The Drover’s Wife
Leah Purcell’s novel The Drover’s Wife is a brave reimagining of the Henry Lawson short story that has become an Australian classic. Brilliantly plotted, it is a compelling thriller of our pioneering past that confronts head-on issues of today: race, gender, violence, and inheritance.
Leah Purcell is a multi-award-winning and self-made author, playwright, actor, director, filmmaker, producer, screenwriter, and showrunner. At the heart of her work are female and First Nation themes, characters, and issues. The Drover’s Wife was first a play written by and starring Purcell, which premiered at Belvoir St Theatre in late 2016 and swept the board during the 2017 awards season. The feature film adaptation of The Drover’s Wife, written, directed, and starring Leah Purcell, is slated for a 2020 release. Leah Purcell is a proud Goa, Gunggari, Wakka Wakka Murri woman from Queensland.
Why We Sleep
If you could not sleep during lockdown, Why We Sleep covers how to get back on track. Why we still understand so little about the science of sleep, despite knowing that a lack of sleep can have devastating consequences. How major diseases – Alzheimer’s, cancer, obesity, diabetes – are linked to deficient sleep. How all that extra caffeine and alcohol affects your sleep – and what to do about it.
Matthew Walker’s fascination with sleep has taken him from Nottingham to Harvard and on to the University of California, Berkeley, where he is currently Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology and Director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory. He has published over 100 scientific research studies during his twenty-year career. Why We Sleep is his first book.
The Bluffs
The Bluffs is Kyle Perry’s first adult novel. The beauty and dangers of nature – with the incredible Great Western Tiers in Tasmania as the backdrop of The Bluffs, it is emphasised how easy it is for inexperienced people to become disoriented and lose their way; and how temperamental weather can change drastically affect situations in an instant. Kyle uses his own experiences being lost not once, but twice, in the mountains to paint a vivid picture of the realities.
Kyle Perry is a counsellor who has worked extensively in high schools, youth shelters and drug rehabs. In his work he encounters stories and journeys that would fill a hundred books. Kyle’s mother grew up in the foothills of the Great Western Tiers, in Tasmania’s heartland, where his grandfather was called on for search and rescues in the mountains. Kyle himself has been lost in Tasmanian mountains twice, and once used ripped pages of a journal stuck on branches to find his way back out. He has also seen strange things in the bush that defy explanation and are best not spoken about.
White Fragility
Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility asks, how does race shape the lives of white people?
From our daily thoughts to the history we are taught, we need to acknowledge white privilege and how society is structured to benefit white people.
“I’m not a racist, I’m a good person.” The good/bad binary makes it difficult to talk to white people about racism when being called a racist is considered a moral blow. The phrases ‘I don’t see colour’ or ‘I don’t see race’ doesn’t exempt us from racism and erases the experiences of people of colour. How white women’s tears silence women of colour and how can we start having more honest conversations, listen to each other better and react to feedback with grace and humility.
Robin DiAngelo is an academic, lecturer, and author working in the fields of critical discourse analysis and whiteness studies. She is a lecturer at the University of Washington and formerly served as a tenured professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University. DiAngelo has been a consultant and trainer for more than twenty years on issues of racial and social justice.
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