics and science and created wonderfully subversive activism. And how they continue this activism today with determined grittiness. Here are women - all over 70 years of age - still railing against the patriarchal systemic oppression of women, still fighting back. The contributors to Not Dead Yet have created new analyses with new language and new kinds of organisations always aware of the ways in which the system is stacked against them, particularly against radical lesbian feminists. But they persist. They share the revolutionary zest they have carried with them over many decades. There is history, there is subversion and there are many extraordinary acts of courage. The language is full of irony and wit - as well as deadly serious.

Feminism, Passion and Women's Liberation

Not Dead Yet

In a globalised world, megacorp publishing is all about numbers, about sameness, about following a formula based on the latest megasuccess. Each book is expected to pay for itself and all the externalities of publishing such as offices and CEO salaries. It means that books which take off slowly but have long lives, the books that change social norms, are less likely to be published. Independent publishers are seeking another way. A way of engagement with society and methods that reflect something important about the locale or the niche they inhabit. Independent and small publishers are like rare plants that pop up among the larger growth but add something different, perhaps they feed the soil, bring colour or scent into the world.Bibliodiversity is a term invented by Chilean publishers in the 1990s as a way of envisioning a different kind of publishing. In this manifesto, Susan Hawthorne provides a scathing critique of the global publishing industry set against a visionary proposal for organic publishing. She looks at free speech and fair speech, at the environmental costs of mainstream publishing and at the promises and challenges of the move to digital.

In a dawn raid, Ekaterina is arrested. She is imprisoned, beaten, kept awake and tortured. She has no idea what has happened to her partner, Mercedes. The uncertainty plagues her. It is as if she has no history. Trying to retain her sense of self in swirling psychic state, she invents stories. And she remembers stories of her mother, her grandmothers and aunts, the rich mythic traditions of Greece. She rearranges them writes poems in her head. Thirty years later, her niece Desi is going through Kate's papers after her death trying to make sense of her aunts life. Susan Hawthorne's dark story uncovers hidden history of organised violence. She traces fear and uncertainty, and finds a narrative of resilience created through the writing of poems. The author asks: how do we pass on stories hidden by shame and resistance to shame? A novel that is both poetic and terrifying.

A Novel

Dark Matters

Bronwyn Winter

Offers a feminist spin on the events of September 11, 2001, by collecting reactions and articles from Australian women as well as those from other countries.

Feminist Perspectives

September 11, 2001

Susan Sayer

This anthology reflects the varied tongues, the inventiveness, and the diversity of lesbian culture and writing.

And Other Contemporary Lesbian Writings

Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love

Cyclonic storms inform the still eye of Earths Breath. Its an eye that radiates out from the personal to the communal, tracking its subject matter through the lenses of history and myth. Susan Hawthorne's poetry shifts with seismic intensity, from tranquillity to roar, bureaucratic inertia to survival, and the slow recovery from destruction to regeneration. In 2006, the poet, her partner and their dog sat through the extreme winds of Cyclone Larry, a Category-5 cyclone that hit the coast of Far North Queensland, Australia. Located at the southern edge of the cyclone -- the eyewall -- with winds at their most ferocious, these poems explore the period before the cyclone, the event itself and the aftermath. In "Earth's Breath", Hawthorne evokes the terror and devastation of the cyclonic event and the emotional impact upon those caught in its path. Drawing from Indian, Greek and Biblical mythology as well as Indigenous understanding, these poems range from descriptive to reflective, mythic to emotional, and aim to raise questions of the reader.

Earth's Breath

Jan Fook

This celebration of the enduring relationship between a woman and her feline includes more than 80 stories, poems, and reflections by women from around the world. Writings from such American authors as Marge Piercy, Dahlia Levy, and Terry Wolverton shed light on the historical tradition of the cat goddess as well as real-life encounters with heroic and troublesome cats. A cat who walked through plaster on shore clomps on board a sailing ship for three weeks; a cat who protected a family travels 100 miles to find her owners; and the cats who survive 9/11 are among the felines profiled in this amusing and enjoyable collection.

The Meaning of Cats in Women's Lives

Cat Tales

Noted Australian author Susan Hawthorne creates a desert odyssey as she interweaves the emotional and physical journeys of her central characters. In doing so she has written a powerful exploration of myth and place, survival and self. Through Stella's experience and struggles of epilepsy, Susan Hawthorne also offers a rare and extraordinary insight into the mystery of a condition all but ignored by modern literature. Set in a living, chameleon landscape, "The Falling Woman" is laced with startling allegory and imagery intertwining the worlds the science and spirituality, creating a psychological narrative of power and originality.

The Falling Woman

In a globalized world, megacorp publishing is all about numbers, sameness and following the formula of the latest megasuccess. Each book is expected to pay for itself and all the externalities of publishing. It means books that take off slowly but have long lives, books that change social norms, are less likely to be published. Encapsulated in the term bibliodiversity, coined by Chilean publishers in the 1990s, independent publishers are envisioning a different way. Susan Hawthorne provides a scathing critique of the global publishing industry, set against a visionary proposal for organic publishing. She looks at free speech and fair speech, at the environmental costs of mainstream publishing and at the promises and the challenges of the move to digital."

Australia is a land full of opportunities, but where can you go to find the things that matter to women? This book is a guide to the land as well as the diverse culture of women. Women's culture in Australia goes back more than 40,000 years and is a rich mosaic of story, art and music. On the top of this has come the culture of the past 200 years: from the British convicts, from China, from the Pacific, from the newer waves of migration and from the women's movement. This is reflected in literature, theatre, the visual arts, music, circuses and dance. Rural and urban women describe the places they know and love, they also describe their histories and show something of what lies behind a first impression. Contributors featured include: Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Faith Bandler, Portia Robinson, Elizabeth Jolley, Sara Dowse, Janine Haines, Dale Spender, Ruby Langford Ginibi, Kate Llewellyn, and Finola Moorhead.

Travel and Culture

Australia for Women

In Defence of Separatism is a timely book. When it was first written in 1976, although it was an important subject of conversation among many feminists it was not welcomed by academics or publishers. When a political group wants to strategise so that its members can arrive at agreed-on political tactics and ideas, they call for, and create, separate spaces. These might be in coffee shops, in community centres, in one another's homes or in semi-public spaces such as workers clubs, even cinemas. When the proletariat was rebelling, they did not ask the capitalists and aristocracy to join them (even if a few did); when the civil rights movement started it was not thanks to the ideas and politics of white people (even though some whites joined to support the cause); when the women's liberation movement sprang into life, it was women joining together to fight against their oppression. The difference is that women are supposed to love men. Through careful argument, Susan Hawthorne takes us through the ideas which are central to her argument. She analyses the nature of power, oppression, domination and institutions and applies these to heterosexuality, rape and romantic love. She concludes with a call for women, all women no matter their sexuality, to have separate spaces so they can work together to change the world and end patriarchy.

Synthesising issues that are at the forefront of local and global politics and social movements of the 21st century, this work presents a powerful critique of global western culture, challenging many of its central assumptions and institutions.

Susan Hawthorne

About

Books

Join the club