Telling Our Stories

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TIMELINE

1970s Telling our stories • Fremantle Arts Centre Press established by City of Some of Australia’s best writers have come from the Fremantle Fremantle with a WA Arts Press stable. William Yeoman looks back on 40 fabulous years. Council grant. • Early publications include Elizabeth lizabeth Jolley. Kim Scott. Sally and distribute their work to the widest The fact the majority of Fremantle Elizabeth Jolley’s Five Acre Jolley Morgan. T.A.G. Hungerford. possible audience, across fiction, Press authors live in the State means Virgin and Other Stories, Nicholas Hasluck’s Anchor Gail Jones. John Kinsella. Liz non-fiction, poetry and children’s readers can have direct access to them. and Other Poems, and Byrski. Craig Silvey. Randolph literature. “When I talk to book clubs I ask them Soundings, a selection of EStow. Fremantle Press’s stable of writers “Think globally, act locally” could if they’ve thought about doing a WA poetry edited by past and present reads like a who’s who well apply here, with Fremantle Press Fremantle Press book,” Jane says. Veronica Brady. of WA literary royalty. firmly embedded in the WA community “Because our authors are here and you • Fremantle Press Which comes as no surprise, given the yet committed to telling our stories to the can meet them. You can even ask them to co-publishes, with Currency West Australian not-for-profit world. For Fremantle Press chief come to your book club. It adds a new Press, Dorothy Hewett’s play publisher’s commitment to executive Jane Fraser, it’s all dimension to the book club experience.” The Man from Mukinupin. bringing uniquely Australian about place, connection. For adult fiction publisher Georgia stories to the world and “Every one of our Richter, working with authors is 1980s identifying talented new books has that sense immensely rewarding. • Western Australian and emerging Western of place,” Jane says. “It’s all about the story, we share this Wildflowers in Watercolour Australian writers and “Every one of our desire to make it the best book it can by botanical artist Philippa Nikulinsky is published. artists, and to publish authors connects possibly be. And that’s a really nice • A Fortunate Life by A.B. Alan with the reader. So foundation for a relationship,” she says. Facey published. Carter Top sellers as a West Australian, “That local element, that accessibility, • Philip Salom’s The Silent • My Place by Sally Morgan you can say ‘This is a is very important to our success as a small Piano wins Commonwealth • Destroying Avalon by Kate McCaffrey book about us’. independent publisher. It’s about real Poetry Prize. • Stories from Suburban Road “We get so much joy relationships with real people and the • Indigenous program by T.A.G. Hungerford knowing these stories are about result is that Fremantle Press authors launched with Gularabulu • The Newspaper of Claremont Street our place and about who we are. That have been at the heart of the way Western by Paddy Roe with Stephen by Elizabeth Jolley way every one of us owns a piece of those Australia sees itself and the way others Muecke. • Prime Cut by Alan Carter stories.” see us too.” • Jolley’s Milk and Honey • Benang by Kim Scott wins NSW Premier’s Literary Award. • The Last of the Nomads by W.J. Peasley • Joan London’s Sister • The Deep by Tim Winton and Karen Louise Ships wins the Age Book • The Last Anzacs by Steven Siewert and of the Year. Tony Stephens • Distribution agreement • In Flanders Fields by Norman Jorgensen with Penguin Group. and Brian Harrison-Lever • Sally Morgan’s My Place • Lighthouse Girl by Dianne Wolfer wins the Human Rights and Brian Simmonds Award for Literature and • A Sausage Went For a Walk by Peter becomes a global success. Kendall and Ellisha Majid • John Kinsella’s first • Sabrina’s Little ABC Book of Gardening collection of poetry, Night by Sabrina Hahn Parrots, is published. Craig Silvey Liz Byrski Kim Scott

CELEBRATE 40 YEARS OF Fremantle Press

Join us for our 40th anniversary and the announcement of the City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award winner. With music by Dave Warner, and Anna Gare and the Jam Tarts, plus readings by Kim Scott, Dennis Haskell, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Craig Silvey, Stephen Kinnane, Sabrina Hahn, James Foley and Liz Byrski, this is your invitation to a special event marking four decades of great local stories. When: 6.00 pm Wednesday 2 November, Fremantle Arts Centre TICKETS ARE FREE. Bookings: fremantlepress.com.au/book-clubs Sponsored content

1990s • First T.A.G. Hungerford Award for an unpublished first manuscript goes to The big picture Brenda Walker’s Crush. some of the cleverest yet subtle picture State Library of WA is curating and • Children’s list launched A new exhibition books and have, accordingly, won all sorts hosting the exhibition A Sausage Went with A Sausage Went for a explores the story of well-deserved awards. For a Walk One Day, celebrating 40 years Walk by Ellisha Majid and behind WA’s picture of Fremantle Press. Peter Kendall. “The other change is that the age • Gail Jones wins T.A.G. books. range that they are produced for has Beginning with the much-loved A expanded to include older children. No Sausage Went For a Walk (1991) by Ellisha Hungerford Award for The dults often overlook the depth longer just on the shelves on the Majid and Peter Kendall, the exhibition House of Breathing. and sophistication of picture pre-school section, huge numbers of traces the art of picture books and picture • May O’Brien’s Bawoo books for younger readers. Stories, one of the first books picture books can also be found in book making, inviting readers into Which is a pity, as they have at to feature an indigenous high school libraries. I think the world behind their creation lAeast as much to say about the world to the language, is published. that is wonderful.” and shedding new light on parents who read these books to their • Deborah Robertson’s Children’s publisher this art form. children as they do to those same little ‘Their Proudflesh wins the Steele Cate Sutherland has “This wonderful people. Rudd Award. worked at Fremantle exhibition will form the • Down to Earth by Richard One need look no further than stories Press since 1997 and has jewel in the crown of the Woldendorp and Tim Fremantle Press’s picture book been responsible for the matter to 2016 AWESOME Festival, Winton becomes bestseller. catalogue, where titles such as Ambelin children’s program for showcasing the great Kwaymullina’s Crow and the Waterhole all of us.’ more than a decade. In that depth of talent that exists 2000s and Norman Jorgensen and Brian role she has nurtured the within the West Australian • Kim Scott becomes first Harrison-Lever’s In Flanders Fields talents of local creators and children’s literature sector as we indigenous author to win the manage to operate on many levels at established strong partnerships between celebrate 40 years of magnificent work by Miles Franklin for his second once, transcending their genre to novel, Benang. writers and illustrators, many of whom Fremantle Press,” AWESOME chief embrace readers of all ages and • In Flanders Fields by are publishing their work for the first executive Jenny Simpson says. backgrounds. Norman Jorgensen and time. Artworks and development materials Jorgensen, who has also worked with Brian Harrison-Lever wins “Working with new and emerging from 36 original picture books will be on illustrator James Foley on their the Children’s Book Council authors and illustrators is incredibly display, giving readers rare insight into of Australia picture book of Viking series of picture books, rewarding,” Cate says. “For the process — the hundreds of sketches, the year. says the quality and the age me, picture books storyboards, text revisions, and style and • Craig Silvey’s debut range of such books have always start with the colour experiments that go into creating Rhubarb published, Silvey increased dramatically since story — that magic the book. named Sydney Morning he started working in the moment when I Author and illustrator Sally Morgan, Herald best young field. read something in whose work is featured throughout the Australian novelist. “Modern picture books the submission pile exhibition, says picture books have the • Destroying Avalon by Kate are now, more often than McCaffrey, Australia’s first that excites me.” power to inspire a lifelong love of reading. not, beautiful works of art in novel on cyberbullying, But her favourite “Sharing our local stories helps West their own right,” he says. “I becomes bestseller. part of the process is Australian kids to feel pride and joy in love wandering through the • T.A.G. Hungerford winner pairing an illustrator their own stories. Their stories matter to picture books sections of Alice Nelson named Sydney with a writer. “I love all of us.” bookshops just looking in Morning Herald best young visualising what the story could Australian novelist for The amazement at what has A Sausage Went for a Walk One look like depending on which Last Sky. been produced Day, State Library of WA until illustrator does the work.” • K.A. Bedford wins an recently. Fremantle December 31, see As part of the AWESOME Festival, the Aurealis Award. Press has produced fremantlepress.com.au.

FRƀųUŦƌƏŽDWŮƊ )UHžŦƁWżů3UHƊƋonŒ\ŮŧUƊof SXŨŽŶVŴŷƁJXƀŶƇƏHOƖ:HVƌŮƉQ$XVƌƉŦOŷDƀ VƌRƉŶůV Join the Celebration7HOżƎƋZŴ\ƖƃX Send your entries (max 50 words) to Terms and Conditions: ORƐŮƍƃUHŦŬŽƃFDż [email protected] with Love to Read Local Competition open to WA residents in the subject line. only. The decision of writingWA’s IRƈŦFŴŧƁFHƌƂƓŷQ Competition closes midday 10 October and the judges will be ﬁnal. No further WŴLƋJŶŰƍSDŪŻƂIŬůũXWƀƂƑůOƊũ\ winner will be announced on 14 October. correspondence will be entered into. RŰ:HVƌŮƉQ$XVƌƉŦOŷD¢V Discover all the latest books by WA writers. Selected responses may be posted on writingWA’s Subscribe to the LoveWRRead Local H-newsletter @ Facebook page and in the Love to Read /RFDO QHƒŮƋWƒƉLWŶƀųWDżŮƁWƊ www.writingwa.org > Subscribe H-news.

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2010s • Prime Cut by Alan Carter wins Ned Kelly Award for Criminal minds best debut crime fiction. WA has a winning line-up of functions as entertainment but also has a Awards, including this year’s winner • The Last Viking by political purpose, representing crime as Before It Breaks by Dave Warner. Norman Jorgensen and writers exploring our dark side. James Foley short-listed for not just the work of an aberrant individual Georgia cites Randolph Stow’s five awards. iven the dynamism and but as something structural and integral Suburbs of Hell, published in 1993, as the • Ambelin Kwaymullina diversity of Fremantle Press’s to the way our society works.” Press’s first crime novel — though Brenda launches Chinese editions crime fiction list, one could Fremantle Press publisher Georgia Walker’s 1991 novel Crush did exhibit of her picture books Crow be forgiven for thinking Perth Richter agrees, while highlighting the elements of crime. “But the first novel and the Waterhole, The Gmust be the crime capital of Australia. camaraderie that exists between crime which really gave West Australians Two-Hearted Numbat, How Of course, nobody is brazen enough to authors, including Whish-Wilson, Alan permission to write fictionally about Frogmouth Found Her make such an assertion. But corruption is Carter, Ron Elliott and Peter Docker. crime in a way we’re familiar with today Home and Caterpillar and the handmaiden of civilisation and, if “There is a sense that here is a was Dave Warner’s City of Light (1995),” Butterfly. genre fiction offers an alternative way of community of writers who talk to each she says. “There’s that idea that you can • Light Horse Boy by Dianne “doing history”, perhaps we can say with other and whose crime books feed into a turn lightness into darkness so effectively Wolfer and Brian Simmonds more certainty that Perth is the crime bigger conversation,” she says. “These are in Perth and its surrounds, and I think made a Children’s Book fiction capital of Australia. WA stories, which are the stories we tell — that book is the foundation of our list.” Council of Australia honour book and wins the Western “What crime fiction does best is talk they order and reflect on the society in It’s a quality Young seizes on. “I think Australian Premier’s Book about the things that often aren’t talked which we live and they provide nuances more than anything else it was the WA Award. about, looking at personalities and events and sinister undertones to the places settings that influenced my crime • In Love and War by Liz that often aren’t represented in the where we spend our days.” writing,” she says. “The pea-soup fogs of Byrski is sold to HBO for a history books, or anywhere else for that More than half of the Fremantle Press Victorian London, the ‘mean streets’ of UK/US mini-series. matter,” says Perth author David crime novels were published from 2010 Chicago, the snowy wastelands of • French theatre company Whish-Wilson, whose latest crime novel onwards when Georgia published Felicity Scandinavia. Compare those to the Royal de Luxe use Old Scores will be published by Young’s Take Out as one of her first books unending white beaches and blue skies of Lighthouse Girl by Dianne Fremantle Press next month. as the Fremantle Press adult fiction WA and the vibrant colour of the pindan Wolfer and Brian Simmonds “I think crime fiction is a terrific publisher. sand — what a contrast! The challenge to as inspiration for a character vehicle to explore social themes and I’m Over the past six years she has me was to impose the same kind of in The Giants at the particularly interested in crimes that arise developed a critically acclaimed list of menace in our surroundings as that of our Perth International Arts Festival. at the intersection of politics and business crime novels that have won a long listing northern hemisphere colleagues. I think • Dave Warner’s Before It — that is, crimes that are done for political for the Miles Franklin Award and a the settings chosen by WA’s crime writers Breaks wins Ned Kelly or business reasons. Crime fiction shortlisting and two wins in the Ned Kelly work as a delicious form of irony.” Award for best crime fiction. • Sister Heart by Sally Morgan is made a Children’s Book Council of Australia honour book. • Bronwyn Bancroft is nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition given to a children’s book creator.

Proudly investing in Western Australian writing and publishing Sponsored content Locals think global Shortlist announced for 2016 City of Madagascar to save her marriage. “Focused on the Fremantle TAG Hungerford award. relationship, I underestimated the challenge of hiking for 350km. Reflecting back on the trip, it was precisely hen Shaun Tan was creating his award- this journey that made me distinguish my own winning picture book The Arrival, one purpose … and traverse to a new future in Australia.” of his many influences was seminal WA Martin, too, has lived all over the world. “Learning author T.A.G. Hungerford’s short story Polish tells the story of my three years in Poland as a Wong Chu and the Queen’s Letterbox. diplomatic wife — a story that starts with a suspicion It’s almost 40 years since Hungerford’s collection there ‘just might be more’ to life than my comfortable of the same name became one of Fremantle Press’ first existence in Canberra and ends three years later in a publications but themes of migration and expatriation Polish forest with the realisation doing interesting are common threads running through the 2016 City of things not only doesn’t make you happy, it doesn’t Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford short list. Catherine even make you interesting.” Gillard, Jay Martin, Jodie Tesoriero, Tineke Van der Many 2016 entries came from regional writers but a Eecken and David Thomas Henry Wright are in the high proportion came from Fremantle and nearby. running for the award, which is given Fremantle mayor Brad Pettitt is pleased to biennially to an unpublished fiction or see many local entries. “This creative non-fiction manuscript by a demonstrates what a strong creative WA author. The prize is $12,000 and and literary culture (Fremantle) has a publishing contract with nurtured. The city is proud to Fremantle Press. sponsor this award which has Fremantle Press fiction grown in status year on year and publisher Georgia Richter says the provided a springboard for some short-listed manuscripts grapple very talented writers.”

with being a stranger in a strange 2014 winner Brenda Walker’s winning novel land — referencing other places and Madelaine Crush kickstarted an impressive defining themselves in relation to them. Dickie career that has included a Victorian “Two creative non-fiction pieces portray Premier’s Award for non-fiction. In 2006 women following their husbands overseas and, of Walker was short-listed for a Miles Franklin the three novels, two explore the experience of Literary Award. immigration, while a third includes a convincing Fellow Hungerford winner Gail Jones has been

rendering of life in China and North Korea,” she says. short-listed for the Miles Franklin three times and :HI67A>H=:9&--- Teacher, songwriter and musician Tesoriero says recognised in several international awards. While the setting for her migrant story Barcarola was Jones’ The House of Breathing won the Hungerford in inspired by the birthplace of her paternal 1991, an entrant that year was Kim Scott, who went on grandparents, the island Panarea in southern Italy. to become the first indigenous writer to win the Miles “It’s hard to explain the spiritual connection I feel with Franklin and first indigenous writer to win it twice. the island. It’s as though the history, the memory of it, is hardwired into my DNA.” The winner of the 2016 City of Fremantle Van der Eecken, a visual artist working in social T.A.G. Hungerford Award will be announced and criminal justice, has lived in Africa and Europe. on Wednesday, November 2. Bookings: She wrote Traverse after travelling to northern fremantlepress.com.au/bookclubs.

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