At times sensual, always potent, Lemons in the Chicken Wire delivers a collage of work that reflects rural identity through a rich medley of techniques and forms. It is an audacious and lyrical poetry collection that possesses a rare edginess and seeks to challenge our imagination beyond the ordinary.
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. While riding the bus home from school, she was shot in the head at point-blank range and few expected her to survive. Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley to the halls of the United Nations.
At 21, Yassmin found herself working on a remote Australian oil and gas rig; she was not only the only woman but a Muslim with a Sudanese-Egyptian-Australian background. This is the story of how she got there, where she’s going, and how she wants the world to change.
Lesley Williams was forced to leave her family at a young age to work as a domestic servant. Lesley never saw her wages – they were kept ‘safe’ for her. She was taught not to question her life, until desperation made her start to wonder. So began a nine-year journey for answers.
The Big Black Thing: Chapter 1 is the first issue in a new series of prose and poetry by emerging and established writers from Indigenous, migrant and refugee backgrounds.
Asian-Australians have often been written about by outsiders, as outsiders. In this collection by well-known and emerging writers they tell their own stories with verve, courage and a large dose of humour. Tales of leaving home, falling in love, coming out and finding one’s feet show us what it is really like to grow up Asian, and Australian.
At exclusive girls’ school Laurinda, a trio of girls called the Cabinet seem to have power over everyone. Lucy Lam is a scholarship girl who battles to keep her identity and integrity as she finds her way in this new world of privilege and opportunity.
An intercontinental collection of speculative stories, in prose and graphic form, with contributions from India and Australia that include a nursery story with a twist, a futuristic take on reality TV, a play script with tentacles – and much more.
A young Aboriginal girl is taken from the north of Australia and sent to an institution in the distant south. There, she slowly makes a new life for herself and, in the face of tragedy, finds strength in new friendships.
Fuzzy Mac’s life is mundane and profound: teen rivalry and awkward romance sit alongside the mystery of Nan’s visions and a ghostly encounter. This is her story – and that of the oddballs around her.
Josephine Alibrandi is seventeen and in her final year at a wealthy girls’ school. This is the year she meets her father, the year she falls in love, the year she searches for Alibrandi and finds the real truth about her family – and the identity she has been searching for.
In this deeply personal memoir, told in her distinctive, wry style, Anita Heiss gives a first-hand account of her experiences as a woman with an Aboriginal mother and Austrian father, and explains the development of her activist consciousness. Read her story and ask: what does it take for someone to be black enough for you?
Although Australia is made up of people of many cultures, faiths and nations, the extent of that diversity is still greatly under-represented in the stories we read. Many of the stories we see, read and hear come from white perspectives, and for Australia’s history and cultural diversity to be acknowledged, we need to be reading more stories from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander authors, and those from varied cultural backgrounds. This list seeks to tip the scales in order to highlight the reality and diversity of Australian society, and to offer a starting point for young people struggling to find characters, stories and language they can relate to.
Most of the texts are ‘Own Voices’, meaning they are authored by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writers or those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, whose personal experiences inform their work or whose central protagonist/s share their identities. Tags relate to the characters in the story.