Contents

From the Director’s Desk

Editorial: Arts Minister Fiddles While the Publishing Industry Burns

Focus: Barbara Winter, Tilly Brasch, Jenni Nixon

10 Shortcuts to Rejection

What’s New in IP Audio?

Out & About

In Review

New Submission Policy

Your Deal

Welcome to eNews. In this issue we preview our Autumn Season with a special focus on the authors of our soon-to-be released creative non-fiction titles. As this issue, and indeed our growing list demonstrates, IP are firmly planting a flag in this genre.

Tilly Brasch, the author of No Middle Name speaks in depth on the subject of youth suicide. Barbara Winter gets into a bit of political intrigue in discussing the subject of her book, The Australia-First Movement.

But to prove we haven’t abandoned one of our original “niche” areas, that of poetry (despite the harsh commercial realities and appalling state of funding in Queensland) we also focus on the Text + Audio release of Jenni Nixon’s Café Boogie. Jenni writes about the special relationship between poetry and performance. In next issue, look for features on Gold Coast poet/musician Liam Guilar and Sydney poet David Musgrave.

Out and About has all the details of our Autumn releases and a HUGE programme of launch events in Brisbane and Sydney.

David again tackles the issue of funding in his editorial. We’re really hoping to stir some debate on this issue. For things to change for the better, those affected by government policies in the area of arts funding must really find a voice. It seems to me those affected fall at present into two categories: the few who benefit from bad policy so have a vested interest in supporting it and the majority who feel powerless so they say and do nothing, at least publically. This is my two cents worth. Agree? Disagree? Let us know.

We’ve added a new column to eNews, In Review, where we feature all the latest reviews and comments on IP titles. We also have a special tongue in cheek feature for authors hoping to get their manuscript rejected!

As usual we have some special deals to further entice you to purchase our titles.

See you at the launches!

Sara Moss, Editor, IP eNews

From the Director's Desk

The weather outside Treetop Studio may be cooling off, but the activity inside shows no signs of heading toward hibernation. Autumn Season 2005 has shifted into overdrive!

We have six new titles nearing completion, with an even balance between print and digital works. The print titles include No Middle Name by Brisbane author Tilly Brasch, the inaugural winner of the Creative Non-Fiction category of IP Picks 2005; an intriguing exposé of the Ultra-Right during World War II in Brisbane-based Barbara Winter’s The Australia-First Movement and the Publicist, 1936-42; and On Reflection, a second poetry collection from multi-award winner David Musgrave, who lives in Sydney.

On the digital front, we’re releasing two new titles in our Audio + Text Series: Café Boogie, by Sydney performance poet Jenni Nixon; I'll Howl Before You Bury Me, by Gold Coast resident Liam Guilar; and a multimedia biography, If These Walls Could Talk, by Sydney writer Genevieve Cumming-Jaffé. You’ll want to read the details to see how IP Digital is taking advantage of the new mp4 format for audio. As far as we know, that’s another first for IP on the digital front!

Plans are confirmed for a joint launch of Café Boogie and On Reflection on 14 May in Sydney, which will kick off the Season. I missed the Sydney launch of Jenni’s print version, so I’m looking forward to seeing her in action this time round. The next day will see the launch of Genevieve Cumming-Jaffé's multimedia CD If These Walls Could Talk at the Sydney Jewish Museum. I’m pleased to report that Nora Krouk’s fine collection, Skin for Comfort, which also has a strong Jewish connection, will share the program at the Museum.

We’ll be having two Season launches in Brisbane, with Tilly’s book being the first off the rank on 17 May, followed closely by Barbara’s launch on 19 May.

Not long after, we’ll have an event for Gold Coast-based Liam Guilar’s I’ll Howl Before You Bury Me, which will be Text + Audio with a difference. Liam, who is also a musician in another guise, has teemed up with composer and performer Chen Yang to provide a rich musical texture to his CD.

Stayed tuned for a sneak preview of Spring Season 2005 next issue as well as interviews and features with some of our other Spring Season authors!

Cheers!!

Dr David Reiter

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[In this issue, we have interviews with Autumn Season authors Barbara Winter (The Australia-First Movement), Tilly Brasch (No Middle Name) and Jenni Nixon (Café Boogie) interviewed by our Assistant Editors Anne Marshall and Lisa Reynolds.]

Barbara Winter’s Australia-First Movement and the Publicist, 1936-1942, covers a side of Australian politics that many people would like to forget, and yet her book provides an insight into some of the principles behind contemporary parties such as One Nation and Family First.

LR: 1. One of the issues raised in your book is how strong the anti-Semitic feeling was in Australia at the time. Can you explain, briefly, the part the Australia-First Movement played in this?
 
BW: I don’t think it can be concluded that there was wide-spread, strong anti-Semitism in Australia in the 1930s, but the Australia-First Movement strengthened this feeling in those who were already inclined that way.
 
LR: Another interesting aspect of your book is the AFM’s support of the Japanese at a time when there would have been a great deal of anti-Japanese sentiment. How would you explain the AFM’s feelings for the Japanese even after the outbreak of WWII in the Pacific?
 
BW: The core policy of the AFM, as indicated by its name, was to create a strong Australia, independent of both Britain and America in sentiment and by law. Unfortunately, a clique at the head of the AFM decided that a National Socialist Government would make Australia strong, and that the Japanese would magnanimously help Australia to become independent of Britain and not demand a price for their help.
 
LR: Your book deals with people you obviously viewed as unsavory. What drove you, then, to explore their organisation in such depth?
 
BW: There were a lot of decent, well-meaning people connected with the AFM, but they were politically naïve and gullible. Some were quite crazy and a few were outright scoundrels. The setting is in the past, but the tendencies exist everywhere and always. There are lessons to be learned from this.
 
LR: Australia now seems to be regarded as a religiously tolerant country. Do you feel the AFM’s blatantly anti-Semitic views have died out in this country or are the embers of their ideology still burning today?
 
BW: There are still small pockets of strong anti-Semitism, with a wider spread of quiet wariness. If you take anti-Semitism in its widest sense – that is, opposition to Arabs as well as Jews – it is strong in places and probably growing.
 
LR: The book deals with the Publicist newspaper, a publication that started out with the aim of raising awareness of Australian literary culture, and promoting nationalist views. Briefly, how did these good intentions go awry?
 
BW: The main influence behind the Publicist was undoubtedly Billy Miles, who paid the bills. To a large extent, he believed what he was writing, but he also enjoyed hurting people’s feelings and demonstrating – as he thought – his superiority.  The vulgarity and aggression came from Percy Stephensen; it seems he always had a taste for being offensive and shocking.
 
LR: Reading the book one gets the impression that Australia came perilously close to falling under Japanese rule. How close did we come and do you think the AFM members would have lived to regret their sympathy for the Japanese?
 
BW: Most of the AFM associates had no particular liking for the Japanese. Their common aim was the construction of an Australian identity. Many, but not all, supported some form of fascism or Nazism. The strongest support for Japan was found among a few Western Australians, but they were not bone fide members of the AFM. I don’t know if they had the emotional or intellectual capacity to learn from their mistakes. While there was a possibility that the Japanese could have conquered parts of Australia, there was no chance that, in the long run, they could have defeated America, nor that the Americans would let them stay in Australia.
 
LR: Given all the research behind the book, do you think it was worth all the hard work and the long hours?
 
BW: The production of this book gave me a great deal of satisfaction. Only time will tell whether it has any influence on the way people think about political splinter groups.

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Tilly Brasch, the Winner of the inaugural IP Picks Award for Creative Non-Fiction, comes right to the point about the tragedy central to No Middle Name:

AM: Youth suicide is rising in Western Society. In Australia, what can be done to reduce the incidence of this?

TB: Although a great deal of research is being done into the causes of suicide, the findings are not readily publicised for fear that this will be seen as publicising or promoting suicide. Suicide continues to be a whispered and taboo subject that only happens to ‘other’ families; but while this cautionary attitude persists, suicide will continue to be a major, but silent killer of our young people. Contributing factors in the incidence of suicide which need to be openly discussed seem to be:
   • a break-down in traditional values and family      structure;
   • school-yard bullying;
   • experimentation with drugs;
   • lack of employment opportunities; and
   • mental illness.

AM: How can we improve the support systems for families and friends of victims of suicide?

TB: First, the bereaved must be permitted to grieve in a manner that is cathartic to each individual instead of feeling compelled to comply with expectations of a brief and stoic grieving period. Nor should a suicide be treated as a ‘tainted’ death but rather, spoken about as openly and empathetically as any other death. Specific support organisations do exist for those grieved by suicide, but some people are not comfortable with ‘group’ grieving.

AM: Queensland’s mental health system is in an appalling state, not least of all because of the closure of beds at Princess Alexandra hospital. Is more money the key solution to providing more facilities to assist those in need of mental care?

TB: Significantly increased funding, efficiently administered and managed, is the core issue which will improve services in the mental health system. The Royal College of Australian and New Zealand Psychiatrists estimates that Australia’s mental health sector is underfunded by $2 billion.

AM: In No Middle Name, you lament that health professionals and police never notified you when Riley came under their responsibility. Is there a better way for them to handle communication with concerned parents regarding their adult children?

TB: Privacy laws rightfully protect the rights of citizens. However, when a mentally ill adult lacks the capacity to make objective decisions and parents have clearly demonstrated their commitment and support, communication between health professionals, police and the parents should be automatic as a humane procedure for both patient and parents. Perhaps the Mental Health Tribunal that regulates mentally ill patients could also assess parents and grant them the right to be informed on matters pertaining to their adult child.

AM: Health agencies, legal agencies and governmental agencies did not provide enough support for Riley when he needed it the most. Is there anything they can do to prevent similar tragedies in the future?

TB: The mentally ill are the invisible minority in our society, relegated to the lowest priority in the health system, and stigmatised at all bureaucratic levels of health, legal, and government agencies. Tony Abbott MP, Minister for Health and Aged Care, commented in January 2004 that, “Australians with mental health problems already have a reasonable range of services available to them.” While attitudes such as this persist at the top level of government, tragedies will continue.

AM: Bullying at schools is often spotlighted in newspapers and social commentary, yet the problem is still critical. In your book, you suggest that this contributed to Riley’s depression? What is the main thing you think could be done to improve this problem?

TB: Despite education programs and anti-bullying policies, bullying continues to be rife in schools, and indeed, throughout life in general. It would seem that parallels can be drawn between bullying and alcoholism: until the individual acknowledges that a problem exists and a personal commitment is made to reform, there is little that others can do to eradicate this anti-social behaviour that can have tragic consequences.

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[Jenni Nixon talks about writing for performance and for the page and where she and Café Boogie fit in]

Performance Writing

Is the performance in the writing or in the way it is performed? Poetry written for performance may use repetitions, echoes, strong rhythms to make the language memorable. Written to be heard by a crowd or by a solitary reader, reading aloud - to her cat? Ear ink may be words spoken to empty seats. Poetry doesn’t rack up the numbers. Slams draw a bigger crowd.

Live performance can change a text, allowing a modulated response or an over-the-top through-the-roof display. When the atmosphere is intimate, the writer-reader relaxed, a rapport can develop. If the coffee machine is too loud, the crowd restless, drunk, bored, then variations occur, shifting tones, altering emphasis. It is theatre, the shared moment, unique experience of this live NOW.

The sound of words delights me. Music influences my writing, seduces and challenges me. Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Antony. Singer poets. The dramatic narrative of a rock song, jazz riffs or shivering
sentimentality can flood a response.

In café boogie I write about other performances. A play
at the Belvoir, “conversations”, film, “Russian Ark at the Valhalla”, in “time-warp” music at “The Harp”, dance in “Aeros” and “Alibi”. In “xpression/digression on seeing Def Poetry jam

‘I want to be them    strut and spit and shout
spell passion anger out    buckshot doubt…’

Is the work best received in print or when I read it out? I was pleased to hear that a friend read my poem ‘elsewhere in the city’ to her dinner party guests. She said when read aloud the poem ‘came alive’ and she liked it more.

I tend to get good responses from people who hear my work. They may buy the book on the strength of a particular performance. I came after the ‘happening’ - random creativity - out of Queer. I’m not into slam or hip-hop. Often I work a rhythm by breaking up lines.

‘lovers hold hands    exchange hurried kisses
beer slops over middy glasses as mates prop up the bar
pokies chirp musical loss.’
          “top sorts” – café boogie

Not all the poetry I write is performance driven, some is more for quiet reflection. A play of words on the page.

‘her voice    stark yellow flowers in cerulean blue
aerial turns on a sunlit stage tethered to a clothesline
wooden peg spinning off    releases shoulder sleeve
round and round in red dust drags the hem’
          “sounds of flight” – café boogie

During a pub reading, a fellow interrupted my emoting, enquiring, ‘What should I do? I don’t understand poetry. No one read poetry to me as a kid.’ I told him, ‘Sit down, shut up and listen.’

Live poetry can be dangerous.

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[Editor’s Note: We’re repeating this item from our previous issue, just in case you missed it.]

More and more publishers these days are refusing to even consider unsolicited manuscripts. It costs money to review material, and these publishers prefer to allocate their resources to authors they already know.

Recently, the University of Queensland Press (UQP) announced that they were “temporarily halting [their] policy of accepting unsolicited manuscripts” and requiring prose authors to submit via agents.

Given the current financial problems at UQP, don’t hold your breath for the new policy to change.

Since our inception, IP has been open to unsolicited manuscripts, but we too have to deploy our scarce resources as effectively as we can. Rather than close down the “slushpile”, or require authors to get an agent, IP will now charge a reading fee of $165 (GST-inclusive) for the review of complete manuscripts.

This means you can still send us a query (see our guidelines for further information what we require for this) for free, but if we invite you to send a complete manuscript based on the sample, you will be asked to include the reading fee with that submission.

If we then offer to publish you, your investment will have been repaid. If we ultimately turn your project down, we’ll tell you why. Effectively, this will amount to a short assessment of the work’s strengths and weaknesses, so even then you will get something for your investment.

We’ve resisted imposing a reading fee for as long as we could, but at least this will allow IP to continue accepting unsolicited manuscripts. And it may slow the ever-increasing tide of unsolicited manuscripts that we are receiving.

For those authors who cannot afford to pay this reading fee, another option is for you to enter our annual IP Picks competition for unpublished fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry. There is a modest entry fee, but you get a free IP title of your choice. The competition closes 30 November each year, the winners are guaranteed full royalty publication and many of the commended entries are offered publication, too. The downside is that only the winners and commended get feedback on their entries.

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Here are 10 rules, tried and true at IP, to ensure you never get past a publisher’s slushpile.

Rule 1: Send Your Manuscript to Whomever

Nothing impresses a publisher more than a prospective author who’s done her homework, so if you want to be rejected don’t bother researching the publishing house’s interests and strengths – just submit it on the chance that they’ll be interested in your life’s work on Weaning Camels in New Jersey.

Don’t forget to address your submission to “The Editor” or, even better, just “Hi”, so the editor will know that you couldn’t be bothered to find an actual name.

Rule 2: Save the Environment!

By all means recycle that manuscript. Publishers hardly notice if you flout the fact that they are 26th on your list of Preferred Publishers. The more coffee stains, bent corners and marginal comments your manscripts displays, the better.

Rule 3: Empty Your Drawer

If the publisher’s never heard of you, send him everything relating to the manuscript. The thicker your initial submission, the more likely it is to stand out from the others in the slushpile.

Don’t bother providing a roadmap of the contents. If the material is good enough, the editor is sure to find it.

Rule 4: Let the Work Speak for Itself

If your manuscript is destined for the best seller list, why should the editor want to know anything about you?

Publishers are always keen to discover raw talent, so be sure to leave the impression that this is your first attempt to write a novel.

Rule 5: Lay on the Testimonials

Remember to quote kind words from anyone who’s seen the manuscript at whatever stage, especially superlatives like “This book MUST be published!” The fewer credentials they have in the publishing industry, the better, because these relatives of yours represent the unbiased and unwashed – the very market you had in mind for your book.

Rule 6: Pinpoint Your Market

While thinking of markets, be sure to use a scattergun approach in defining what groups will be clamouring to buy your book. There are lots of camels in Australia, so people in Sydney and Melbourne are certain to want to know how to wean them.

If one out of ten people living in our urban centres can, from a conservative estimate, be expected to buy your book, that should justify a print run of at least half a million...

Rule 7: Include THE Cover

One thing that’s bound to make a difference between you and the others languishing on the slushpile is the mock-up of the cover you knocked up in your shareware drawing package the weekend before sending in your submisson.

Put it to the editor as a fait accompli. After all, what does she know about high-impact art?

Rule 8: Experiment!

The last thing you should do in writing your first book is to stifle your creativity, so experiment with form, style – in fact any fictional technique you’ve vaguely heard of. Disdain for the tradition never kept Dickins or Patrick White from getting published. Clearly, most published authors out there make it up as they go along.

The harder it is to classify your manuscript, the more likely the publisher will be to accept it. Why should she care if bookshops won’t know where to stock it?

Rule 9: Remind the Publisher...

True, some publishers are busy people, but they can always make time to chat with people they’ve never met about manuscripts they haven’t yet read.

Phone them cold, and don’t be afraid to ask them exactly when you can expect a contract.

Rule 10: Try, Try Again – but not with Them

He’ll live to regret it for turning you down. When the manuscript comes back to you with nothing more than a polite rejection letter, who could blame you for bearing a grudge?

Spread the bad word about this third-rate publisher to everyone you know – to spare them the pain and suffering you went through. Then spill a little coffee on Page One and send the bundle back on its way – without an SASE!

After all, JK Rowlings was rejected how many times before she hit the charts?

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In what could well be a first in Australia, IP Digital will be releasing its first title using mp4 format.

Without getting technical about it, we can tell you that the best way to imagine mp4 audio is to think CD quality sound with mp3 compression.

All IP Digital Audio + Text titles are “burned” in two sessions. One contains the e-book of the text, with accompanying audio files, so you can hear the work as you read it on your PC. The other session is a pure audio file, which allows you to listen to the same audio anthology on a portable CD player, in your car, or wherever.

In our first Audio + Text titles, we used mp3 audio for the data session and an uncompressed .aif anthology (similar to what you get on a conventional music CD) for the audio session. This meant that the best sound would be heard from the audio session.

But now, with mp4 format preserving the audio quality at a fraction of the space taken by .aif files, we can now give you the same high quality audio as you hear on your portable CD Player while you read the files on your PC.

Let’s hear it for mp4s!!

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We may be getting a wee bit ahead of ourselves here, but we’re waiting, with baited breath (along with tens of millions of other people world-wide) the release of Apple’s Tiger operating system.

Aside from all the other you-beaut gizmos that will be onboard the new OS, Tiger (OSX.4) will sport a new version of Quicktime Pro, which in turn will have the ability to play, via the free Quicktime Player, video created with the H.264 codec.

Don’t be confused by this. Think of our analogy above. H.264 technology will allow film producers to compress their work down to a fraction of its normal size, with no noticable loss of quality.

The implications for video are obvious. It could be feasible to produce short films on CD rather than DVDs, or to produce longer films, with extra content and interactivity, on DVDs.

Excited? We are. And we already have a project in the pipeline that will be purr-fectly suited to Tiger. Bring it on!

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Merle Thornton was the key speaker in Brisbane on 2 March, during International Women’s Week, at the Regatta Hotel in an event sponsored by Ernst & Young, Allens Arthur Robinson, and Westpac Bank.

The event organisers provided a copy of Merle’s book After Moonlight to all who attended, which was appreciated by IP and the author, as well, we’re sure by the throng in attendance.

Merle will be in Brisbane in mid-May to attend the launch by Minister Desley Boyle at Parliament House on May 18 of the Office for Women book Great Queensland Women as part of the Queensland Government program celebrating 100 years of the vote for women in Queensland. It has profiles of twenty women of whom Merle is the only living one. She’s then the speaker at The Griffith Review literary lunch at the Logan campus of Griffith Universtiy on May 20.

In Melbourne on May 25 she and daughter Sigrid will dialogue at Readers' Feast bookshop in the city as one of their regular series of book events in the bookshop.

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Autumn Season 2005 is about to get under way, with launches in Sydney followed by Brisbane. All these events are free, with complimentary refreshments.

David Musgrave and Jenni Nixon will join forces with David Reiter at The Friend in Hand in Glebe on Saturday, 14 May, from 3 p.m. to offically kick off the Season in poetic style.

David Musgrave’s title On Reflection was accepted by IP some time ago, but we decided to give it some breathing space after the publication of his first book, To Thalia, which appeared in the Five Islands New Poets 10 chapbook series. (IP has published other authors from the New Poets group, including Brett Dionysius and Cate Kennedy, with yet another one tentatively scheduled for Spring Season – our secret for the moment.)

After getting his PhD in, of all things, menippean satire and the grotesque, and winning or being short-listed for a swag of poetry prizes such as the Somerset, Newcastle, Bruce Dawe and Broadway, David has quietly pursued a career as an IT specialist for a private health fund.

Jenni’s CD version of her Café Boogie book has been an exercise in what can be accomplished by remote collaboration. Jenni, who is a seasoned performance poet, recorded the 18 tracks on the CD in Sydney and Lisa Reynolds completed the post production at Treetop Studio here in Brisbane.

Like the previous titles in our Audio + Text Series, Café Boogie contains a full e-book of the print version, plus two audio anthologies, one of which you can hear as you read the poems on your PC, the other of which you can hear on a portable CD Player – no PC required!

As a special bonus, the CD contains some new poems and some of Jenni’s artwork – yes, she’s a visual artist, too!

Launch details:
Saturday, 14 May, from 3 p.m.
The Friend in Hand
58 Cowper Street, Glebe
RSVP (11 May)

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The very next day, Sunday, 15 May, David will join authors Genevieve Cumming-Jaffé and Nora Krouk for what promises to be an exciting event at the Sydney Jewish Museum.

Their work has important Jewish content. In If These Walls Could Talk, Genevieve has compiled an interactive CD-ROM that traces the life of her great-grandfather, Abraham Jaffé, who was one of the few survivors in his family of the Holocaust during Word War II. The work is a model of what is possible in family histories, using multimedia.



The CD will be launched by Dr Suzanne Rutland.

Genevieve becomes the youngest IP author to date. In fact, the same weekend, she’ll be celebrating her twenty-first birthday, so it’s bound to be an emotionally charged time for her!

Nora Krouk will also give a reading of her fine book, Skin for Comfort, which Peter Boyle described, at the sell-out launch at the New South Wales Writers Centre as

gather[ing] a great stretch of the twentieth century with its horrors, its wars, its violence, its lies.

and comparing her work to the great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.

The book will be launched by Dr Andrew Jakubowicz.

Launch details:
Sunday, 15 May, from 3 p.m.
The Sydney Jewish Museum
148 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst
RSVP (11 May)

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The following week, IP will launch the Season on 17 May, with Tilly Brasch’s emotionally charged book No Middle Name. The book, which has already won endorsement from SANE, Australia, tells the story of her son Riley’s tragic end in a way that anyone who has been touched by the suicide of a loved one will find compelling. But it also confronts the various agencies that could have made a difference in avoiding Riley’s fate if they had been there when he needed them.

Rather than a simple complaint on the subject of our society’s seeming indifference to mental illness and youth suicide, the book offers insights into how the system can be improved. In fact, the book is being launched at Stepping Stone Clubhouse, one of the few places Riley found help in his final days, which we think is significant.

We’re pleased to have Arch Bevis, MP in attendance to launch the book, which we’re sure will quickly find a national audience.

Launch details:
Tuesday, 17 May, from 6 p.m.
The Stepping Stone Clubhouse
9/61 Holdsworth Street, Coorparoo
RSVP (13 May)

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A mere two days later, we move on to the launch of a very different, but no less intriguing, book. Barbara Winter is a seasoned author with several books already to her credit, but her latest could be fairly described as her obsession.

The Australia-First Movement and the Publicist, 1936-1942 exposes the truth behind the Ultra Right movement in Australia during World War II and how a group of well-meaning nationalists ended up as Nazi and Japanese sympathizers. Some even had plans to install a fascist government here when Germany won the War!

A thoroughly researched and indexed book, The Australia-First Movement is the basis for Barbara’s Master’s Degree, which she’s nearly finished at the University of Queensland.

Dr Andrew Bonnell from UQ will be launching the book.

Launch details:
Thursday, 19 May, from 6 p.m.
The National Archives of Australia
16 Corporate Drive, Cannon Hill
RSVP (15 May)

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Hot on the heels of all this launch activity, David will be guest speaker at the May meeting of the Gold Coast Writers’ Association.

The group, which was set up back in 1990, is doing its best to dismiss the view of the Gold Coast as a Tinsel Town. It boasts quite a few members, and subdivides into “support groups” who help members with feedback on their work in areas such as the novel, short story, adults writing for children, and children writing for children.

David will speak on the latest innovations at IP, especially in our rapidly growing digital imprint, IP Digital.

As a special treat, we’re hoping to have copies available of the last of our Autumn Season titles, I'll Howl Before You Bury Me, a collaboration between writer/musician Liam Guilar and composer/musician Chen Yang. Another in our Text + Audio Series, this pushes the boundaries a bit further for IP Digital. The music on the CD is more of a partner with the text rather than merely a background.

Event details:
Saturday, 21 May, from 1:45 p.m.
Fradgley Hall, Park Avenue
Burleigh Heads
No RSVP required

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[Editor’s Note: To keep you up-to-date on reviews of our titles that have come in since the last issue, we decided to start this new column. We’ll include a line or two to whet your appetite, plus a link to the complete review.]

On Another, by Joel Deane:

“Joel Deane's first novel, Another, has just been published and is, in a word, compelling.” — Bob Hart, Herald Sun (Melbourne)

“This winner of the IP Picks Fiction Prize represents a fresh, compelling voice in contemporary Australian fiction.” — Jen Jewel Brown, Melbourne Weekly

“Another is a cleverly-structured piece of dark realist literature, portraying the harsh realities of everyday life in a most visual manner.” — Rachael Blair, Journal of Australian Studies (JAS)

“Deane’s achievement is to humanise people most Australians don’t believe in, or perhaps only see in television caricatures or in video footage of service station robberies.” — Maria Takolander, The Australian Book Review

On Café Boogie, by Jenni Nixon

“I was entertained and not a little moved by such an intelligent observer of the nitty-gritty in the city.” — Robin Fry, New Zealand Poetry Society

“Cafe Boogie is an emotionally literate trip through some of the small-and-larger-scaled battlegrounds of contemporary life; it's big-hearted enough to laugh at some of the furies driving it – and bounce on.” — Kerry Leves, Overland

On After Moonlight, by Merle Thornton

“After Moonlight’s strengths are in characterisation and plot. Claire is engaging: impulsive, secretive, caring and blunt.” — Maria Takolander, The Australian Book Review

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Deal 1: Order any two IP titles and get the third for free.

Buy any two titles from the IP Shop via our order page to qualify. Do it before 1 June and and we’ll throw in free postage and handling (a flat $8 charge applies thereafter).

Quote YD:26_1. Payment by cheque, money order or EFT only.

Deal 2: Order an IP Six-pack for $66 + $6.

Your choice of any six IP titles published before 2004 for just $11 each, GST-inclusive, plus a flat $6 postage and handling.

Quote YD:26_2. Payment by cheque, money order or EFT only.

FIPC members get a further 10% discount off the cost of either package plus free postage. Sign up now and get the benefits of Club membership today.

Offers available only to individuals.