Shapeshifting: First Nations Lyric Nonfiction

by Ellen Van Neerven (Editor)

288 pages, Paperback

Published January 3, 2025

About the author

Ellen van Neerven (they/them) is an award-winning author, editor and educator of Mununjali (Yugambeh language group) and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, and non-fiction on unceded Turrbal and Yuggera land. van Neerven’s first book, Heat and Light (UQP, 2014), a novel-in-stories, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. van Neerven’s poetry collection Comfort Food (UQP, 2016) won the Tina Kane Emergent Award and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize. Throat (UQP, 2020) is the recipient of Book of the Year, the Kenneth Slessor Prize, and the Multicultural Award at 2021 NSW Literary Awards, and the inaugural Quentin Bryce Award.

Reviews

[Jim Rimmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cracking collection of stories that span a broad range of lived experience. While many are relatable I was especially chuffed to see palawa elder Jim Everett/puralia meenamatta tackle the topic of next steps toward Treaty after the unsuccessful 2023 Indigenous Voice referendum in his piece, Elephant in the Room.

Whoever needs to hear it, more books like this please.

[Lizzies.Little.Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

🩷Shapeshifting: First Nations Lyric Nonfiction, edited by Jeanine Leane and Ellen van Neerven🩷

This is one of those collections that asks you to slow down, sit with the language, and let it work on you. So incredibly important, and so deeply moving.

The experimentation with form is a real highlight here with so many pieces coming to life on the page, bending and stretching what nonfiction can look like. That said, this is not a casual read. Some essays are quite dense, demanding your full attention, and I occasionally found myself needing to reread sections to fully grasp what the writer was expressing. But the payoff, absolutely worth it.

Shapeshifting is an essential read. It is a collection that doesn’t just showcase talent, it actively reshapes the literary landscape. Thought-provoking, innovative, and unapologetically complex, this is a book that stays with you long after the final page, and I highly recommend picking up a copy.

QOTD: Do you have an anthology that you recommend?