Catherine Noske
Catherine Noske is the editor of Westerly Magazine at the University of Western Australia, where she also teaches in Literature and Creative Writing. She has twice been awarded the Elyne Mitchell Prize for Rural Women Writers, and her current manuscript, the subject of a Varuna Fellowship, was shortlisted for the 2015 Dorothy Hewett Award.
Datsunland, a collection of short stories and the latest from Stephen Orr, is in many ways flawed. The collection is uneven: the final (titular) work is a novella previously published in a 2016 issue of Griffith Review, which overwhelms the earlier, shorter stories, exhibiting the depth and nuance which several others lack. The narratives and characters alike at times are underdeveloped, and rely ... (read more)
Across two new titles, Maxine Beneba Clarke offers an unflinching portrayal of the impact of racism, and transcends form in turning a lens on Australian society. Together, these two works witness the myriad ways in which racism shapes the daily life of its victims, the ongoing impact and the toll on body and mind. We see this damage play out in each work, both in psychological terms and, as she de ... (read more)