westerly56:1 westerly the best in writing from the West the best in writing from the West Volume 57 Number 1, 2012 Nicholas Birns, editor of the North American journal westerly of Australian American literary studies, Antipodes, has 57:1 Articles written that with the passing of Bruce Bennett, all literary scholars of Australia have lost a friend, a helping hand Poems and an esteemed, guiding sensibility. He refers to Bruce westerly as not only a commanding figure in the field but even the best in writing from the West Stories more simply a gracious and likable man. He is as much remembered for his always generous support of students Tribute to and colleagues as for his wide-ranging work. To the end, 57:1 2012 Bruce Bennett despite great suffering, he never lost his sense of humour or his passion for his work. His passing leaves a huge gap Review Essays in our field and in our lives. — eds Delys Bird and Tony Hughes-d’Aeth ISBN 978-0-9873180-0-8 Awaiting caption and credit xxxxx xxxxxx Single copies of Westerly (not including postage) xxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx Aust $29.95, NZ $37, US $26, UK £15, Eur 17.50 westerly57:1 the best in writing from the West July 2012 westerly Volume 57:1 | July 2012 Publisher Westerly Centre, The University of Western Australia, Australia ISBN 978-0-9873180-0-8 Editors Delys Bird, Tony Hughes-d’Aeth Notice of Intention Editorial Advisors Julienne van Loon, Curtin University (prose) Westerly will convert the full backfile Roland Leach (poetry) of Westerly (1956–) to electronic text, which will be made available Editorial Consultants to readers and researchers in 2012. Paul Genoni (Curtin University) This work is being supported by a John Kinsella and Tracy Ryan (University of Western Australia) grant from the Cultural Fund of the Douglas Kerr (University of Hong Kong) Susan Lever (Hon. Associate, The University of Sydney) Copyright Agency Limited. Andrew Taylor (Edith Cowan University) All creative works, articles and reviews Edwin Thumboo (National University of Singapore) converted to electronic format will be Administrator correctly attributed and will appear Lucy Dougan as published. Copyright will remain Web Editor with the authors, and the material Paul Clifford cannot be further republished without authorial permission. Westerly will Production honour any requests to withdraw Design: Robyn Mundy Design material from electronic publication. Typesetting: Lasertype If any author does not wish their Printer: Picton Press, West Perth, WA work to appear in this format, please Cover artwork: Perdita Phillips, ‘Athabasca Glacier’ (2007), digital contact Westerly immediately and your photograph (29.7 x 19.8 cm). Photograph © Perdita Phillips material will be withdrawn. www.perditaphillips.com Reproduced with kind permission of the artist. Contact: All academic work published in Westerly is fully refereed. [email protected] Copyright of each piece belongs to the author; copyright of the collection belongs to the Westerly Centre. Republication is permitted on request to author and editor. Westerly is published biannually with assistance from the State Government of WA by an investment in this project through the Department of Culture and the Arts. The opinions expressed in Westerly are those of individual contributors and not of the Editors or Editorial Advisors. This project has also been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. General Dedicated to the memory of Bruce Bennett (1941–2012) colleague and friend PATRICIA HACKETT PRIZE The editors have pleasure in announcing the winner of the Patricia Hackett Prize for the best contributions to Westerly in 2011. BLAZE KWAYMULLINA For his personal essay ‘Country Roads, Take me Home; Prisons, Movement and Memory’ Westerly 56:1, 2011 CONTENTS Editorial 7 POEMS Randolph Stow 10 William Byrne 22 Ann Egan 24 Kevin Gillam 26 Sam Byfield 27 Josephine Wilson 47 Luke Beesley 50 Nathan Curnow 52 Rabindra K Swain 53 Steve Brock 65 Josephine Clarke 67 Tim Edwards 68 Meredi Ortega 98 Virginia Jealous 100 Rose van Son 101 Susan Adams 121 Sue Clennell 122 Jesse Ferguson 123 Lucas North 124 Tim Vallence 182 Alexander Tan Jr 184 Susan Fealy 192 Fiona Hile 194 5 Contents Jonathan Hadwen 195 Warwick Sprawson 196 Cath Drake 224 Jesse Shipway 226 J. K. Murphy 229 STORIES Nadine Browne Strange Fruit 56 Elizabeth Tan T 125 John Saul Egypt 153 Karen Atkinson The Nest 161 Noel King The Laryngitis Game 186 Wayne Strudwick A Faithful Dog 197 John Kinsella Bay 230 REVIEW ESSAYS Judith Beveridge Australian Poetry 2011–2012 30 Annabel Smith The Year’s Work in Fiction 137 ARTICLES Gabrielle Carey An Occasional Free Spirit: Randolph Stow’s Satiric Streak 15 Christopher (Kit) Kelen Workshopping West Australian Poets for the Chinese Reader 70 Nicholas Jose Damage Control: Australian Literature as Translation 102 Hannah Schürholz Shadow of the Dead: Stories of Transience in Tim Winton’s Fiction 164 Peter Mathews The Virtue of Self-Discipline: Reading Tsiolkas and Foucault 209 Notes on Contributors 235 Westerly: Subscriptions and submissions 242 Subscribe to Westerly 243 6 Editorial Professor Bruce Bennett, AO (1941–2012), literary scholar and editor Westerly mourns the death of Bruce Bennett, Westerly editor and founder of the Centre for Studies in Australian Literature (now the Westerly Centre UWA) and great friend and colleague. Bruce’s influence in the field of Australian literary studies is hard to overestimate. He taught, encouraged and promoted Australian literature and its serious study in Western Australia, Australia more generally, Asia, Europe and North America for forty years. Bruce began his influential career at UWA in 1968, first, briefly, in Education, then in the English Department, where he championed the study of Australian literature, then a controversial move. Appointed to the Editorial committee of Westerly in 1968, Bruce became co-editor with Peter Cowan in 1975 and remained Westerly editor until he left UWA to take up a Chair in English at the Australian Defence Force Academy campus of the University of New South Wales in 1993. He then became Eastern States editor until his death. Bruce published more than 20 books, a number of significant 7 Westerly 57:1 government reports, and approximately 100 literary essays. He was the recipient of many public honours and a visiting professor at universities around the world. He will be remembered for his ground- breaking work in Australian literary studies, which became his major interest. He is especially central to the study and history of Western Australian literature, editing and authoring landmark works such as The Literature of Western Australia (1979) and Western Australian Writing: A Bibliography (1990), as well as books on the work of Peter Cowan (1992) and Dorothy Hewett (1995). Equally though, he was a scholar of the Australian expatriate, writing the definitive study of Peter Porter (1991), and a keen observer of international trends. He led the way in seeking to place Australian literature in relation to other world literatures, as in Crossing Cultures: Essays on Literature and Culture of the Asia-Pacific (1996), to cite only one of many examples. In his obituary, Bruce’s friend and colleague and former Westerly editor Dennis Haskell recalls the extent of Bruce’s work, notably as an editor of The Penguin New Literary History of Australia (1988), the Oxford Literary History of Australia (1998), and Resistance and Reconciliation: Writing in the Commonwealth (2003). Some of his most important scholarship was on an Australian sense of place and his An Australian Compass: Essays on Place and Direction in Australian Literature (1991) is a definitive text in that area. He remained industrious until the very end and two new books will be published this year; one on an almost unstudied genre, Australian spy fiction and a co-written work on Australian Professor Bruce Bennett, AO expatriate writers. 8 Editorial Nicholas Birns, editor of the North American journal of Australian American literary studies, Antipodes, has written that with the passing of Bruce Bennett, all literary scholars of Australia have lost a friend, a helping hand and an esteemed, guiding sensibility. He refers to Bruce as not only a commanding figure in the field but even more simply a gracious and likable man. He is as much remembered for his always generous support of students and colleagues as for his wide-ranging work. To the end, despite great suffering, he never lost his sense of humour or his passion for his work. His passing leaves a huge gap in our field and in our lives. 9 Three ‘New’ Poems by Randolph Stow When Randolph Stow’s English publisher, Macdonald, accepted Midnite in June 1966 they were nevertheless concerned about where its readership might lie — some jokes would only be enjoyed by Australian adults, while the basic fairy tale would appeal to children, but of what age? Stow asked Bill and Janet Grono (both teachers) to try the ms out with their classes. Janet read it to a class of 9-year-olds and Bill to a class of 16-year-olds. It was a huge success with both groups, who listened avidly, laughed often and wanted more. Many years later, Stow wrote these ‘Midnite Poems’ as a birthday gift for Bill Grono; that occasion and their connection to the original gives them a particular significance. 10 Randolph Stow Midnite Songs Randolph Stow For Bill & Janet the first to try out the story on children Miss Laura Wellborn’s Song If I were a Countess I’d sit in a chair — which, because of my bustle, would be a bergère — and embroider a cushion and daydream and sing, and ring for a footman if I drop anything. for strawberry-leaves go with strawberries and cream: and a ghastly old Earl is but part of the scheme.