From the first novel published in mainland Australia in 1838, women have been writing it for themselves. Among them are poets, prolific novelists such as Rosa Praed, and botanists like Louisa Atkinson. From household names to obscurity, A Bright and Fiery Troop rediscovers the rich treasures of Australia’s literary tradition. It is the first critical analysis of the major Australian women...

Australia has a rich tradition of women's writing. From convict Margaret Catchpole and farmer Elizabeth Macarthur in the late eighteenth century to Germaine Greer's landmark book, The Female Eunuch. Australian Women's Writing is a comprehensive collection of the work of thirty-seven Australian women writers between 1790 and 1970. Writers include Faith Bandler, Barbara Baynton, Miles...

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You will not elude me. I will measure your every dimension, I will trace your smallest lines. I will undo you from the inside. You will feel it like waves running across your floorboards, you will feel it like water rising through your walls, you will feel it like a sudden disorientation, you will wonder what happened to your foundations.

An obsessive-compulsive cartographer...

After arriving in Australia with her young son in 1855, Mary Fortune went on to become Australia’s first female crime writer. Lucy Sussex’s detective work reveals something of this remarkable woman, but Mary Fortune’s writing is her best testimony. Its verve and quality recreate Melbourne in the grip of gold fever and of life on the goldfields. She depicts the harshness of life in her time,...