The Big Black Thing Chapter 2

by Michael Mohammed Ahmad (Editor), Winnie Dunn (Editor), Ellen Van Neerven (Editor)

The Big Black Thing: Chapter. 2 is the second issue in a new series of prose and poetry by emerging and established writers from Indigenous, migrant and refugee backgrounds.

Featuring Auckland Uati, Marko Poletanovic, Paris Caroline Henry, John Truong, Michel Anderson, Marouf Alameddine, Ebony Annor, Jessica Vu, Joanne Georgousaki, Jaafar Ibrahim, Amanda Yeo, Suleiman Suleiman, Omar Sakr, Cloe Letele, Bassima Hadid, Eman Arja, Farah Abdelkarim, Evelyn Araluen, Shayma Assaad, Norita Rizvi, Shirley Le, Stephen Pham, Mariam Al Asaad, Hikmah Tebe, Tamar Chnorhokian, Catherine Prasad, Peter Polites, Safa El-Mazloum, Tien Tran, Aya Elgamal, Samar El-Charif, Abigail Chand, Monikka Eliah, Tasnim Alam, Maya Ali, Kane Harrington, Gabriella Florek, Ushna Fatima, Yazmeen Akoum, Aqeela Shauab, Samantha Hogg, Sam Sabri, Aws Al Khamisi, Azeez Azeez, Belal Shahoud, Ghadeer Darraji, Sam Nathim Naeem, Saman Al Zuhairi, Savyo Yonan, Adam Alsabahi, Ameer Alkhamis, Adam Phillip Anderson, Dani Mejbel, Jason Gray, Tyreice Peachey, Brandon Gale, Marko Bogic, Trinity Wensley, Dominic Mills, Kasey Weightman, Trenton Fynn, Samantha Snedden, Tellah Edwards, Riley Ke ord, Lachlan Holmes, Jamil Janif, Chelsea Randell, Tahlia Blacklock, Kiah Bolt, Mikayla Kumar, Colt Currell, Hayley Laws, Harrison Randell, Caitlin Laws, Isaac Miller and artworks by Emma Hicks.

211 pages, Paperback

Published April 30, 2018

About the author

Michael Mohammed Ahmad is an Arab-Australian writer, editor and community arts worker. He is the founding director of Sweatshop: Western Sydney Literacy Movement. In 2012, he received the Australia Council Kirk Robson Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements in community cultural development. Mohammed’s debut novel, The Tribe (Giramondo, 2014), won the 2015 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelists of the Year Award. His second novel, The Lebs (Hachette, 2018) received the 2019 NSW Premier’s Multicultural Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Award. Mohammed received his Doctorate of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University in 2017.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could say I liked this book but I just can't. There were definitely some really enjoyable parts but the rest was honestly just bad. There were parts that I honestly did not understand and parts that seemed like they shouldn't be in there at all. I don't want to pick on specific people but I theress a big chunk in the last quarter of the book that would probably have been better off left out altogether. It just goes from bad to worse.

Some highlights for me were:

- ba by Jessica Vu
- Kalitsounia by Joanne Georgousaki
- Fingerguns by Amanda Yeo
- Malay by Evelyn Araluen
- Myuran Sukamaran: Part 1 & Part 2 by Shirley Le and Stephen Pham
- Shu?! by Aya Elgamal
- Jumper by Monikka Eliah
- Pearly Blacks by Gabriella Florek
- Last Gift by Azeez Azeez

[a*s*h · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really appreciated how ....dedicated to a truly unedited authentic western Sydney youth voice this collection. It almost feels like a photograph or a recording. Primary source