Latitudes: New Writing from the North

by Susan Johnson, Mary Roberts (Editor)

David Malouf and Thea Astley, along with other well-known fiction writers including Thomas Shapcott, Janette Turner Hospital and Gerard Lee, have contributed to this exciting collection of new writing from the north. Their vigorous voices combine with fresh new ones to reveal an emotional and imaginative life as lush and diverse as the physical landscape.

The styles vary from the realist to the fabulist, from the delicate and evocative to the raw and energetic. Among the new writers Carmell Killin, with her exceptional ear for the vernacular of central Queensland, and Matthew Condon with his gift for subtle character development. Philip Neilson writes with the precision of a poet, and Anne Statham offers disturbing visions of the low life. The stories were chosen by Susan Johnson and Mary Roberts from more than six hundred submissions.

223 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Susan Johnson was shortlisted for the 1991 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for her novel Flying Lessons, shortlisted for the 1994 National Book Council's Banjo Award for the novel A Big Life and shortlisted for the National Biography Award 2000 for her memoir A Better Woman. Her other books include Hungry Ghosts, Messages from Chaos, Women Love Sex (editor and contributor) and Life in Seven Mistakes. The Broken Book was shortlisted for the 2005 Nita B Kibble Award; the Best Fiction Book section of the Queensland Premier's Literary Award; the Westfield/Waverley Library Literary Award, and the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal Award for an Outstanding Australian Literary Work. Her last novel, My Hundred Lovers, was published in 2012 to critical acclaim.

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Reviews

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so new in 1986, and now seems so dated. Not one First Nations writer amongst the 23, and only seven women, one Asian Australian. There's an awful lot of Ocker, amidst some more touching and philosophical work. Janette Turner Hospital packs a punch towards her narrator's holy roller family, preaching on Queen St Brisbane on weekend nights. We understand why she moved to Canada, reflecting Hospital's own life in India, north America and Australia.
Other stand-outs are Mathew Condon, Thea Astley, Bruce Lee Leong, David Malouf, and Errol O'Neill, who was voted UQ's favourite lecturer in the years I attended.