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.